to be based rather on the
strangeness of their occurrence than on any real affection for them; and
which is certainly so shallow and ineffective as to be instantly and
always sacrificed by the majority to fashion, comfort, or economy. Yet I
trust that there is a healthy though feeble love of nature mingled with
it, nature pure, separate, felicitous, which is also peculiar to the
moderns; and as signs of this feeling, or ministers to it, I look with
veneration upon many works which, in a technical point of view, are of
minor importance.

Sec. 20. G. Robson, D. Cox. False use of the term "style."

I have been myself indebted for much teaching and more delight to those
of the late G. Robson. Weaknesses there are in them manifold, much bad
drawing, much forced color, much over finish, little of what artists
call composition; but there is thorough affection for the thing drawn;
they are serious and quiet in the highest degree, certain qualities of
atmosphere and texture in them have never been excelled, and certain
facts of mountain scenery never but by them expressed, as, for instance,
the stillness and depth of the mountain tarns, with the reversed imagery
of their darkness signed across by the soft lines of faintly touching
winds; the solemn flush of the brown fern and glowing heath under
evening light; the purple mass of mountains far removed, seen against
clear still twilight. With equal gratitude I look to the drawings of
David Cox, which, in spite of their loose and seemingly careless
execution, are not less serious in their meaning, nor less important in
their truth. I must, however, in reviewing those modern works in which
certain modes of execution are particularly manifested, insist
especially on this general principle, applicable to all times of art;
that what is usually called the style or manner of an artist is, in all
good art, nothing but the best means of getting at the particular truth
which the artist wanted; it is not a mode peculiar to himself of getting
at the same truths as other men, but the _only_ mode of getting the
particular facts he desires, and which mode, if others had desired to
express those facts, they also must have adopted. All habits of
execution persisted in under no such necessity, but because the artist
has invented them, or desires to show his dexterity in them, are utterly
base; for every good painter finds so much difficulty in reaching the
end he sees and desires, that he has n