§45. NOT PERCEIVED BY RULES. 2.51 



jectionable, both from their shape and from their assuming 

 the form of snakes, its general contour is pleasing; and 

 the others are specimens of good form. And such was 

 the variety in Greek vases, even of the same hind, that in 

 the Olla, or in the Hydria, alone, it would be easy to pro- 

 duce twenty specimens, all differing in some' point from each 

 other, and yet all perfectly correct and beautiful*: — a very 

 important fact, which suffices to show how useless it is to lay 

 down, or to expect, rules for those two important questions, 

 form and proportion. If the eye is not the guide, no rule will 

 take its place; no instructions could embrace that great variety; 

 and if the makers of those vases had been hampered by the 

 fetters of a rule they would never have produced them. 



As combinations of the same colour may vary in the 

 quantity of blue, red, or other hues, according to the required 

 effect of a design, so may the forms of the same kind of vase, 

 and yet be equally harmonious and beautiful ; and it is the 

 perception, not some fanciful scale, which is to be consulted 

 in both cases. A want of this faculty has led to the numerous 

 deformities daily exhibited and admired both in France and 

 in this country ; and the prices they command have unfor- 

 tunately given them an importance they ought never to have 

 obtained. By this means the whimsical, the misshapen, and 

 the meretricious, have elicited praise instead of censure ; the 

 eyes of many have become reconciled to the bad till they 

 no longer appreciate the good ; and some of the costly speci- 

 mens of Sevres porcelain have done more injury to this 

 particular branch of taste than the most ordinary productions 

 of the humblest potter. It will therefore be pertinent to 

 the present question to compare the graceful forms of the 

 Greek vases here given with some of those of Sevres and 

 other modern manufacture; and any one not entirely desti- 

 tute of correct perception will at once acknowledge the 

 difference of their claims. 



* See woodcut 19 ; and also the two tonus of figs 8 and \K woodcut 24. 



