DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0062
28
THE THIRD DISCOURSE.
gloomy amidst the splendour of figurative declamation, and
thinks it hopeless to pursue an object which he supposes
out of the reach of human industry.
But on this, as upon many other occasions, we ought to
distinguish how much is to be given to enthusiasm, and how
much to reason. We ought to allow for, and we ought to
commend, that strength of vivid expression which is
necessary to convey, in its full force, the highest sense of
the most complete effect of art; taking care, at the same
time, not to lose in terms of vague admiration that solidity
and truth of principle upon which alone we can reason, and
may be enabled to practise.
It is not easy to define in what this great style consists;
nor to describe, by words, the proper means of acquiring it,
if the mind of the Student should be at all capable of such
an acquisition. Could we teach taste or genius by rules,
they would be no longer taste and genius. But though
there neither are, nor can be, any precise invariable rules
for the exercise, or the acquisition, of these great qualities,
yet we may truly say, that they always operate in proportion
to our attention in observing the works of Nature, to our
skill in selecting, and to our care in digesting, methodising,
and comparing our observations. There are many beauties
in our art that seem, at first, to lie without the reach of
precept, and yet may easily be reduced to practical prin-
ciples. Experience is all in all : but it is not every one who
profits by experience; and most people err, not so much
from want of capacity to find their object, as from not
knowing what object to pursue. This great ideal perfection
and beauty are not to be sought in the heavens, but upon
the earth. They are about us, and upon every side of us.
But the power of discovering what is deformed in Nature,
or, in other words, what is particular and uncommon, can
THE THIRD DISCOURSE.
gloomy amidst the splendour of figurative declamation, and
thinks it hopeless to pursue an object which he supposes
out of the reach of human industry.
But on this, as upon many other occasions, we ought to
distinguish how much is to be given to enthusiasm, and how
much to reason. We ought to allow for, and we ought to
commend, that strength of vivid expression which is
necessary to convey, in its full force, the highest sense of
the most complete effect of art; taking care, at the same
time, not to lose in terms of vague admiration that solidity
and truth of principle upon which alone we can reason, and
may be enabled to practise.
It is not easy to define in what this great style consists;
nor to describe, by words, the proper means of acquiring it,
if the mind of the Student should be at all capable of such
an acquisition. Could we teach taste or genius by rules,
they would be no longer taste and genius. But though
there neither are, nor can be, any precise invariable rules
for the exercise, or the acquisition, of these great qualities,
yet we may truly say, that they always operate in proportion
to our attention in observing the works of Nature, to our
skill in selecting, and to our care in digesting, methodising,
and comparing our observations. There are many beauties
in our art that seem, at first, to lie without the reach of
precept, and yet may easily be reduced to practical prin-
ciples. Experience is all in all : but it is not every one who
profits by experience; and most people err, not so much
from want of capacity to find their object, as from not
knowing what object to pursue. This great ideal perfection
and beauty are not to be sought in the heavens, but upon
the earth. They are about us, and upon every side of us.
But the power of discovering what is deformed in Nature,
or, in other words, what is particular and uncommon, can