DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18972#0122
94
THE ELEMENTS OF DKAWING. [letter I,
the most part, the best. Do not get more than
twelve of these plates, nor even all the twelve
at first. For the more engravings you have, the
less attention you will pay to them. It is a ge-
neral truth, that the enjoyment derivable from art
cannot be increased in quantity, beyond a certain
point, by quantity of possession; it is only spread,
as it were, over a larger surface, and very often
dulled by finding ideas repeated in different works.
Now, for a beginner, it is always better that his
attention should be concentrated on one or two good
things, and all his enjoyment founded on them, than
that he should look at many, with divided thoughts.
He has much to discover; and his best way of dis-
covering it is to think long over few things, and
watch them earnestly. It is one of the worst errors
of this age to try to know and to see too much: the
men who seem to know everything, never in reality
know anything rightly. Beware of hand-book know-
ledge.
These engravings are, in general, more for you to
look at than to copy; and they will be of more use
THE ELEMENTS OF DKAWING. [letter I,
the most part, the best. Do not get more than
twelve of these plates, nor even all the twelve
at first. For the more engravings you have, the
less attention you will pay to them. It is a ge-
neral truth, that the enjoyment derivable from art
cannot be increased in quantity, beyond a certain
point, by quantity of possession; it is only spread,
as it were, over a larger surface, and very often
dulled by finding ideas repeated in different works.
Now, for a beginner, it is always better that his
attention should be concentrated on one or two good
things, and all his enjoyment founded on them, than
that he should look at many, with divided thoughts.
He has much to discover; and his best way of dis-
covering it is to think long over few things, and
watch them earnestly. It is one of the worst errors
of this age to try to know and to see too much: the
men who seem to know everything, never in reality
know anything rightly. Beware of hand-book know-
ledge.
These engravings are, in general, more for you to
look at than to copy; and they will be of more use