or, in a colored
work_. And so they were always considered in the noble periods; and
sometimes all resemblance to nature whatever (as in painted windows,
illuminated manuscripts, and such other work) is sacrificed to the
brilliancy of color; sometimes distinctness of form to its richness, as
by Titian, Turner, and Reynolds; and, which is the point on which we are
at present insisting, sometimes, in the pursuit of its utmost
refinements on the surfaces of objects, an amount of realization becomes
consistent with noble art, which would otherwise be altogether
inadmissible, that is to say, which no great mind could otherwise have
either produced or enjoyed. The extreme finish given by the
Pre-Raphaelites is rendered noble chiefly by their love of color.

Sec. XXVIII. So then, whatever may be the means, or whatever the more
immediate end of any kind of art, all of it that is good agrees in this,
that it is the expression of one soul talking to another, and is
precious according to the greatness of the soul that utters it. And
consider what mighty consequences follow from our acceptance of this
truth! what a key we have herein given us for the interpretation of the
art of all time! For, as long as we held art to consist in any high
manual skill, or successful imitation of natural objects, or any
scientific and legalized manner of performance whatever, it was
necessary for us to limit our admiration to narrow periods and to few
men. According to our own knowledge and sympathies, the period chosen
might be different, and our rest might be in Greek statues, or Dutch
landscapes, or Italian Madonnas; but, whatever our choice, we were
therein captive, barred from all reverence but of our favorite masters,
and habitually using the language of contempt towards the whole of the
human race to whom it had not pleased Heaven to reveal the arcana of the
particular craftsmanship we admired, and who, it might be, had lived
their term of seventy years upon the earth, and fitted themselves
therein for the eternal world, without any clear understanding,
sometimes even with an insolent disregard, of the laws of perspective
and chiaroscuro.

But let us once comprehend the holier nature of the art of man, and
begin to look for the meaning of the spirit, however syllabled, and the
scene is changed; and we are changed also. Those small and dexterous
creatures whom once we worshipped, those fur-capped divinities with
sceptres of camel's hair, pee