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OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

OF THE NATURE OF THE IDEAS CONVEYABLE BY ART.

? 1. Distinction between the painter's intellectual power and technical knowledge. 8 ? 2. Painting, as such, is nothing more than language. 8 ? 3. "Painter," a term corresponding to "versifier." 9 ? 4. Example in a painting of E. Landseer's. 9 ? 5. Difficulty of fixing an exact limit between language and thought. 9 ? 6. Distinction between decorative and expressive language. 10 ? 7. Instance in the Dutch and early Italian schools. 10 ? 8. Yet there are certain ideas belonging to language itself. 11 ? 9. The definition. 12

? 1. What classes of ideas are conveyable by art. 13 ? 2. Ideas of power vary much in relative dignity. 13 ? 3. But are received from whatever has been the subject of power. The meaning of the word "excellence." 14 ? 4. What is necessary to the distinguishing of excellence. 15 ? 5. The pleasure attendant on conquering difficulties is right. 16

? 1. False use of the term "imitation" by many writers on art. 17 ? 2. Real meaning of the term. 18 ? 3. What is requisite to the sense of imitation. 18 ? 4. The pleasure resulting from imitation the most contemptible that can be derived from art. 19 ? 5. Imitation is only of contemptible subjects. 19 ? 6. Imitation is contemptible because it is easy. 20 ? 7. Recapitulation. 20

? 1. Meaning of the word "truth" as applied to art. 21 ? 2. First difference between truth and imitation. 21 ? 3. Second difference. 21 ? 4. Third difference. 22 ? 5. No accurate truths necessary to imitation. 22 ? 6. Ideas of truth are inconsistent with ideas of imitation. 24

? 1. Definition of the term "beautiful." 26 ? 2. Definition of the term "taste." 26 ? 3. Distinction between taste and judgment. 27 ? 4. How far beauty may become intellectual. 27 ? 5. The high rank and function of ideas of beauty. 28 ? 6. Meaning of the term "ideal beauty." 28

? 1. General meaning of the term. 29 ? 2. What ideas are to be comprehended under it. 29 ? 3. The exceeding nobility of these ideas. 30 ? 4. Why no subdivision of so extensive a class is necessary. 31

OF POWER.

? 1. No necessity for detailed study of ideas of imitation. 32 ? 2. Nor for separate study of ideas of power. 32 ? 3. Except under one particular form. 33 ? 4. There are two modes of receiving ideas of power, commonly inconsistent. 33 ? 5. First reason of the inconsistency. 33 ? 6. Second reason for the inconsistency. 34 ? 7. The sensation of power ought not to be sought in imperfect art. 34 ? 8. Instances in pictures of modern artists. 35 ? 9. Connection between ideas of power and modes of execution. 35

? 1. Meaning of the term "execution." 36 ? 2. The first quality of execution is truth. 36 ? 3. The second, simplicity. 36 ? 4. The third, mystery. 37 ? 5. The fourth, inadequacy; and the fifth, decision. 37 ? 6. The sixth, velocity. 37 ? 7. Strangeness an illegitimate source of pleasure in execution. 37 ? 8. Yet even the legitimate sources of pleasure in execution are inconsistent with each other. 38 ? 9. And fondness for ideas of power leads to the adoption of the lowest. 39 ? 10. Therefore perilous. 40 ? 11. Recapitulation. 40

? 1. Sublimity is the effect upon the mind of anything above it. 41 ? 2. Burke's theory of the nature of the sublime incorrect, and why. 41 ? 3. Danger is sublime, but not the fear of it. 42 ? 4. The highest beauty is sublime. 42 ? 5. And generally whatever elevates the mind. 42 ? 6. The former division of the subject is therefore sufficient. 42

OF TRUTH.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES RESPECTING IDEAS OF TRUTH.

? 1. The two great ends of landscape painting are the representation of facts and thoughts. 44 ? 2. They induce a different choice of material subjects. 45 ? 3. The first mode of selection apt to produce sameness and repetition. 45 ? 4. The second necessitating variety. 45 ? 5. Yet the first is delightful to all. 46 ? 6. The second only to a few. 46 ? 7. The first necessary to the second. 47 ? 8. The exceeding importance of truth. 48 ? 9. Coldness or want of beauty no sign of truth. 48 ? 10. How truth may be considered a just criterion of all art. 48

? 1. Necessity of determining the relative importance of truths. 58 ? 2. Misapplication of the aphorism: "General truths are more important than particular ones." 58 ? 3. Falseness of this maxim, taken without explanation. 59 ? 4. Generality important in the subject, particularity in the predicate. 59 ? 5. The importance of truths of species is not owing to their generality. 60 ? 6. All truths valuable as they are characteristic. 61 ? 7. Otherwise truths of species are valuable, because beautiful. 61 ? 8. And many truths, valuable if separate, may be objectionable in connection with others. 62 ? 9. Recapitulation. 63

? 1. No accidental violation of nature's principles should be represented. 64 ? 2. But the cases in which those principles have been strikingly exemplified. 65 ? 3. Which are comparatively rare. 65 ? 4. All repetition is blamable. 65 ? 5. The duty of the painter is the same as that of a preacher. 66

? 1. Difference between primary and secondary qualities in bodies. 67 ? 2. The first are fully characteristic, the second imperfectly so. 67 ? 3. Color is a secondary quality, therefore less important than form. 68 ? 4. Color no distinction between objects of the same species. 68 ? 5. And different in association from what it is alone. 69 ? 6. It is not certain whether any two people see the same colors in things. 69 ? 7. Form, considered as an element of landscape, includes light and shade. 69 ? 8. Importance of light and shade in expressing the character of bodies, and unimportance of color. 70 ? 9. Recapitulation. 71

? 1. The importance of historical truths. 72 ? 2. Form, as explained by light and shade, the first of all truths. Tone, light, and color, are secondary. 72 ? 3. And deceptive chiaroscuro the lowest of all. 73

? 1. The different selection of facts consequent on the several aims at imitation or at truth. 74 ? 2. The old masters, as a body, aim only at imitation. 74 ? 3. What truths they gave. 75 ? 4. The principles of selection adopted by modern artists. 76 ? 5. General feeling of Claude, Salvator, and G. Poussin, contrasted with the freedom and vastness of nature. 77 ? 6. Inadequacy of the landscape of Titian and Tintoret. 78 ? 7. Causes of its want of influence on subsequent schools. 79 ? 8. The value of inferior works of art, how to be estimated. 80 ? 9. Religious landscape of Italy. The admirableness of its completion. 81 ? 10. Finish, and the want of it, how right--and how wrong. 82 ? 11. The open skies of the religious schools, how valuable. Mountain drawing of Masaccio. Landscape of the Bellinis and Giorgione. 84 ? 12. Landscape of Titian and Tintoret. 86 ? 13. Schools of Florence, Milan, and Bologna. 88 ? 14. Claude, Salvator, and the Poussins. 89 ? 15. German and Flemish landscape. 90 ? 16. The lower Dutch schools. 92 ? 17. English school, Wilson and Gainsborough. 93 ? 18. Constable, Callcott. 94 ? 19. Peculiar tendency of recent landscape. 95 ? 20. G. Robson, D. Cox. False use of the term "style." 95 ? 21. Copley Fielding. Phenomena of distant color. 97 ? 22. Beauty of mountain foreground. 99 ? 23. De Wint. 101 ? 24. Influence of Engraving. J. D. Harding. 101 ? 25. Samuel Prout. Early painting of architecture, how deficient. 103 ? 26. Effects of age upon buildings, how far desirable. 104 ? 27. Effects of light, how necessary to the understanding of detail. 106 ? 28. Architectural painting of Gentile Bellini and Vittor Carpaccio. 107 ? 29. And of the Venetians generally. 109 ? 30. Fresco painting of the Venetian exteriors. Canaletto. 110 ? 31. Expression of the effects of age on Architecture by S. Prout. 112 ? 32. His excellent composition and color. 114 ? 33. Modern architectural painting generally. G. Cattermole. 115 ? 34. The evil in an archaeological point of view of misapplied invention, in architectural subject. 117 ? 35. Works of David Roberts: their fidelity and grace. 118 ? 36. Clarkson Stanfield. 121 ? 37. J. M. W. Turner. Force of national feeling in all great painters. 123 ? 38. Influence of this feeling on the choice of Landscape subject. 125 ? 39. Its peculiar manifestation in Turner. 125 ? 40. The domestic subjects of the Liber Studiorum. 127 ? 41. Turner's painting of French and Swiss landscape. The latter deficient. 129 ? 42. His rendering of Italian character still less successful. His large compositions how failing 130 ? 43. His views of Italy destroyed by brilliancy and redundant quantity. 133 ? 44. Changes introduced by him in the received system of art. 133 ? 45. Difficulties of his later manner. Resultant deficiencies. 134 ? 46. Reflection of his very recent works. 137 ? 47. Difficulty of demonstration in such subjects. 139

OF GENERAL TRUTHS.

? 1. Meanings of the word "tone:"--First, the right relation of objects in shadow to the principal light. 140 ? 2. Secondly, the quality of color by which it is felt to owe part of its brightness to the hue of light upon it. 140 ? 3. Difference between tone in its first sense and aerial perspective. 141 ? 4. The pictures of the old masters perfect in relation of middle tints to light. 141 ? 5. And consequently totally false in relation of middle tints to darkness. 141 ? 6. General falsehood of such a system. 143 ? 7. The principle of Turner in this respect. 143 ? 8. Comparison of N. Poussin's "Phocion." 144 ? 9. With Turner's "Mercury and Argus." 145 ? 10. And with the "Datur Hora Quieti." 145 ? 11. The second sense of the word "tone." 146 ? 12. Remarkable difference in this respect between the paintings and drawings of Turner. 146 ? 13. Not owing to want of power over the material 146 ? 14. The two distinct qualities of light to be considered 147 ? 15. Falsehoods by which Titian attains the appearance of quality in light. 148 ? 16. Turner will not use such means. 148 ? 17. But gains in essential truth by the sacrifice. 148 ? 18. The second quality of light. 148 ? 19. The perfection of Cuyp in this respect interfered with by numerous solecisms. 150 ? 20. Turner is not so perfect in parts--far more so in the whole. 151 ? 21. The power in Turner of uniting a number of tones. 152 ? 22. Recapitulation. 153

? 1. Observations on the color of G. Poussin's La Riccia. 155 ? 2. As compared with the actual scene. 155 ? 3. Turner himself is inferior in brilliancy to nature. 157 ? 4. Impossible colors of Salvator, Titian. 157 ? 5. Poussin, and Claude. 158 ? 6. Turner's translation of colors. 160 ? 7. Notice of effects in which no brilliancy of art can even approach that of reality. 161 ? 8. Reasons for the usual incredulity of the observer with respect to their representation 162 ? 9. Color of the Napoleon. 163 ? 10. Necessary discrepancy between the attainable brilliancy of color and light. 164 ? 11. This discrepancy less in Turner than in other colorists. 165 ? 12. Its great extent in a landscape attributed to Rubens. 165 ? 13. Turner scarcely ever uses pure or vivid color. 166 ? 14. The basis of gray, under all his vivid hues. 167 ? 15. The variety and fulness even of his most simple tones. 168 ? 16. Following the infinite and unapproachable variety of nature. 168 ? 17. His dislike of purple, and fondness for the opposition of yellow and black. The principles of nature in this respect. 169 ? 18. His early works are false in color. 170 ? 19. His drawings invariably perfect. 171 ? 20. The subjection of his system of color to that of chiaroscuro. 171

? 1. We are not at present to examine particular effects of light. 174 ? 2. And therefore the distinctness of shadows is the chief means of expressing vividness of light. 175 ? 3. Total absence of such distinctness in the works of the Italian school. 175 ? 4. And partial absence in the Dutch. 176 ? 5. The perfection of Turner's works in this respect. 177 ? 6. The effect of his shadows upon the light. 178 ? 7. The distinction holds good between almost all the works of the ancient and modern schools. 179 ? 8. Second great principle of chiaroscuro. Both high light and deep shadow are used in equal quantity, and only in points. 180 ? 9. Neglect or contradiction of this principle by writers on art. 180 ? 10. And consequent misguiding of the student. 181 ? 11. The great value of a simple chiaroscuro. 182 ? 12. The sharp separation of nature's lights from her middle tint. 182 ? 13. The truth of Turner. 183

? 1. Space is more clearly indicated by the drawing of objects than by their hue. 185 ? 2. It is impossible to see objects at unequal distances distinctly at one moment. 186 ? 3. Especially such as are both comparatively near. 186 ? 4. In painting, therefore, either the foreground or distance must be partially sacrificed. 187 ? 5. Which not being done by the old masters, they could not express space. 187 ? 6. But modern artists have succeeded in fully carrying out this principle. 188 ? 7. Especially of Turner. 189 ? 8. Justification of the want of drawing in Turner's figures. 189

OF TRUTH OF SKIES.

? 1. Difficulty of ascertaining wherein the truth of clouds consists. 216 ? 2. Variation of their character at different elevations. The three regions to which they may conveniently be considered as belonging. 216 ? 3. Extent of the upper region. 217 ? 4. The symmetrical arrangement of its clouds. 217 ? 5. Their exceeding delicacy. 218 ? 6. Their number. 218 ? 7. Causes of their peculiarly delicate coloring. 219 ? 8. Their variety of form. 219 ? 9. Total absence of even the slightest effort at their representation, in ancient landscape. 220 ? 10. The intense and constant study of them by Turner. 221 ? 11. His vignette, Sunrise on the Sea. 222 ? 12. His use of the cirrus in expressing mist. 223 ? 13. His consistency in every minor feature. 224 ? 14. The color of the upper clouds. 224 ? 15. Recapitulation. 225

? 1. The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity. 244 ? 2. Their marked differences in color. 244 ? 3. And in definiteness of form. 245 ? 4. They are subject to precisely the same great laws. 245 ? 5. Value, to the painter, of the rain-cloud. 246 ? 6. The old masters have not left a single instance of the painting of the rain-cloud, and very few efforts at it. Gaspar Poussin's storms. 247 ? 7. The great power of the moderns in this respect. 248 ? 8. Works of Copley Fielding. 248 ? 9. His peculiar truth. 248 ? 10. His weakness, and its probable cause. 249 ? 11. Impossibility of reasoning on the rain-clouds of Turner from engravings. 250 ? 12. His rendering of Fielding's particular moment in the Jumieges. 250 ? 13. Illustration of the nature of clouds in the opposed forms of smoke and steam. 250 ? 14. Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony. 251 ? 15. And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning for Loch Coriskin. 252 ? 16. The drawing of transparent vapor in the Land's End. 253 ? 17. The individual character of its parts. 253 ? 18. Deep-studied form of swift rain-cloud in the Coventry. 254 ? 19. Compared with forms given by Salvator. 254 ? 20. Entire expression of tempest by minute touches and circumstances in the Coventry. 255 ? 21. Especially by contrast with a passage of extreme repose. 255 ? 22. The truth of this particular passage. Perfectly pure blue sky only seen after rain, and how seen. 256 ? 23. Absence of this effect in the works of the old masters. 256 ? 24. Success of our water-color artists in its rendering. Use of it by Turner. 257 ? 25. Expression of near rain-cloud in the Gosport, and other works. 257 ? 26. Contrasted with Gaspar Poussin's rain-cloud in the Dido and AEneas. 258 ? 27. Turner's power of rendering mist. 258 ? 28. His effects of mist so perfect, that if not at once understood, they can no more be explained or reasoned on than nature herself. 259 ? 29. Various instances. 259 ? 30. Turner's more violent effects of tempest are never rendered by engravers. 260 ? 31. General system of landscape engraving. 260 ? 32. The storm in the Stonehenge. 260 ? 33. General character of such effects as given by Turner. His expression of falling rain. 261 ? 34. Recapitulation of the section. 261 ? 35. Sketch of a few of the skies of nature, taken as a whole, compared with the works of Turner and of the old masters. Morning on the plains. 262 ? 36. Noon with gathering storms. 263 ? 37. Sunset in tempest. Serene midnight. 264 ? 38. And sunrise on the Alps. 264

? 1. Reasons for merely, at present, naming, without examining the particular effects of light rendered by Turner. 266 ? 2. Hopes of the author for assistance in the future investigation of them. 266

OF TRUTH OF EARTH.

? 1. First laws of the organization of the earth, and their importance in art. 270 ? 2. The slight attention ordinarily paid to them. Their careful study by modern artists. 271 ? 3. General structure of the earth. The hills are its action, the plains its rest. 271 ? 4. Mountains come out from underneath the plains, and are their support. 272 ? 5. Structure of the plains themselves. Their perfect level, when deposited by quiet water. 273 ? 6. Illustrated by Turner's Marengo. 273 ? 7. General divisions of formation resulting from this arrangement. Plan of investigation. 274

? 1. Similar character of the central peaks in all parts of the world. 275 ? 2. Their arrangements in pyramids or wedges, divided by vertical fissures. 275 ? 3. Causing groups of rock resembling an artichoke or rose. 276 ? 4. The faithful statement of these facts by Turner in his Alps at Daybreak. 276 ? 5. Vignette of the Andes and others. 277 ? 6. Necessary distance, and consequent aerial effect on all such mountains. 277 ? 7. Total want of any rendering of their phenomena in ancient art. 278 ? 8. Character of the representations of Alps in the distances of Claude. 278 ? 9. Their total want of magnitude and aerial distance. 279 ? 10. And violation of specific form. 280 ? 11. Even in his best works. 280 ? 12. Farther illustration of the distant character of mountain chains. 281 ? 13. Their excessive appearance of transparency. 281 ? 14. Illustrated from the works of Turner and Stanfield. The Borromean Islands of the latter. 282 ? 15. Turner's Arona. 283 ? 16. Extreme distance of large objects always characterized by very sharp outline. 283 ? 17. Want of this decision in Claude. 284 ? 18. The perpetual rendering of it by Turner. 285 ? 19. Effects of snow, how imperfectly studied. 285 ? 20. General principles of its forms on the Alps. 287 ? 21. Average paintings of Switzerland. Its real spirit has scarcely yet been caught. 289

? 1. The inferior mountains are distinguished from the central, by being divided into beds. 290 ? 2. Farther division of these beds by joints. 290 ? 3. And by lines of lamination. 291 ? 4. Variety and seeming uncertainty under which these laws are manifested. 291 ? 5. The perfect expression of them in Turner's Loch Coriskin. 292 ? 6. Glencoe and other works. 293 ? 7. Especially the Mount Lebanon. 293 ? 8. Compared with the work of Salvator. 294 ? 9. And of Poussin. 295 ? 10. Effects of external influence on mountain form. 296 ? 11. The gentle convexity caused by aqueous erosion. 297 ? 12. And the effect of the action of torrents. 297 ? 13. The exceeding simplicity of contour caused by these influences. 298 ? 14. And multiplicity of feature. 299 ? 15. Both utterly neglected in ancient art. 299 ? 16. The fidelity of treatment in Turner's Daphne and Leucippus. 300 ? 17. And in the Avalanche and Inundation. 300 ? 18. The rarity among secondary hills of steep slopes or high precipices. 301 ? 19. And consequent expression of horizontal distance in their ascent. 302 ? 20. Full statement of all these facts in various works of Turner.--Caudebec, etc. 302 ? 21. The use of considering geological truths. 303 ? 22. Expression of retiring surface by Turner contrasted with the work of Claude. 304 ? 23. The same moderation of slope in the contours of his higher hills. 304 ? 24. The peculiar difficulty of investigating the more essential truths of hill outline. 305 ? 25. Works of other modern artists.--Clarkson Stanfield. 305 ? 26. Importance of particular and individual truth in hill drawing. 306 ? 27. Works of Copley Fielding. His high feeling. 307 ? 28. Works of J. D. Harding and others. 308

? 1. What rocks were the chief components of ancient landscape foreground. 309 ? 2. Salvator's limestones. The real characters of the rock. Its fractures, and obtuseness of angles. 309 ? 3. Salvator's acute angles caused by the meeting of concave curves. 310 ? 4. Peculiar distinctness of light and shade in the rocks of nature. 311 ? 5. Peculiar confusion of both in the rocks of Salvator. 311 ? 6. And total want of any expression of hardness or brittleness. 311 ? 7. Instances in particular pictures. 312 ? 8. Compared with the works of Stanfield. 312 ? 9. Their absolute opposition in every particular. 313 ? 10. The rocks of J. D. Harding. 313 ? 11. Characters of loose earth and soil. 314 ? 12. Its exceeding grace and fulness of feature. 315 ? 13. The ground of Teniers. 315 ? 14. Importance of these minor parts and points. 316 ? 15. The observance of them is the real distinction between the master and the novice. 316 ? 16. Ground of Cuyp. 317 ? 17. And of Claude. 317 ? 18. The entire weakness and childishness of the latter. 318 ? 19. Compared with the work of Turner. 318 ? 20. General features of Turner's foreground. 319 ? 21. Geological structure of his rocks in the Fall of the Tees. 319 ? 22. Their convex surfaces and fractured edges. 319 ? 23. And perfect unity. 320 ? 24. Various parts whose history is told us by the details of the drawing. 321 ? 25. Beautiful instance of an exception to general rules in the Llanthony. 321 ? 26. Turner's drawing of detached blocks of weathered stone. 322 ? 27. And of complicated foreground. 323 ? 28. And of loose soil. 323 ? 29. The unison of all in the ideal foregrounds of the Academy pictures. 324 ? 30. And the great lesson to be received from all. 324

OF TRUTH OF WATER.

? 1. Sketch of the functions and infinite agency of water. 325 ? 2. The ease with which a common representation of it may be given. The impossibility of a faithful one. 325 ? 3. Difficulty of properly dividing the subject. 326 ? 4. Inaccuracy of study of water-effect among all painters. 326 ? 5. Difficulty of treating this part of the subject. 328 ? 6. General laws which regulate the phenomena of water. First, The imperfection of its reflective surface. 329 ? 7. The inherent hue of water modifies dark reflections, and does not affect right ones. 330 ? 8. Water takes no shadow. 331 ? 9. Modification of dark reflections by shadow. 332 ? 10. Examples on the waters of the Rhone. 333 ? 11. Effect of ripple on distant water. 335 ? 12. Elongation of reflections by moving water. 335 ? 13. Effect of rippled water on horizontal and inclined images. 336 ? 14. To what extent reflection is visible from above. 336 ? 15. Deflection of images on agitated water. 337 ? 16. Necessity of watchfulness as well as of science. Licenses, how taken by great men. 337 ? 17. Various licenses or errors in water painting of Claude, Cuyp, Vandevelde. 339 ? 18. And Canaletto. 341 ? 19. Why unpardonable. 342 ? 20. The Dutch painters of sea. 343 ? 21. Ruysdael, Claude, and Salvator. 344 ? 22. Nicolo Poussin. 345 ? 23. Venetians and Florentines. Conclusion. 346

? 1. General power of the moderns in painting quiet water. The lakes of Fielding. 348 ? 2. The calm rivers of De Wint, J. Holland, &c. 348 ? 3. The character of bright and violent falling water. 349 ? 4. As given by Nesfield. 349 ? 5. The admirable water-drawing of J. D. Harding. 350 ? 6. His color; and painting of sea. 350 ? 7. The sea of Copley Fielding. Its exceeding grace and rapidity. 351 ? 8. Its high aim at character. 351 ? 9. But deficiency in the requisite quality of grays. 352 ? 10. Variety of the grays of nature. 352 ? 11. Works of Stanfield. His perfect knowledge and power. 353 ? 12. But want of feeling. General sum of truth presented by modern art. 353

OF TRUTH OF VEGETATION.--CONCLUSION.

Casa Contarini Fasan, Venice 110 From a drawing by Ruskin.

The Dogana, and Santa Maria della Salute, Venice 136 From a painting by Turner.

Okehampton Castle 258 From a painting by Turner.

Port Ruysdael 376 From a painting by Turner.

MODERN PAINTERS.

PART I

OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

OF THE NATURE OF THE IDEAS CONVEYABLE BY ART.

INTRODUCTORY.

? 1. Public opinion no criterion of excellence, except after long periods of time.

If it be true, and it can scarcely be disputed, that nothing has been for centuries consecrated by public admiration, without possessing in a high degree some kind of sterling excellence, it is not because the average intellect and feeling of the majority of the public are competent in any way to distinguish what is really excellent, but because all erroneous opinion is inconsistent, and all ungrounded opinion transitory; so that while the fancies and feelings which deny deserved honor and award what is undue have neither root nor strength sufficient to maintain consistent testimony for a length of time, the opinions formed on right grounds by those few who are in reality competent judges, being necessarily stable, communicate themselves gradually from mind to mind, descending lower as they extend wider, until they leaven the whole lump, and rule by absolute authority, even where the grounds and reasons for them cannot be understood. On this gradual victory of what is consistent over what is vacillating, depends the reputation of all that is highest in art and literature. For It is an insult to what is really great in either, to suppose that it in any way addresses itself to mean or uncultivated faculties. It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated but by his equal or superior. His inferior may over-estimate him in enthusiasm; or, as is more commonly the case, degrade him, in ignorance; but he cannot form a grounded and just estimate. Without proving this, however--which it would take more space to do than I can spare--it is sufficiently evident that there is no process of amalgamation by which opinions, wrong individually, can become right merely by their multitude. If I stand by a picture in the Academy, and hear twenty persons in succession admiring some paltry piece of mechanism or imitation in the lining of a cloak, or the satin of a slipper, it is absurd to tell me that they reprobate collectively what they admire individually: or, if they pass with apathy by a piece of the most noble conception or most perfect truth, because it has in it no tricks of the brush nor grimace of expression, it is absurd to tell me that they collectively respect what they separately scorn, or that the feelings and knowledge of such judges, by any length of time or comparison of ideas, could come to any right conclusion with respect to what is really high in art. The question is not decided by them, but for them;--decided at first by few: by fewer in proportion as the merits of the work are of a higher order. From these few the decision is communicated to the number next below them in rank of mind, and by these again to a wider and lower circle; each rank being so far cognizant of the superiority of that above it, as to receive its decision with respect; until, in process of time, the right and consistent opinion is communicated to all, and held by all as a matter of faith, the more positively in proportion as the grounds of it are less perceived.

? 2. And therefore obstinate when once formed.

? 3. The author's reasons for opposing it in particular instances.

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