§22. RULES NECESSARY. 207 



this great element of art has above all others on his studious 

 attention ;" ..." he seizes with delight any rule that will 

 conduct his works to the excellence so apparent and so univer- 

 sally admitted in the Greek proportions ; he rejoices in any of 

 the slightest elements of the grammar and syntax, by which 

 he can attain to their eloquent language ; and he confesses 

 that without them all is confusion, hazard, and fashion." 



22. Good and well defined rules are, indeed, most neces- 

 sary in this, as in every other, study ; even those few who 

 possess a natural perception of the beautiful are benefited by 

 them; and the generality of men cannot receive proper 

 impressions without their aid. Nor can instruction be im- 

 parted to a beginner without enabling him to understand 

 what the eye is taught to admire. Eules, too, are required 

 for correcting such caprices as tend to mislead the taste ; and 

 the unfledged beginner must be content to be guided by 

 them, until he has received the power of independent flight. 

 But taste, while kept in order and dh-ected by rules, should 

 not be wholly dependent on them ; they may be the leading- 

 strings of the tyro, not his crutches, on which, when grown 

 up, he is to rely ; and unless he can then afford to act without 

 them, he will never rise above mediocrity and imitation. Nor 

 can rules be framed until a subject has been long established 

 and thoroughly understood. 



It was this subserviency to fixed rules that cramped the arts 

 in ancient Egypt, which never escaped from the trammels of 

 conventionalism. The conventional is of its own age and 

 country, and is destined to perish. Not so real taste, which 

 is of all ages, and of every country which has the talent to 

 comprehend it. The Greeks, with their genius, could not 

 submit to have it fettered ; and it is right to bear in mind 

 that no new successful effort of genius was ever hampered by, 

 or dependent on, mere rules. But it is necessary to have the 

 genius, in order to be independent of them. 



