s meant by taste in general, and better rules
for acquiring a correct taste, than from the multitude of those
volumes which have been professedly written on the subject.

In the autumn of 1785 he went to Brussels, where he expended about
L1,000 on the purchase of paintings which, having been taken from the
different monasteries and religious houses in Flanders and Germany,
were then exposed to sale by the command of the Emperor Joseph.
Gainsborough and he had engaged to paint each other's portrait; and
the canvas for both being actually stretched, Sir Joshua gave one
sitting to his distinguished rival; but to the regret of every admirer
of the art, the unexpected death of the latter prevented all further
progress.

In 1790 he was anxiously desirous to procure the vacant professorship
of perspective in the academy for Mr. Bonomi, an Italian architect;
but that artist not having been yet elected an associate, was, of
course, no academician, and it became necessary to raise him to those
positions, in order to qualify him for being a professor. Mr. Gilpin
being his competitor for the associateship, the numbers on the ballot
proved equal, when the president, on his casting vote, decided the
election in favor of his friend, who was thereby advanced so far
toward the professorship. Soon after this, an academic seat being
vacant, Sir Joshua exerted all his influence to obtain it for Mr.
Bonomi; but finding himself out-voted by a majority of two to one, he
quitted the chair with great dissatisfaction, and next day sent to the
secretary of the academy a formal resignation of the office, which for
twenty-one years he had filled with honor to himself and to his
country. His indignation, however, subsiding, he suffered himself to
be prevailed upon to return to the chair, which, within a year and a
half, he was again desirous to quit for a better reason.

Finding a disease of languor, occasioned by an enlargement of the
liver, to which he had for some time been subject, increase, and daily
expecting a total loss of sight, he wrote a letter to the academy,
intimating his intention to resign the office of president on account
of bodily infirmities, which disabled him from executing the duties
of it to his own satisfaction. The academy received this intelligence
with the respectful concern due to the talents and virtues of their
president, and either then did enter, or designed to enter, into a
resolution honorable to all parties, na