It Is But A Poor Eloquence Which

One Inconvenience... May Attend Bold And Arduous Attempts: Frequent Failure May Discourage. This Evil, However, Is Not More Pernicious Than The Slow Proficiency Which Is The Natural Consequence Of Too Easy Tasks.

It Is Impossible That Anything Will Be Well Understood Or Well Done That Is Taken Into A Reluctant Understanding, And Executed With A Servile Hand.

Those Who, Either From Their Own Engagements And Hurry Of Business, Or From Indolence, Or From Conceit And Vanity, Have Neglected Looking Out Of Themselves, As Far As My Experience And Observation Reach, Have From That Time Not Only Ceased To Advance, And Improve In Their Performances, But Have Gone Backward. They May Be Compared To Men Who Have Lived Upon Their Principal, Till They Are Reduced To Beggary, And Left Without Resources.

What Has Pleased And Continues To Please, Is Likely To Please Again; Hence Are Derived The Rules Of Art, And On This Immovable Foundation They Must Ever Stand.

If Deceiving The Eye Were The Only Business Of The Art... The Minute Painter Would Be More Apt To Succeed. But It Is Not The Eye, It Is The Mind Which The Painter Of Genius Desires To Address.