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spirit, may properly be called <: the invari* 

 " able general form," not " which nature 

 " most frequently produces/' but which 

 she may be supposed " to intend in her 

 46 productions." Such real, visible models 

 " of the great and general ideas which are 

 " fixed and inherent in universal nature" 

 being once acknowledged, it will naturally 

 follow, that all deviations from them must, 

 be reckoned among " those accidental ble- 

 " mishes and excrescencies, which are con- 

 " tinually varying the surface of nature's 

 works and thence we have a clear con- 

 ception, of that to which the painter ought 

 to attend, when studying the highest style 

 of the art, and of that which he ought to 

 avoid. The practice of his best guides the 

 ancient artists, plainly shews, that in their 

 opinion, whatever nature's intention may be, 

 she rarely produces a perfect whole, or even 

 perfect parts ; and the ancient writers con- 

 firm that opinion, by their avowal of the 

 superiority of statues, even when they are 

 jspeaking of the parts of the human body— 



