to be made on their performances than on the productions of eccentrick Genius: where striking beauties are mixed with great defects, the student will be in danger of mistaking blemishes for beauties, and perhaps the beauties may be such as he is not advanced enough to attempt.

R.

Will to the soul that poison rank convey,
Which life's best length shall fail to purge away.

Taste will be unavoidably regulated by what is continually before the eyes. It were therefore well if young students could be debarred the sight of any works that were not free from gross faults, till they had well formed, and, as I may say, hardened their judgement: they might then be permitted to look about them, not only without fear of vitiating their taste, but even with advantage; and would often find great ingenuity and extraordinary invention in works which are under the influence of a bad taste.

R.

NOTE XLVII. VERSE 601.

As surely charms that voluntary style,
Which careless plays and seems to mock at toil.

This appearance of ease and facility may be called the Grace or Genius of the mechanical or executive part of the art. There is undoubtedly something fascinating in seeing that done with careless ease, which others do with laborious difficulty: the spectator unavoidably, by a kind of natural instinct, feels that general animation with which the hand of the Artist seems to be inspired.

Of all Painters Rubens appears to claim the first rank for facility, both in the invention and in the execution of his work: it makes so great a part of his excellence, that if we take it away, half at least of his reputation will go with it.

The

NOTE XLVIII. VERSE 617.

eye each obvious error swift descries; Hold then the compass only in the eyes.

R.

A Painter who relies on his compass, leans on a prop which will not support him: there

are few parts of his figures but what are foreshortened more or less, and cannot, therefore be drawn or corrected by measures. Though he begins his studies with the compass in his hand as we learn a dead language by grammar, yet, after a certain time, they are both flung aside, and in their place a kind of mechanical correctness of the eye and ear is substituted, which operates without any consci

ous effort of the mind.

NOTE XLIX. VERSE 620.

Give to the dictates of the learn'd respect.

R.

There are few spectators of a Painter's work, learned or unlearned, who, if they can be induced to speak their real sensations, would not be profitable to the Artist. The only opinions of which no use can be made, are those of half-learned connoisseurs, who have quitted nature and have not acquired art. That same sagacity which makes a man excel in his profession must assist him in the proper use to be made of the judgement of the learned, and the opinions of the vulgar. Of many things the vulgar are as

competent judges as the most learned connoisseur; of the portrait, for instance, of an animal; or, perhaps, of the truth of the representations of some vulgar passions.

It must be expected that the untaught vulgar will carry with them the same want of right taste in the judgement they make of the effect or character in a picture as they do in life, and prefer a strutting figure and gaudy colours to the grandeur of simplicity; but if this same vulgar person, or even an infant, should mistake for dirt what was intended to be a shade, it might be apprehended that the shadow was not the true colour of nature, with almost as much certainty as if the observation had been made by the most able connoisseur. R.

NOTE L. VERSE 703.

Know that ere perfect taste matures the wind,
Or perfect practise to that taste be join'd,-

However admirable his taste may be, he is but half a Painter who can only conceive his subject, and is without knowledge of the mechanical part of his art; as on the

other hand his skill may be said to be thrown away, who has employed his colours on subjects that create no interest from their beauty, their character, or expression. One part often absorbs the whole mind to the neglect of the rest the young Students, whilst at Rome, studying the works of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, are apt to lose all relish. for any kind of excellence, except what is found in their works. Perhaps going afterwards to Venice they may be induced to think there are other things required, and that nothing but the most superlative excellence in design, character, and dignity of style, can atone for a deficiency in the ornamental graces of the art. Excellence must of course be rare; and one of the causes of its rarity, is the necessity of uniting qualities which in their nature are contrary to each other; and yet no approaches towards perfection without it. Every art or profession requires this union of contrary qualities, like the harmony of colouring, which is produced by an opposition of hot and cold hues. The Poet and the Painter must unite to the warmth that accompanies

can be made