olor drawing can
be carried no farther; nothing has been left unfinished or untold. And
on examination of the means employed, it is found and felt that not one
touch out of the thousands employed has been thrown away;--that not one
dot nor dash could be spared without loss of effect;--and that the
exertion has been as swift as it has been prolonged--as bold as it has
been persevering. The power involved in such a picture is of the highest
order, and the enduring pleasure following on the estimate of it pure.

Sec. 9. Connection between ideas of power and modes of execution.

But there is still farther ground for caution in pursuing the sensation
of power, connected with the particular characters and modes of
execution. This we shall be better able to understand by briefly
reviewing the various excellences which may belong to execution, and
give pleasure in it; though the full determination of what is desirable
in it, and the critical examination of the execution of different
artists, must be deferred, as will be immediately seen, until we are
more fully acquainted with the principles of truth.

CHAPTER II.

OF IDEAS OF POWER, AS THEY ARE DEPENDENT UPON EXECUTION.

Sec. 1. Meaning of the term "execution."

By the term "execution," I understand the right mechanical use of the
means of art to produce a given end.

Sec. 2. The first quality of execution is truth.

All qualities of execution, properly so called, are influenced by, and
in a great degree dependent on, a far higher power than that of mere
execution,--knowledge of truth. For exactly in proportion as an artist
is certain of his end, will he be swift and simple in his means; and, as
he is accurate and deep in his knowledge, will he be refined and precise
in his touch. The first merit of manipulation, then, is that delicate
and ceaseless expression of refined truth which is carried out to the
last touch, and shadow of a touch, and which makes every hairsbreadth of
importance, and every gradation full of meaning. It is not, properly
speaking, execution; but it is the only source of difference between the
execution of a commonplace and of a perfect artist. The lowest
draughtsman, if he have spent the same time in handling the brush, may
be equal to the highest in the other qualities of execution (in
swiftness, simplicity, and decision;) but not in truth. It is in the
perfection and precision of the insta