368 



which I believe accords more truly with 

 the genuine unmixed characters both of 

 beauty and sublimity *, and with the ideas 

 of the great original. 



I have pressed strongly on all the points 

 of difference between Mr. Gilpin and me, 

 because I think them very essential to the 

 chief object I have had in view, that of re- 

 commending the study of pictures and of 

 the principles of painting, as the best guide 

 to that of nature, and to the improvement 

 of real landscape. Could it be supposed 

 that for the purpose of his own art, a painter 

 would in general prefer a worn-out cart- 

 horse to a beautiful Arabian ; or that such 

 pieces of architecture as were universally 

 admired for their beauty and elegance, 

 would, if introduced in a picture, become 

 formal, and cease to please,— no man 

 would be disposed to consult an art which 

 contradicted all his natural feelings. But 

 were he tq be informed that painters have 



* Vide Sir Joshua Reynolds's Notes in Mason's Du 

 fresnoy, page 8(3. 



