176 



and though the scene conveyed to my 

 mind the chearful ideas of fruitfulness 

 and plenty, I could not help feeling 

 how defective it was in all those qualities 

 and principles, on which the painter sets 

 so high a value. 



If there be any thing in the universal 

 range of the arts peculiarly required to be 

 a whole, it is a picture. In pieces of 

 music, particular movements may without 

 injury be separated from the whole; in 

 every species of poetry, detached scenes, 

 episodes, stanzas, &c. may be considered 

 and enjoyed by themselves; but in a pic- 

 ture, the forms, tints, lights and shadows, 

 all their combinations, effects, agreements, 

 and oppositions, are at once subjected to 

 the eye : whatever therefore may be the 

 excellence of the several parts, however 

 beautiful the particular colours, however 

 splendid the lights, if they want union, 

 breadth, and harmony, the picture wants it's 

 most essential quality — it is not a whole. 

 According to my notions therefore, it is 



