having seen a picture
twenty years ago, when shown him again: its influence on his memory, his
taste, or his passions, could alone effect this.

'Colouring,' says Mr. Burnet, 'must either add to, or diminish the
effect of any work upon the imagination; it must add to it by
increasing, or diminish it by destroying the deception.' And he farther
quotes this passage from Addison: 'We cannot, indeed, have a single
image in the fancy that did not make its first entrance through the
sight; but we have the power of retaining, altering, and compounding
those images, which we have once received, into all the varieties of
picture and vision that are most agreeable to the imagination.'

'We can form no idea of colouring beyond what has an existence in
nature. From this source all our materials must be drawn.' And
again:--'The artist must never forget that the mind is composed of ideas
received from early impressions, from perceptions frequently occurring,
and from reflections founded on such perceptions. Painting can reach the
mind only through the medium of the eye, which must be gratified
sufficiently to interest it in the communication.'

There should always exist a corresponding feeling between the subject
and the manner of treating it.

The student should at least make himself acquainted with the leading
principles of every variety of art; because, 'that which would be
applicable to one style, would, in some measure, be destructive to
another.' It matters nothing how _low_ the branch or particular walk he
has chosen; for it will acquire quite another accent from his
acquaintance with the higher, whose powers of fascination will in time
imperceptibly infuse something of their own dignity into his works.

Something of this infusion has come down from the greatness, the
grandeur, and severity of the Roman and Florentine schools, through all
varieties they have passed, to the modern. To reach this, however, the
mind must habituate itself to become quite 'disdainful of vulgar
criticism,' before it can well feel a congenial sympathy with these high
latitudes, as well as having to unlearn much it has acquired.

There are many excellencies in painting not at all compatible with each
other, and that should never occur together--not even to gratify that
fastidious disposition that is dissatisfied with every thing short of
perfection: lightness would seem to want solidity, while precision will
have dryness and hardness. The excel