them smoothly on a surface. He
only is a painter who can melodize and harmonize _hue_--if he fail in
this, he is no member of the brotherhood. Let him etch, or draw, or
carve: better the unerring graver than the unfaithful pencil--better the
true sling and stone than the brightness of the unproved armor. And let
not even those who deal in the deeper magic, and feel in themselves the
loftier power, presume upon that power--nor believe in the reality of
any success unless that which has been deserved by deliberate, resolute,
successive operation. We would neither deny nor disguise the influences
of sensibility or of imagination, upon this, as upon every other
admirable quality of art;--we know that there is that in the very stroke
and fall of the pencil in a master's hand, which creates color with an
unconscious enchantment--we know that there is a brilliancy which
springs from the joy of the painter's heart--a gloom which sympathizes
with its seriousness--a power correlative with its will; but these are
all vain unless they be ruled by a seemly caution--a manly
moderation--an indivertible foresight. This we think the one great
conclusion to be received from the work we have been examining, that all
power is vain--all invention vain--all enthusiasm vain--all devotion
even, and fidelity vain, unless these are guided by such severe and
exact law as we see take place in the development of every great natural
glory; and, even in the full glow of their bright and burning operation,
sealed by the cold, majestic, deep-graven impress of the signet on the
right hand of Time.

SAMUEL PROUT.[20]

137. The first pages in the histories of artists, worthy the name, are
generally alike; records of boyish resistance to every scheme, parental
or tutorial, at variance with the ruling desire and bent of the opening
mind. It is so rare an accident that the love of drawing should be
noticed and fostered in the child, that we are hardly entitled to form
any conclusions respecting the probable result of an indulgent
foresight; it is enough to admire the strength of will which usually
accompanies every noble intellectual gift, and to believe that, in early
life, direct resistance is better than inefficient guidance. Samuel
Prout--with how many rich and picturesque imaginations is the name now
associated!--was born at Plymouth, September 17th, 1783, and intended by
his father for his own profession; but although the delicate health of
the chi