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standard of each age will be the resultant of comparisons between the 

 educated men of the age — not the practice of poets, artists, musicians, 

 and architects only, nor the judgment of the educated public only — but 

 that which is composed of the one acting upon the other. The abstract 

 notions of the amateur require to be modified and reduced by practical 

 experience, just as the technicalities of the professor require to be 

 enlarged by the freer judgment of men, who can appreciate real excel- 

 lence, and aie unfettered by mere rules. 



After explaining how the production of veri-simiJitudes is not con- 

 sidered within the scope of art, illustrating the meaning that should be 

 attached to the phrase " true to Nature," and contrasting the coarseness 

 of the Dutch school with Wilkie and Maclise, and of Smollett and 

 Fielding with Bulwer Lytton and Dickens, the author remarked upon 

 the defective taste of those who substitute mannerism and mere me- 

 chanical excellence for that higher element of composition which speaks to 

 all ; and observed that the first element of success in the fine arts, as in 

 most elevated pursuits, is real or apparent forgetfulness of self. People 

 do not wish to be reminded of the artist in his work ; although it is 

 essential that the object is known to be a work of art, lest it be mistaken 

 for a fac-simile, or accident of nature. But, this assumption being made, 

 the author should be forgotten in his work, and traces of his skilful 

 manipulation should appear only when sought. If, with this condition, 

 the artist can combine mechanical excellence, accuracy of drawing, good 

 colouring, correctness of touch, and the other fruits of study and prac- 

 tical refinement, it is well ; but, if it be mere mechanical excellence that 

 is wanted, recourse should be had to the skilful mason, the expert 

 house-painter, or Mechi's versifier. 



The appreciation of beanty in art or poetry, depending on the accord 

 or sympathy which subsists between the artist and the spectator — ^the 

 value of that beauty as a w^hole, or in its higher elements, is not to be 

 determined by the external rule of any defined standard. With almost 

 literal truth, may it be said that " each eye makes its own beauty," so 

 infinite, and so subtle, are the various bias by which the ultimate judgment 

 is swayed, where that judgment is of any value. The ordinary ob- 

 server will form a general conclusion, favourable or adverse, but will be 

 unable to assign reasons; and, indeed, few are qualified for detailed 

 criticism. Hence the public taste has been much too feverish, and 

 swayed greatly by fashion. At one period it has been the Dutch school 

 of painters, at another the Italian, or the English, which has had the 

 preference ; in music it has been Italian or German ; in architecture, 

 Grecian and Roman in all their supposititious varieties, Renaissance or 

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