shades of the forest; he is to
exhibit in his portraits of nature such permanent and striking features,
as recall the original to _every_ mind; and must neglect the minuter
discriminations, which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness.'

The idleness of laborious _finish_, opposed to the overwhelming majesty
of _breadth_, cannot be better explained.

ON RULES.

RULES are not principles: Polite learning is only a more specious
ignorance: it may do something to make a connoisseur, but will never
make a practical painter; while a little knowledge of _principles_ will
go farther to make a connoisseur!

A foreign _philosopher_ says, 'A thinking man is a depraved animal.'
Both rules and principles are the healthy results of thought,
notwithstanding.--Condensation and simplification--shorter methods, and
conclusive deductions, are among the results obtained from them.

'There are rules for the conduct of the artist, which are fixed and
invariable. The arts would lie open for ever to caprice and casualty, if
those who are to judge of their excellencies had no settled principles
by which they are to regulate their decisions, and their merits or
defects were to be determined by unguided fancy;' which, in the end,
would deprive art of its existence.

Reynolds says, 'Whatever is done well is done by some certain rule,
otherwise it could not be repeated.'

Rules, pursued beyond their _intention_, become the fetters of the mind:
among architects for instance--whose very profession should be a matter
of light and shade--I have never known, nor heard of one in my life, who
ever obtained even the veriest mediocrity in painting, however otherwise
talented. This can only be attributable to their adherence to the
rigidity of their rules in their details, beyond their _general_
intention.

Much should oftentimes be conceded to the suggestions of strong
inclination in an ingenious and intelligent mind, whose impulses are
irresistible, and which any peculiar method would only clog and fetter,
by thwarting its particular turn--which, after all succeeds best its own
way; and arrives at the same end by its own impulses. Rules apply more
properly to such as are not invested with these powers: or, with the
same incentives, have not the strength.

ON COPYING.

A SYSTEM of copying, or rather borrowing from the works of others, some
_point_, 'from which the imagination may rise and take flight,' is a
manner comm