8vo. [4], 227pp, [1]. Uncut in original publisher's gilt-stamped dark green cloth. Lightly rubbed and marked. Upper hinge exposed. Presentation copy, inscribed by the publisher to recto of FFEP: 'To William Lawson Esq. / From his Scotch Friend / Charles Black / Edinburgh / 9 April 1838'.

Two substantial essays relating to the arts - extracted from the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica (1830-1842) - by history painter Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) and writer and artist William Hazlitt (1778-1830) respectively. Hazlitt's contribution, 'The Fine Arts', is primarily a critique of the concept of the ideal as laid out in the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Charles Black (1807-1854) partnered with his uncle, Scottish publisher Adam Black (1784- 1874), in 1834, formerly establishing the renowned firm A. & C. Black. The senior Black had acquired the copyright to the Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1831.