so far as education can influence them. They are different in
their choice, different in their faculties, but all the same in this,
that Raphael himself, so far as he was great, and all who preceded or
followed him who ever were great, became so by painting the truths
around them as they appeared to each man's own mind, not as he had been
taught to see them, except by the God who made both him and them.

220. There is, however, one more characteristic of Turner's second
period, on which I have still to dwell, especially with reference to
what has been above advanced respecting the fallacy of overtoil; namely,
the magnificent ease with which all is done when it is _successfully_
done. For there are one or two drawings of this time which are _not_
done easily. Turner had in these set himself to do a fine thing to
exhibit his powers; in the common phrase, to excel himself; so sure as
he does this, the work is a failure. The worst drawings that have ever
come from his hands are some of this second period, on which he has
spent much time and laborious thought; drawings filled with incident
from one side to the other, with skies stippled into morbid blue, and
warm lights set against them in violent contrast; one of Bamborough
Castle, a large water-color, may be named as an example. But the truly
noble works are those in which, without effort, he has expressed his
thoughts as they came, and forgotten himself; and in these the
outpouring of invention is not less miraculous than the swiftness and
obedience of the mighty hand that expresses it. Anyone who examines the
drawings may see the evidence of this facility, in the strange freshness
and sharpness of every touch of color; but when the multitude of
delicate touches, with which all the aerial tones are worked, is taken
into consideration, it would still appear impossible that the drawing
could have been completed with _ease_, unless we had direct evidence on
the matter: fortunately, it is not wanting. There is a drawing in Mr.
Fawkes's collection of a man-of-war taking in stores: it is of the usual
size of those of the England series, about sixteen inches by eleven: it
does not appear one of the most highly finished, but it is still farther
removed from slightness. The hull of a first-rate occupies nearly
one-half of the picture on the right, her bows towards the spectator,
seen in sharp perspective from stem to stern, with all her port-holes,
guns, anchors, and lower rigging