On Painting, 125 



difplay of ornaments, elfe make them ftrut and flare, or have 

 recourfc to a crown ; where the greateft profufion of orna- 

 ments are admiffible, we fhould he fparing in their ufe, for 

 fear of making that fine we cannot make good. Tafte and 

 genius have heen called infpiration, the gift of heaven, and 

 our feelings have heen irritated by mere words, that have 

 alarmed and benumbed our faculties ; but let us attend to the 

 progrefs of our own minds, and we (hall find that our tafte 

 has improved in proportion to our induftry to acquire -know- 

 ledge. The old mafters have, in their turn, been held up as 

 bugbears to frighten young artifts ; the Italian writers on the 

 arts have on all occafions ufed the words heavenly and divine, 

 till they have operated as fearecrows, to create a terror in 

 modern painters, many of whom have ceafed to labour as 

 competitors. We fhould never fuppofe themoft fublime de- 

 gree of perfection has been attained ; the fact is, the mod 

 perfect works are not without their imperfections, and, while 

 that is the cafe, there is room to improve it. M. Angelo is 

 charged with heavinefs; Raphael as being dry, and pofleffing 

 a poor chiaro-fcuro ; Titian, as defective in drawing; and 

 Parmegiano as making his figures too tall ; but, while thofe 

 coniiderations act as a fpur to our induftry, we are bound to 

 venerate them for the great catalogue of perfections they have 

 made us heirs to. It is from thefe they have obtained their 

 renown, the imperfections being only foils. We fhould 

 never forget the obligations we are under to thofe who have, 

 by directing our ftudies, introduced us to the arts; to^ur 

 parents we owe our being, but to our teachers we owe the 

 power of making a right ufe of it, a matter of no fmall con-r 

 fequence. 



Tafte is not an imaginary fomething, depending on the 

 accident of birth, but arifes from, and is immediately con- 

 nected with, a found judgment. Were there not in art, as 

 in every thing elfe, a ftandard of right and wrong, all opinion 

 muft be capricious; but to acquire juift notions we mult ha- 

 bituate ourfelves to compare and digeft our thoughts, be well 

 read in human nature as connected with the characters, 

 manners, paflions, and affections of man ; this, with fome 

 knowledge of the human mind, will, in time, enable us to 

 diftincruifh right from wrong, which conftitutes the true prin- 

 ciples of tafte-. We muft diftinguifh real from apparent truth 

 in our purfuit. Real truth does not depend on opinion, it is 

 immutable, fixed, and permanent, and in it muft be fought 

 whatever is grand and. beautiful. Apparent truth depends 011 

 fafhion, and, like it, is fluctuating and uncertain; it may be 

 confidered as a fort of impoftor, for, though it carries with 



. * it 



