The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (3.1789)

LECTURE IV.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
WHILE on every subjedt there may be
various, and often contradidfory opi-
nions, according to the aspedts under which it
is seen by different persons, we need not wonder,
that on the principles of art, and their applica-
tion, the sentiments of profesTors sliould dis-
agree. This happens frequently on the study of
perspedtive: while some makers despise that
eye which does not (alone) sufficiently ascertain
the natural appearances of objedts, others think
geometrical scrupulosity indispensible. Shall I
say that both these extremes are to be avoided?
or shall I rather commend them both, and ad-
vise to unite them ? Geometry alone never yet
composed a happy and pleading pidture and
if the effusions of pradtice, unregulated by just
theory, may have attained to veracity and cor-
redtness, I have not been so happy as to meet
with such inslances.
But of late, since science is fashionable, and
every offered assistance is generally received
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