take up this work, it will be difficult
to address myself, as the mind requires instruction adapted to its
growth; but I trust to being enabled to protect industry from being
misapplied.

To such as desire to shorten the path to excellence, and to whom rules
appear as the 'fetters of genius,' from mere impatience of labour, if
their studies be not well _directed_, they will, just in proportion to
their industry, deviate from that right way, to which, after all their
exertions, they will have to return at last. It will be time enough to
destroy the bridge when we have attained the shore. To render our
efforts effectual, they must be well directed; and the student will
ultimately triumph over those rules which before restrained him.

Begin wrong, and you are no sooner under sail, than under water!

When a difficulty presents itself, attack it as though you meant to
overcome it, and the chances are you succeed.

Do not fancy that you have, or that you want, that illusion,
_inspiration_; but remember Art is to be acquired by human means; that
the mind is to be expanded by study; and that examples of industry
abound to show the way to eminence and distinction. 'He must of
necessity,' says Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'be an imitator of the works of
other painters. This appears humiliating, but is equally true; and no
man can be an artist, whatever he may suppose, on any other terms. For,
if we did not make use of the advantages our predecessors afford us, the
art would be always to begin, and consequently remain always in an
infant state.' And we shall no longer require to use the thoughts of
others when we have become able to think for ourselves: 'Genius is the
child of Imitation.'

There are no excellencies out of the reach of the _rules_ of
art--nothing that close observation of the leading merits of others,
nothing that indefatigable industry cannot acquire. Refinement in the
practice of _rules_ brings all under its dominion; and, 'as the art
advances, its powers will be still more and more fixed by rules;' and,
'unsubstantial as these rules may seem, and difficult as it may be to
convey them in writing, they are still seen and _felt_ in the mind of
the artist, and he works from them with as much certainty as if they
were embodied upon paper. And that it is by being conversant with the
inventions of others that we learn to _invent_. The mind becomes as
powerfully affected as if it had itself produced what it admires.' An