mpelled, however unwillingly, to pass hastily by the
works of many gifted men, because, however pure their feeling, or
original their conceptions, they were wanting in those faculties of the
hand and mind which insure perfect fidelity to nature: it will be only
hereafter, when we are at liberty to take full cognizance of the
thought, however feebly it may be clothed in language, that we shall be
able to do real justice to the disciples either of modern or of ancient
art.

Sec. 6. General conclusions to be derived from our past investigation.

But as far as we have gone at present, and with respect only to the
_material_ truth, which is all that we have been able to investigate,
the conclusion to which we must be led is as clear as it is inevitable;
that modern artists, as a body, are far more just and full in their
views of material things than any landscape painters whose works are
extant--but that J. M. W. Turner is the only man who has ever given an
entire transcript of the whole system of nature, and is, in this point
of view, the only perfect landscape painter whom the world has ever
seen.

Sec. 7. Truth, a standard of all excellence.

Nor are we disposed to recede from our assertion made in Sec. I. Ch. I.
Sec. 10, that this material truth is indeed a perfect test of the relative
rank of painters, though it does not in itself constitute that rank. We
shall be able to prove that truth and beauty, knowledge and imagination,
invariably are associated in art; and we shall be able to show that not
only in truth to nature, but in all other points, Turner is the greatest
landscape painter who has ever lived. But his superiority is, in matters
of feeling, one of kind, not of degree. Superiority of degree implies a
superseding of others, superiority of kind only sustaining a more
important, but not more necessary part, than others. If _truth_ were all
that we required from art, all other painters might cast aside their
brushes in despair, for all that they have done he has done more fully
and accurately; but when we pass to the higher requirements of art,
beauty and character, their contributions are all equally necessary and
desirable, because different, and however inferior in position or rank,
are still perfect of their kind; their inferiority is only that of the
lark to the nightingale, or of the violet to the rose.

Sec. 8. Modern criticism. Changefulness of public taste.

Sec. 9. Yet associated with a cert