, can be strange only to the ignorance of the
spectator. This kind of pleasure is illegitimate, therefore, because it
implies and requires, in those who feel it, ignorance of art.

Sec. 8. Yet even the legitimate sources of pleasure in execution are
inconsistent with each other.

Sec. 9. And fondness for ideas of power leads to the adoption of the
lowest.

Sec. 10. Therefore perilous.

The legitimate sources of pleasure in execution are therefore truth,
simplicity, mystery, inadequacy, decision, and velocity. But of these,
be it observed, some are so far inconsistent with others, that they
cannot be united in high degrees. Mystery with inadequacy, for
instance; since to see that the means are inadequate, we must see what
they are. Now the first three are the great qualities of execution, and
the last three are the attractive ones, because on them are chiefly
attendant the ideas of power. By the first three the attention is
withdrawn from the means and fixed on the result: by the last three,
withdrawn from the result and fixed on the means. To see that execution
is swift or that it is decided, we must look away from its creation to
observe it in the act of creating; we must think more of the pallet than
of the picture, but simplicity and mystery compel the mind to leave the
means and fix itself on the conception. Hence the danger of too great
fondness for those sensations of power which are associated with the
three last qualities of execution; for although it is most desirable
that these should be present as far as they are consistent with the
others, and though their visible absence is always painful and wrong,
yet the moment the higher qualities are sacrificed to them in the least
degree, we have a brilliant vice. Berghem and Salvator Rosa are good
instances of vicious execution dependent on too great fondness for
sensations of power, vicious because intrusive and attractive in itself,
instead of being subordinate to its results and forgotten in them. There
is perhaps no greater stumbling-block in the artist's way, than the
tendency to sacrifice truth and simplicity to decision and velocity,[5]
captivating qualities, easy of attainment, and sure to attract attention
and praise, while the delicate degree of truth which is at first
sacrificed to them is so totally unappreciable by the majority of
spectators, so difficult of attainment to the artist, that it is no
wonder that efforts so arduous and un