eful than that which is forced upon
the mind by private precepts or solitary meditation. Besides, it is
generally found that a youth more easily receives instruction from the
companions of his studies, whose minds are nearly on a level with his
own, than from those who are much his superiors; and it is from his
equals only that he catches the fire of emulation.

One advantage, I will venture to affirm, we shall have in our academy,
which no other nation can boast. We shall have nothing to unlearn. To
this praise the present race of artists have a just claim. As far as
they have yet proceeded they are right. With us the exertions of genius
will henceforward be directed to their proper objects. It will not be as
it has been in other schools, where he that travelled fastest only
wandered farthest from the right way.

Impressed as I am, therefore, with such a favourable opinion of my
associates in this undertaking, it would ill become me to dictate to any
of them. But as these institutions have so often failed in other
nations, and as it is natural to think with regret how much might have
been done, and how little has been done, I must take leave to offer a few
hints, by which those errors may be rectified, and those defects
supplied. These the professors and visitors may reject or adopt as they
shall think proper.

I would chiefly recommend that an implicit obedience to the rules of art,
as established by the great masters, should be exacted from the _young_
students. That those models, which have passed through the approbation
of ages, should be considered by them as perfect and infallible guides as
subjects for their imitation, not their criticism.

I am confident that this is the only efficacious method of making a
progress in the arts; and that he who sets out with doubting will find
life finished before he becomes master of the rudiments. For it may be
laid down as a maxim, that he who begins by presuming on his own sense
has ended his studies as soon as he has commenced them. Every
opportunity, therefore, should be taken to discountenance that false and
vulgar opinion that rules are the fetters of genius. They are fetters
only to men of no genius; as that armour, which upon the strong becomes
an ornament and a defence, upon the weak and misshapen turns into a load,
and cripples the body which it was made to protect.

How much liberty may be taken to break through those rules, and, as the
poet express