296
ART and NATURE
Key at the other; and found it less than
the third Part of a GrainWe -
are told, that one OSWALD NErLINGERI -
made a Cup of a Pepper-Corn,
which held twelve hundred other little Cups,
all turnéd in Ivory, each of them being gilt
on the Edges, and standing upon a Foot:
and that, so far from being crouded or wanting. ¬
Room, the Pepper-Corn could have held
four hundred more.
Theſe are ſome of the niceſt, moſt curious
and surprizing Works of Art; but let us
examine any of them with a good Microscope, ¬
and we ſhall immediately be convinced,
that the utmoſt Power of Art is only a Concealment ¬
of Deformity, an Imposition upon
our Want of Sight; and that our Admiration
of it arises from our Ignorance of what it
really is.
This valuable Discoverer of Truth will
prove the most boasted Performances of Art
to be as ill-ſhaped, rugged, and uneven, as
I have ſeen ſince my writing the above, (made by the
same Artist) a Quadrille Table with a Drawer in it, an
Eating Table, a Side-board Table, a Looking Glaſs, twelve
Chairs with Skeleton Backs, two Dozen of Plates, six Dishes,
a Dozen Knives, and as many Forks, twelve Spoons, two
Salts, a Frame and Castors, together with a Gentleman,
Lady, and Footman, all contained in a Cherry-Stone, and
not, filling much more than half of it.
Epbem. German. Tom. I. Addend. ad Observ. 13.
if