214 Architecture in the United States. 



In the eleventh discourse (which, though on painting, contains 

 many principles applicable to architecture) he says — 



" If my expression can convey my idea, I wish to distinguish ex- 

 cellence of this kind by calling it the genius of mechanical perform- 

 ance. This genius consists, I conceive, in the power of expressing 

 that which employs your pencil, whatever it may be, as a whole ; so 

 that the general effect and power of the whole may take possession 

 of the mind ; and for a while suspend the consideration of the subor- 

 dinate and particular beauties or defects. 



" The advantage of this method of considering objects is what I 

 wish now more particularly to enforce. At the same time I do not 

 forget that a painter must have the power of contracting as well as 

 dilating his sight; because, he that does not at all express particu- 

 lars, expresses nothing; yet it is certain that a nice discrimination of 

 minute circumstances and a punctilious delineation of them, what- 

 ever excellence it may have, (and I do not mean to detract from it,) 

 never did confer on the artist the character of genius. 



*' Besides those minute differences in things which are frequently 

 not observed at all, and when they are make litde impression, there 

 are in all considerable objects great characteristic distinctions, which 

 press strongly on the senses, and therefore fix the imagination. 

 These are by no means, as some persons think, an aggregate of all 

 •the small discriminating particulars; nor will such an accumulation of 

 particulars ever express them. These answer to what I have heard 

 great lawyers call the leading points in a case, or the leading cases 

 relative to these points. 



"The detail of particulars, which does not assist the expression of 

 the main character is worse than useless, it is mischievous, as it dis- 

 sipates the attention, and draws it from the principal point. It may 

 be remarked, that the impression which is left on our mind, even of 

 things which are familiar to us, is seldom more than their general 

 effect; beyond which we do not look in recognising such objects. 

 To express this in painting, is to express what is congenial and natu- 

 ral to the mind of man, and what gives him by reflection his own 

 mode of conceiving. The other presupposes nicety and research, 

 which are only the business of the curious and attentive, and there- 

 fore does not speak to the general sense of the whole species ; in 

 which common, and, as I may so call it, mother tongue every thing 

 grand and comprehensive must be uttered. 



