A Mere Copier Of Nature Can Never

From A Slight, Undetermined Drawing, Where The Ideas Of The Composition And Character Are Just Touched Upon, The Imagination Supplies More Than The Painter Himself, Probably, Could Produce. And We Accordingly Often Find That The Finished Work Disappoints The Expectation That Was Raised From The Sketch.

Reform Is A Work Of Time; A National Taste, However Wrong It May Be, Cannot Be Totally Changed At Once.

The Painter Of Genius Will Not Waste A Moment Upon Those Smaller Objects Which Only Serve To Catch The Sense, To Divide The Attention, And To Counteract His Great Design Of Speaking To The Heart.

It Is To Titian We Must Turn Our Eyes To Find Excellence With Regard To Color, And Light And Shade, In The Highest Degree. He Was Both The First And The Greatest Master Of This Art. By A Few Strokes He Knew How To Mark The General Image And Character Of Whatever Object He Attempted.

But Young Men Have Not Only This Frivolous Ambition Of Being Thought Masters Of Execution, Inciting Them On The One Hand, But Also Their Natural Sloth Tempting Them On The Other. They Are Terrified At The Prospect Before Them, Of The Toil Required To Attain Exactness. The Impetuosity Of Youth Is Disgusted At The Slow Approaches Of A Regular Siege, And Desires, From Mere Impatience Of Labour, To Take The Citadel By Storm. They Wish To Find Some Shorter Path To Excellence, And Hope To Obtain The Reward Of Eminence By Other Means, Than Those Which The Indispensable Rules Of Art Have Prescribed.