, but they are all mysterious. Not one
great man of them, but he will puzzle you, if you look close, to know
what he means. Distinct enough, as to his general intent, indeed, just
as Nature is distinct in her general intent; but examine his touches,
and you will find in Veronese, in Titian, in Tintoret, in Correggio, and
in all the great _painters_, properly so called, a peculiar melting and
mystery about the pencilling, sometimes called softness, sometimes
freedom, sometimes breadth; but in reality a most subtle confusion of
colors and forms, obtained either by the apparently careless stroke of
the brush, or by careful retouching with tenderest labor; but always
obtained in one way or another: so that though, when compared with work
that has no meaning, all great work is _distinct_,--compared with work
that has narrow and stubborn meaning, all great work is _in_distinct;
and if we find, on examining any picture closely, that it is all clearly
to be made out, it cannot be, as painting, first-rate. There is no
exception to this rule. EXCELLENCE OF THE HIGHEST KIND, WITHOUT
OBSCURITY, CANNOT EXIST.

Sec. 10. "But you said that all authority was against Turner,--Titian's and
Veronese's, as well as that of the older painters."

Yes, as regards his choice of misty or foggy subject, it is so; but in
this matter of mere _execution_, all the great painters are with him,
though at first he seems to differ from them, on account of that choice
of foggy subject; and because, instead of painting things under
circumstances when their general character is to be discerned at once
(as Veronese paints human figures close to us and the size of life), he
is always painting things twenty and thirty miles away, reduced to
unintelligible and eccentric shades.

Sec. 11. "But how, then, of this foggy choice; can _that_ be right in
itself?"

That we will discuss in the next chapter: let us keep at present to the
question of execution.

"Keeping to that question, why is it that a photograph always looks
clear and sharp,--not at all like a Turner?"

Photographs never look entirely clear and sharp; but because clearness
is supposed a merit in them, they are usually taken from very clearly
marked and un-Turnerian subjects; and such results as are misty and
faint, though often precisely those which contain the most subtle
renderings of nature, are thrown away, and the clear ones only are
preserved. Those clear ones depend for much of their for