n to a greater
power which can be accomplished by a less, any more than bodily strength
can be exerted where there is nothing to resist it.

So then, men may let their great powers lie dormant, while they employ
their mean and petty powers on mean and petty objects; but it is
physically impossible to employ a great power, except on a great object.
Consequently, wherever power of any kind or degree has been exerted, the
marks and evidence of it are stamped upon its results: it is impossible
that it should be lost or wasted, or without record, even in the
"estimation of a hair:" and therefore, whatever has been the subject of
a great power bears about with it the image of that which created it,
and is what is commonly called "excellent." And this is the true meaning
of the word excellent, as distinguished from the terms, "beautiful,"
"useful," "good," etc.; and we shall always, in future, use the word
excellent, as signifying that the thing to which it is applied required
a great power for its production.[3]

Sec. 4. What is necessary to the distinguishing of excellence.

The faculty of perceiving what powers are required for the production of
a thing, is the faculty of perceiving excellence. It is this faculty in
which men, even of the most cultivated taste, must always be wanting,
unless they have added practice to reflection; because none can estimate
the power manifested in victory, unless they have personally measured
the strength to be overcome. Though, therefore, it is possible, by the
cultivation of sensibility and judgment, to become capable of
distinguishing what is beautiful, it is totally impossible, without
practice and knowledge, to distinguish or feel what is excellent. The
beauty or the truth of Titian's flesh-tint may be appreciated by all;
but it is only to the artist, whose multiplied hours of toil have not
reached the slightest resemblance of one of its tones, that its
_excellence_ is manifest.

Sec. 5. The pleasure attendant on conquering difficulties is right.

Wherever, then, difficulty has been overcome, there is excellence: and
therefore, in order to prove excellent, we have only to prove the
difficulty of its production: whether it be useful or beautiful is
another question; its excellence depends on its difficulty alone. For is
it a false or diseased taste which looks for the overcoming of
difficulties, and has pleasure in it, even without any view to resultant
good. It has been made pa