s have differed, and do differ, from each
other, and would it therefore be easy for the Academy to adopt any
authoritative system of teaching, excluding one mode and acknowledging
another?--Not easy, but very necessary. There have been many methods;
but there has never been a case of a great school which did not fix upon
its method: and there has been no case of a thoroughly great school
which did not fix upon the right method, as far as circumstances enabled
it to do so. The meaning of a successful school is, that it has adopted
a method which it teaches to its young painters, so that right working
becomes a habit with them; so that with no thought, and no effort, and
no torment, and no talk about it, they have the habit of doing what
their school teaches them.

You do not think a system is equally good which leaves to each eminent
professor, according to the bent of his genius or the result of his
experience, to instruct young men, the instruction varying with the
character of each professor?--Great benefit would arise if each
professor founded his own school, and were interested in his own pupils;
but, as has been sufficiently illustrated in the schools of Domenichino
and Guido, there is apt to arise rivalry between the masters, with no
correlative advantages, unless the masters are all of one mind. And the
only successful idea of an academy has been where the practice was
consistent, and where there was no contradiction. Considering the
knowledge we now have, and the means we now have of comparing all the
works of the greatest painters, though, as you suggest by your question,
it is not easy to adopt an authoritative system, yet it is perfectly
possible. Let us get at the best method and let us teach that. There is
unquestionably a best way if we can find it; and we have now in England
the means of finding it out.

The teaching in the Academy is now, under all circumstances, gratuitous;
would you wish that system to continue, or should you prefer to see a
system of payment?--I am not prepared to answer that question. It would
depend upon the sort of system that was adopted and on the kind of
persons you received into your schools.

175. I presume you would say that in artistic teaching there are some
points on which there would be common ground, and others upon which
there must be specific teaching; for instance, in sculpture and painting
there is a point up to which the proportions of the human figure have to
be