but what is coarse and commonplace, in matters to be judged of by the
senses, is within the reach of argument. How much or how little I have
done must be judged of by the reader: how much it is impossible to do I
have more fully shown in the concluding section.

I shall first take into consideration those general truths, common to
all the objects of nature, which are productive of what is usually
called "effect," that is to say, truths of tone, general color, space,
and light. I shall then investigate the truths of specific form and
color, in the four great component parts of landscape--sky, earth,
water, and vegetation.

FOOTNOTES

[6] Not the large Paradise, but the Fall of Adam, a small picture
chiefly in brown and gray, near Titian's Assumption. Its companion,
the Death of Abel, is remarkable as containing a group of trees
which Turner, I believe accidentally, has repeated nearly mass for
mass in the "Marly." Both are among the most noble works of this or
any other master, whether for preciousness of color or energy of
thought.

[7] The triple leaf of this plant, and white flower, stained purple,
probably gave it strange typical interest among the Christian
painters. Angelico, in using its leaves mixed with daisies in the
foreground of his Crucifixion had, I imagine, a view also to its
chemical property.

[8] This is no rash method of judgment, sweeping and hasty as it may
appear. From the weaknesses of an artist, or failures, however
numerous, we have no right to conjecture his total inability; a time
may come when he may rise into sudden strength, or an instance occur
when his efforts shall be successful. But there are some pictures
which rank not under the head of failures, but of perpetrations or
commissions; some things which a man cannot do nor say without
sealing forever his character and capacity. The angel holding the
cross with his finger in his eye, the roaring red-faced children
about the crown of thorns, the blasphemous (I speak deliberately and
determinedly) head of Christ upon the handkerchief, and the mode in
which the martyrdom of the saint is exhibited (I do not choose to
use the expressions which alone could characterize it) are perfect,
sufficient, incontrovertible proofs that whatever appears good in
any of the doings of such a painter must be deceptive, and that we
may be assured t