rewarded should be abandoned. But
if the temptation be once yielded to, its consequences are fatal; there
is no pause in the fall. I could name a celebrated modern artist--once a
man of the highest power and promise, who is a glaring instance of the
peril of such a course. Misled by the undue popularity of his swift
execution, he has sacrificed to it, first precision, and then truth, and
her associate, beauty. What was first neglect of nature, has become
contradiction of her; what was once imperfection, is now falsehood; and
all that was meritorious in his manner, is becoming the worst, because
the most attractive of vices; decision without a foundation, and
swiftness without an end.

Sec. 11. Recapitulation.

Such are the principal modes in which the ideas of power may become a
dangerous attraction to the artist--a false test to the critic. But in
all cases where they lead us astray it will be found that the error is
caused by our preferring victory over a small _apparent_ difficulty to
victory over a great, but concealed one; and so that we keep this
distinction constantly in view, (whether with reference to execution or
to any other quality of art,) between the sensation and the intellectual
estimate of power, we shall always find the ideas of power a just and
high source of pleasure in every kind and grade of art.

FOOTNOTES

[5] I have here noticed only noble vices, the sacrifices of one
excellence to another legitimate but inferior one. There are, on the
other hand, qualities of execution which are often sought for and
praised, though scarcely by the class of persons for whom I am
writing, in which everything is sacrificed to illegitimate and
contemptible sources of pleasure, and these are vice throughout, and
have no redeeming quality nor excusing aim. Such is that which is
often thought so desirable in the Drawing-master, under the title of
boldness, meaning that no touch is ever to be made less than the
tenth of an inch broad; such, on the other hand, the softness and
smoothness which are the great attraction of Carlo Dolci, and such
the exhibition of particular powers and tricks of the hand and
fingers, in total forgetfulness of any end whatsoever to be attained
thereby, which is especially characteristic of modern engraving.
Compare Sect. II. Chap. II. Sec. 21. Note.

CHAPTER III.