which are brought out, as from a background of the
softest neutrals, the umbrageous, rich, bitumen-looking browns, deep
crimsons, reds, and golden colours of the leaves, &c.

OF THE CIRCULAR FORM IN COMPOSITION.

Circular composition is another of the best forms, and most easily
adapted for the arrangement of light and shade; as it generally
possesses receding hollows for the reception of the shadows, and
graduated projections for the lights to rest on. (_Plate. 1, fig. 4._)

Taste is the discriminating power of selecting good from bad; and this
is attainable by enquiry: there is neither instability nor uncertainty
in its rules; so long as you have the good sense to place all
'inspiration' out of the question! Nothing is so pernicious as that
illusion of the mind.

Grace, in my opinion, consists of lines flowing, more or less, into the
ellipsis--free of constraint and affectation. Raphael, for instance, was
all grace; Parmegiano degenerated into _affectation_.

In pictorial economy, the repetition of the same lines, and often of the
same forms, assist and support each other; as necessarily as repetition
of colours in painting. This extension of the same thing is frequently
indispensable, both in preventing the individuality of form, and, when
well broken up by opposing lines, adding materially to the seeming
negligence and irregularity that carries with it so great a charm.
(_Plate 1, fig. 4._)

The luminous spots or lights in a picture, frequently explain the _form_
of its composition.

In this repetition of lines and forms, the ground may be made to run one
way, the line of buildings another, the figures another, the horizon
another, the forms of the trees a different one, and the shapes of the
clouds may describe another: all these may have their repeats; yet will
they all seem to form and tend, though apparently all irregularity, to
an agreeable arrangement we sometimes see in nature, and an harmonious
whole, however intricate, without confusion. The investigation of the
means pursued by Salvator Rosa will explain this fascinating system.
(_Plate 1, figs. 2_ and _7._)

In contemplating the best regulated works of art, either in pictures or
prints, by always being careful to ascertain the _forms_ by which their
effects are produced, is one of the best means of arriving at this
object ourselves. Even a few memoranda of the ground plans, as an
architect would say, or the form of the line on which the bases