e
work there is greater expansion than the student will generally find
in books on art. Not that we are aware of the advancement of any thing
new; but the admitted maxims of art are, as it were, grammatically
analysed, and in a manner to assist the beginner in thinking upon art.
To those who have already _thought_, this very studied analysis and
arrangement will be tedious enough.

In the "Definition of Greatness in Art," we find--"If I say that the
greatest picture is that which conveys to the mind of the spectator
the greatest number of the greatest ideas, I have a definition which
will include as subjects of comparison every pleasure which art is
capable of conveying." Now, there are great ideas which are so
conflicting as to annul the force of each other. This is not enough;
there must be a congruity of great ideas--nay, in some instances, we
can conceive one idea to be so great, as in a work of art not to admit
of the juxtaposition of others. This is the principle upon which the
sonnet is built, and the sonnet illustrates the picture not unaptly.
"Ideas of Power" are great ideas--not always are ideas of beauty
great; yet is there a tempering the one with the other, which it is
the special province of art to attain, and that for its highest and
most moral purposes. In his "Ideas of Power," he distinguishes the
term "excellent" from the terms "beautiful," "useful," "good," &c.;
thus--"And we shall always, in future, use the word excellent, as
signifying that the thing to which it is applied required a great
power for its production." Is not this doubtful? Does it not limit the
perception of excellence to artists who can alone from their practice,
and, as it were, measurement of powers with their difficulties, learn
and feel its existence in the sense to which it is limited. The
inference would be, that none but artists can be critics, as none but
artists can perceive excellence, and we think in more than one place
some such assertion is made. This is startling--"Power is never
wasted; whatever power has been employed, produces excellence in
proportion to its own dignity and exertion; and the faculty of
perceiving this exertion, and approaching this dignity, is the faculty
of perceiving excellence." "It is this faculty in which men, even of
the most cultivated taste, must always be wanting, unless they have
added practice to reflection; because none can estimate the power
manifested in victory, unless they have perso