casms of pretension and affectation. But when public taste seems plunging deeper and deeper into degradation day by day, and when the press universally exerts such power as it possesses to direct the feeling of the mation more completely to all that is theatrical, affected, ani bilse i art, while in vents its ball buboneries on the most exalted with and the highest Heal of landsenge, the ths or my cher age has ever witnessed, it becomes the mpeniaze ha of 1 who have any pergegaan on koviekge of vini s really great in art, and lesize or as abament Engind to come fearservich less if such in list ind interests as a la muel bede i velge of what is govi and went vireurs sad lemastrite, wherever ERVAS DE essence mi die arb.nty of the Beautiful

"J'ma var ma*" sem amižons a partid in the execunoa > it genient net so zack on the tenor nes in. 7.teness. I have not enVIC £ de painters of

IN

And I know that an

of truth and beauty,

nch it mar intere ith car estimate of the comparative rack of painters will mvariably tend to in

crease our admiration of all who are really great; and he who now places Stanfield and Callcott above Turner, will admire Stanfield and Calcott more than he does now, when he has learned to place Turner far above them both.

In three instances only have I spoken in direct depreciation of the works of living artists, and these are all cases in which the reputation is so firm and extended, as to suffer little injury from the opinion of an individual, and where the blame has been warranted and deserved by the desecration of the highest powers.

Of the old masters I have spoken with far greater freedom; but let it be remembered that only a portion of the work is now presented to the public, and it must not be supposed, because in that particular portion, and with reference to particular excellencies, I have spoken in constant depreciation, that I have no feeling of other .excellencies of which cognizance can only be taken in future parts of the work. Let me not be understood to mean more than I have said, nor be made responsible for conclusions when I have only stated facts. I have said that the old masters did not give the truth of Nature; if the reader chooses, thence, to infer that they were not masters at all, it is his conclusion, not mine.

Whatever I have asserted throughout the work, I have endeavored to ground altogether on demonstrations which must stand or fall by their own strength, and which ought to involve no more reference to authority or character than a demonstration in Euclid. Yet it is proper for the public to know, that the writer is no mere theorist, but has been devoted from his youth to the laborious study of practical art.

Whatever has been generally affirmed of the old schools of landscape-painting is founded on familiar acquaintance with every important work of art, from Antwerp to Naples. But it would be useless, where

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Ir is allowed by the most able writers on naval and military tactics, that although the attack by successive divisions absolutely requires in the attacking party such an inherent superiority in quality of force, and such consciousness of that superiority, as may enable his front columns, or his leading ships, to support themselves for a considerable period against overwhelming numbers; it yet insures, if maintained with constancy, the most total ruin of the opposing force. Convinced of the truth, and therefore assured of the ultimate prevalence and victory of the principles which I have advocated, and equally confident that the strength of the cause must give weight to the strokes of even the weakest of its defenders, I permitted myself to yield to a somewhat hasty and hotheaded desire of being, at whatever risk, in the thick of the fire, and began the contest with a part, and that the weakest and least considerable part, of the forces at my disposal. And I now find the volume thus boldly laid before the public in a position much resembling that of the Royal Sovereign at Trafalgar, receiving, unsupported, the broadsides of half the enemy's fleet, while unforeseen circumstances have hitherto prevented, and must yet for a time prevent, my heavier ships of the line from taking any part in the action. I watched the first moments of the struggle with some anxiety for the solitary vessel, an anxiety which I have now ceased to feel,

-for the flag of truth waves brightly through the smoke of the battle, and my antagonists, wholly intent on the destruction of the leading ship, have lost their position and exposed themselves in defenceless disorder to the attack of the following columns.

11, however, I have had no reason to regret my hasty avanov, as far as regards the ultimate issue of the strug

I have vet found it to occasion much misconception of the character, and some diminution of the influence, of the present essay. For though the work has been resex as only in sanguine moments I had ventured to toyo ahough I have had the pleasure of knowing that era states its principles have carried with them

of conviction amounting to a demonstration i auch and that, even where it has had no other play vox tỉ has excited interest, suggested inquiry, and prospied to a st and frank comparison of Art with

of this ediet would have been greater still, bad not to work been supposed, as it seems to have boom by phany readers a completed treatise, containing a sastemän ysl st stement of the whole of my views on the subsectot modern art. Considered as such, it surprises me that the book should have received the slightest For what respect could be due to a writer who pretended to criticise and classify the works of the great pamfors of Landscape, without developing, or even alluding to, one single principle of the beautiful or sublime? So far from being a completed essay, it is little more than the introduction to the mass of evidence and illustration which I have yet to bring forward; it treats of nothing but the initiatory steps of art, states nothing but the elementary rules of criticism, touches only on merits attainable by accuracy of eye and fidelity of hand, and leaves for future consideration every one of the eclectic qualities of pictures, all of good that is prompted by feeling, and of great that is guided by judgment;