they have, nevertheless,
all been written in the same spirit. They have proved a leaven to the
whole, as we are learning slowly, but not without gratification; so that
there is no longer occasion to remember ingratitude often experienced,
and open or secret opposition.

The present publication is an immediate sequel to the foregoing works,
and of its contents we mention here only the most important.

PLAN FOR A HISTORY OF ART DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The historical conception of related conditions promotes the more rapid
development of the artist as well as of the man. Every individual,
especially if he be a man of capacity, at first seems far too important
to himself. Trusting in his independent power, he is inclined to
champion far too quickly this or that maxim; he strives and labors with
energy along the path he has himself chosen; and when at length he
becomes conscious of his one-sidedness and his error, he changes just as
violently, enters upon another perhaps equally erroneous course, and
clings to principles equally faulty. Not until late in life does he
become aware of his own history and realize how much further a constant
development in accordance with well tested principles might have led
him.

If the connoisseur owes his insight to history alone, which embodies the
ideas which give rise to art, for the young artist the history of art is
of the greatest importance.

[Illustration: WINCKELMANN]

He should not, however, search in it for indistinct models, to be
pursued passionately, but for the means of realizing himself and his
point of view, with its limitations. But unfortunately, even the
immediate past is seldom instructive to man, through no fault of his
own. For while we are learning to understand the mistakes of our
predecessors, time is itself producing new errors which, unobserved,
ensnare us, and the account of which is left to the future historian
with just as little advantage to his own generation.

But who would indulge in such mournful observations, and not rather
endeavor to promote the greatest possible clearness of view in his own
branch of study? This is the duty assumed by the writer of the present
sketch, the difficulty of which will be seen by connoisseurs, who, it is
hoped, will point out its deficiencies and correct its imperfections,
thereby making a satisfactory future work possible.

WINCKELMANN'S LETTERS To BERENDIS

Letters are among the most important monuments