g of one class of object, and fail of doing so in another.
They act equally, and with equal results, whatever may be the matter
subjected to them; the same delicate sense which perceives the utmost
grace of the fibres of a tree, will be equally unerring in tracing the
character of cloud; and the quick memory which seizes and retains the
circumstances of a flying effect of shadow or color, will be equally
effectual in fixing the impression of the instantaneous form of a moving
figure or a breaking wave. There are indeed one or two broad
distinctions in the nature of the senses,--a sensibility to color, for
instance, being very different from a sensibility to form; so that a man
may possess one without the other, and an artist may succeed in mere
imitation of what is before him, of air, sunlight, etc., without
possessing sensibility at all. But wherever we have, in the drawing of
any one object, sufficient evidence of real intellectual power, of the
sense which perceives the essential qualities of a thing, and the
judgment which arranges them so as to illustrate each other, we may be
quite certain that the same sense and judgment will operate equally on
whatever is subjected to them, and that the artist will be equally great
and masterly in his drawing of all that he attempts. Hence we may be
quite sure that wherever an artist appears to be truthful in one branch
of art, and not in another, the apparent truth is either owing to some
trickery of imitation, or is not so great as we suppose it to be. In
nine cases out of ten, people who are celebrated for drawing only one
thing, and _can_ only draw one thing, draw that one thing worse than
anybody else. An artist may indeed confine himself to a limited range of
subject, but if he be really true in his rendering of this, his power of
doing more will be perpetually showing itself in accessories and minor
points. There are few men, for instance, more limited in subject than
Hunt, and yet I do not think there is another man in the old Water-Color
Society, with so keen an eye for truth, or with power so universal. And
this is the reason for the exceeding prominence which in the foregoing
investigation one or two artists have always assumed over the rest, for
the habits of accurate observation and delicate powers of hand which
they possess, have equal effect, and maintain the same superiority in
their works, to whatever class of subject they may be directed. And thus
we have been co