the
instability of his affections, by the eternal invariable idea of nature.

Here, then, as before, we must have recourse to the ancients as
instructors. It is from a careful study of their works that you will be
enabled to attain to the real simplicity of nature; they will suggest
many observations, which would probably escape you, if your study were
confined to nature alone. And, indeed, I cannot help suspecting, that in
this instance the ancients had an easier task than the moderns. They
had, probably, little or nothing to unlearn, as their manners were nearly
approaching to this desirable simplicity; while the modern artist, before
he can see the truth of things, is obliged to remove a veil, with which
the fashion of the times has thought proper to cover her.

Having gone thus far in our investigation of the great style in painting;
if we now should suppose that the artist has formed the true idea of
beauty, which enables him to give his works a correct and perfect design;
if we should suppose also that he has acquired a knowledge of the
unadulterated habits of nature, which gives him simplicity; the rest of
his talk is, perhaps, less than is generally imagined. Beauty and
simplicity have so great a share in the composition of a great style,
that he who has acquired them has little else to learn. It must not,
indeed, be forgot that there is a nobleness of conception, which goes
beyond anything in the mere exhibition, even of perfect form; there is an
art of animating and dignifying the figures with intellectual grandeur,
of impressing the appearance of philosophic wisdom or heroic virtue. This
can only be acquired by him that enlarges the sphere of his understanding
by a variety of knowledge, and warms his imagination with the best
productions of ancient and modern poetry.

A hand thus exercised, and a mind thus instructed, will bring the art to
a higher degree of excellence than, perhaps, it has hitherto attained in
this country. Such a student will disdain the humbler walks of painting,
which, however profitable, can never assure him a permanent reputation.
He will leave the meaner artist servilely to suppose that those are the
best pictures which are most likely to deceive the spectator. He will
permit the lower painter, like the florist or collector of shells, to
exhibit the minute discriminations which distinguish one object of the
same species from another; while he, like the philosopher, will consid