REYNOLDS. 



affiduity, which was apparent to all, little information re- 

 mains to us of the precife method of ltudy by which fuch 

 extraordinary excellence was attained, except what may be 

 collected from the following extract, made from 'fome 

 papers left by him, and intended perhaps for infertion in 

 another difcourfe ; in which, as his biographer obferves, he 

 fpeaks of his merits and defects with lingular modefly and 

 candour. " Not having the advantage of an early acade- 

 mical education, I never had that facility of drawing the 

 naked figure which an artid ought to have. It appeared 

 to me too late when I went to Italy, and began to feel my 

 deficiencies, to endeavour to acquire that readinefs of inven- 

 tion which I obferved others to poffefs. I confolcd myfelf, 

 however, by remarking, that thofe ready inventors are ex- 

 tremely apt to acquiefce in imperfection, and that if I had 

 not their facility, I fhould, for this very reafon, be more 

 likely to avoid the defect which too often accompanied it, — 

 a trite and common-place invention. How difficult it is 

 for the artid who pofledes this facility to guard againit 

 careleffnefs and common-place, is well known ; and in a 

 kindred art, Metallafio is an eminent inilance, who always 

 complained of the great difficulty he found in obtaining 

 correctnefs, in confequence of his having been in his youth 

 an improvifatore. Having this defect conftantly in my 

 mind, I never was contented with common-place attitudes 

 or inventions of any kind. I confidered myfelf as play- 

 ing a great game ; and inltead of faving money, I laid it 

 out fafter than I got it, in purchafing the bed examples of 

 the art that could be procured ; for I even borrowed money 

 for this purpofe. The poffefiing portraits by Titian, Van- 

 dyke, Rembrandt, &c. I confidered as the belt kind of 

 wealth. By ftudying carefully the works of great maiters, 

 this advantage is obtained : we find that certain niceties of 

 expreffion are capable of being executed, which otherwife 

 we might fuppofe beyond the reach of art. This gives 

 us a confidence in ourfelves, and we are thus incited to 

 endeavour at not only the fame happinefs of execution, 

 but alfo at other congenial excellencies. StHdy, indeed, 

 confilts in learning to fee nature, and may be called the art 

 of ufing other men's minds. By this kind of contemplation 

 and exercife, we are taught to think in their way, and 

 fometimes to attain their excellence. Thus, for inilance, 

 if I had never feen any of the works of Correggio, I fhould 

 never, perhaps, have remarked in nature the expreffion 

 which I find in one of his pieces : or if I had remarked it, 

 I might have thought it too difficult, or perhaps impofliblc, 

 to be executed. 



" My fuccefs and continual improvement in my art (if I 

 may be allowed that expreffion), may be afcribed, in good 

 meafurc, to a principle which I will boldly recommend to 

 imitation ; I mean a principle of honcfly, which in this, as 

 in all other instances, is, according to the vulgar proverb, 

 certainly' the bed policy. I always endeavoured to do my 

 bell. Great or vulgar, irood Subjects or had, all had 

 nature ; by the exact representation of which, or even by 

 the endeavour to. give fuch a reprefentation, the painter 

 cannot but improve in his art. 



" My principal l.tbour was employed on the whole toge- 

 ther, and I wr.s never weary of changing and trying differem 

 modes and effects. I had always lome fcheme in my nim.l, 

 and a perpetual defire to advance. By conftantly endea- 

 vouring to do my bell, I acquired a power of doing tli.it 

 with Spontaneous felicity, which at firfl wa . the effort 

 of my whole mind, and my reward was three-fold ; tlie 

 Satisfaction refuking from acting upon thin juft principle, 

 improvement in my art, and the pleafur- derived from a 

 condant purfuit after excel!- 



Voi. XXX. 



" I was always willing to believe that my uncertainty o 

 proceeding in my works, that is, my never being Sure of 

 my hand, and my frequent alterations, arofe from a refined 

 tatle, which could not acquiefce in any thing fliort of a 

 high degree of excellence. I had not an opportunity .of 

 being early initiated in the principles of colouring ; no man, 

 indeed, could teach me. If I have never been fettled with 

 refpect to colouring, let it at the fame time be remembered, 

 that my undeadinefs in this refpect proceeded from an in- 

 ordinate defire to poffefs every kind of excellence that I 

 faw in the works of others : without considering that there 

 are in colouring, as in dyle, excellencies which are incom- 

 patible with each other : however, this purfuit, or any 

 Similar one, prevents the artid from being tired of his art. 

 We all know how often thofe mafters who fought after 

 colouring changed their manner, while others, merely from 

 not feeing various modes, acquiefced all their lives in that 

 in which they fet out. On the contrary, I tried every 

 effect of colour ; and by leaving out every colour in its 

 turn, (hewed every colour that I could do without it. As 

 I alternately left out every colour, I tried every new one ; 

 and often, as is well known, failed. The former practice, 

 I am aware, may be compared by thofe whofe firlt object 

 is ridicule, to that of the poet mentioned in the Spectator, 

 who in a poem of 24 books, contrived in each book to leave 

 out a letter. But I was influenced by no fuch idle or 

 foolifh affectation ; my ficklenefs in the mode of colouring, 

 arofe from an eager defire to attain the highed excellence. 

 This is the only merit I can afl'ume to myfelf from my 

 conduct in this refpect." 



His affiduity and love of his profeffion left him little 

 leifure for country excurfions. Occafionally, however, he 

 Spent a Sew days at his villa on Richmond-hill, and vifited, at 

 different times, the feats of fome of the noblemen and gen- 

 tlemen of his acquaintance, from whence he was always 

 glad to return to the practice of his profeffion, and the 

 enjoyment of. that intellectual fociety, of which, like his 

 friend Jolmfon, he juflly confidered London as the head- 

 quarters. He, very Soon aSter he became fettled, perceived the 

 advantage which one confined to the laborious duties oS an 

 arduous profeffion might derive from the fociety of literary 

 men. Finding how little time he could fpare from his pro- 

 feffion, for the purpofe of acquiring general knowledge 

 from books, he refolved to partake as much as poflible of 

 the benefits which might be drawn from the converfation 

 of the learned and ingenious men of his time. In confe- 

 quence of this, and ol his cheerful and convivial habits, his 

 table, for above thirty years, exhibited an affemblage of all 

 the talents of Great Britain and Ireland ; there being, 

 during that period, fcarccly a pcrfon in the three kingd 

 diltinguidied for his attainments in literature or the arts, or 

 for his exertions at the bar, in the Senate, or the field, who 

 was not occafionally Sound there. 



Soon after the return of fir Jolhua from Italy, he bc- 

 acquairutcd with Dr. Johnfon, to whofe Superior ta- 

 lents iie was always proud to acknowledge his obligatic 

 and in the paper we have before-mentioned, badexprefled 

 hie I' 'ni e "I the benefit he had derived from his foci 



of the value of alloci.it ing either | rfoaaily 

 or by HimIv with the truly great, 1. add . " Mi. I prv- 

 fume to introduce myfelf a; an inilance oi the truth oi what 



1 have remarked. Whatever merit the difcourtJM which 

 1 have had the honour of delivering from this place may 



hi. , n l! . 111 great nicaluiv be impute! to the education 



which 1 may be laid to have had under Dr. Johnfon. 1 da 



not mean to fay, though it certainly would be to the credit 



gfe in ourfi . it I could lav it with truth, that he 



S contributed 



