PAGE § 24.. And of the universal presence of it in those of Turner. The conclusions which may be arrived at from it.. 359 § 25. The multiplication of objects, or increase of their size, will not give the impression of infinity, but is the resource of novices 359 § 26. Farther instances of infinity in the gray skies of Turner 360 § 27. The excellence of the cloud-drawing of Stanfield..... 361 § 28. The average standing of the English school....... CHAPTER IV.-OF TRUTH OF CLOUDS :-THIRDLY, OF THE 361 § 1. The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity 363 § 2. Their marked difference in color ... 363 3. And in definiteness of form.. 364 § 4. They are subject to precisely the same great laws.. § 5. Value, to the painter, of the rain-cloud.......... 365 366 § 6. The old masters have not left a single instance of the painting of the rain-cloud, and very few efforts at it. Gaspar Poussin's storms 367 § 7. The great power of the moderns in this respect. § 8. Works of Copley Fielding.. 368 368 § 9. His peculiar truth ..... 368 § 10. His weakness and its probable cause 369 § 11. Impossibility of reasoning on the rain-clouds of Turner from engravings.... 370 § 12. His rendering of Fielding's particular moment in the Jumieges 371 § 13. Illustration of the nature of clouds in the opposed forms of smoke and steam.... 371 § 14. Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony 372 § 15. And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning 373 § 16. The drawing of transparent vapor in the Land's End 374 17. The individual character of its parts.... 375 § 18. Deep studied form of swift rain-cloud in the Coventry § 21. Especially by contrast with a passage of extreme repose 377 § 22. The truth of this particular passage. Perfectly pure 377 blue sky only seen after rain, and how seen 23. Absence of this effect in the works of the old masters 378 § 24. Success of our water-color artists in its rendering. PAGE 379 25. Expression of near rain-cloud in the Gosport, and other 379 § 26. Contrasted with Gaspar Poussin's rain-cloud in the 380 § 27. Turner's power of rendering mist.... 380 § 28. His effects of mist so perfect, that if not at once un derstood, they can no more be explained or reasoned 381 § 29. Various instances.. 382 $30. Turner's more violent effects of tempest are never ren- 382 § 31. General system of landscape engraving.. 382 § 32. The storm in the Stonehenge .... 383 §33. General character of such effects as given by Turner. His expression of falling rain.......... 384 § 34. Recapitulation of the section ... 384 35. Sketch of a few of the skies of nature, taken as a § 1. Reasons for merely, at present, naming, without examining the particular effects of light rendered by Tur ner...... 389 § 2. Hopes of the author for assistance in the future investi. gation of them 389 MODERN PAINTERS. PART I. OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES. SECTION I. OF THE NATURE OF THE IDEAS CONVEYABLE BY ART. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. §1. Public opinion no criterion of excellence, except after long periods IF it be true, and it can scarcely be disputed, that nothing has been for centuries consecrated by public admiration, without possessing in a high degree some kind of sterling excellence, it is not because the average intellect and feeling of the majority of the public are competent in any way to distinguish what is really excellent, but because all erroneous opinion is inconsistent, and all ungrounded opinion transitory; so that while the fancies and feelings which deny deserved honor and award what is undue have neither root nor strength sufficient to maintain consistent testimony for a length of time, the opinions formed on right grounds by those few who are in reality competent judges, being necessarily stable, communicate themselves gradually from mind to of time. mind, descending lower as they extend wider, until they leaven the whole lump, and rule by absolute authority, even where the grounds and reasons for them cannot be understood. On this gradual victory of what is consistent over what is vacillating, depends the reputation of all that is highest in art and literature. For it is an insult to what is really great in either, to suppose that it in any way addresses itself to mean or uncultivated faculties. It is a matter of the simplest demonstration, that no man can be really appreciated but by his equal or superior. His inferior may over-estimate him in enthusi asm; or, as is more commonly the case, degrade him, in ignorance; but he cannot form a grounded and just estimate. Without proving this, however-which it would take more space to do than I can spare-it is sufficiently evident that there is no process of amalgamation by which opinions, wrong individually, can become right merely by their multitude.* If I stand by a picture in the Academy, and hear twenty persons in succession admiring some paltry piece of mechanism or imitation in the lining of a cloak, or the satin of a slipper, it is absurd to tell me that they reprobate collectively what they admire individually: or, if they pass with apathy by a piece of the most noble conception or most perfect truth, because it has in it no tricks of the brush nor grimace of expression, it is absurd to tell me that they collectively respect what they separately scorn, or that the feelings and knowledge of such judges, by any length of time or comparison of ideas, could come to any right conclusion with respect to what is really high in art. The question is not de *The opinion of a majority is right only when it is more probable with each individual that he should be right than that he should be wrong, as in the case of a jury. Where it is more probable, with respect to each individual, that he should be wrong than right, the opinion of the minority is the true one. Thus it is in art. |