lines
be dexterous or slovenly. The result of such study is the immediate
substitution of downright drawing for symbolism, and afterwards a
judicious moderation in the use of extreme lights and darks; for where
local colors are really drawn, so much of what seems violently dark is
found to come light against something else, and so much of what seems
high light to come dark against the sky, that the draughtsman trembles
at finding himself plunged either into blackness or whiteness, and
seeks, as he should, for means of obtaining force without either.

It is in consequence of his evident habit of sketching more with a view
to detail and character than to the great masses, that Harding's
chiaroscuro is frequently crude, scattered, and petty. Black shadows
occur under his distant trees, white high lights on his foreground
rocks, the foliage and trunks are divided by violent oppositions into
separate masses, and the branches lose in spots of moss and furrowings
of bark their soft roundings of delicate form, and their grand relations
to each other and the sky.

Sec. 32. Opposition between great manner and great knowledge.

It is owing to my respect for the artist, and my belief in his power and
conscientious desire to do what is best, that I have thus extended these
somewhat unkind remarks. On the other hand, it is to be remembered, that
his knowledge of nature is most extended, and his dexterity of drawing
most instructive, especially considering his range of subject; for
whether in water, rock, or foliage, he is equally skilful in attaining
whatever he desires, (though he does not always desire all that he
ought;) and artists should keep in mind, that neither grandeur of manner
nor truth of system can atone for the want of this knowledge and this
skill. Constable's manner is good and great, but being unable to draw
even a log of wood, much more a trunk of a tree or a stone, he left his
works destitute of substance, mere studies of effect without any
expression of specific knowledge; and thus even what is great in them
has been productive, I believe, of very great injury in its
encouragement of the most superficial qualities of the English school.

Sec. 33. Foliage of Cox, Fielding, and Cattermole.

The foliage of David Cox has been already noticed (preface to second
edition.) It is altogether exquisite in color, and in its impressions of
coolness, shade, and mass; of its drawing I cannot say anything, but
that I sh