_Spectator._--Well said, my friend. I have often made similar reflections upon pictures, the drama, and other species of poetry, and had an instinct of those things you require. I will in future give more heed both to myself and to works of art. But if I am not mistaken, we have left the subject of our dispute quite behind. You wished to persuade me that the painted spectators at our opera are admissible, and I do not yet see, though we have come to an agreement, by what arguments you mean to support this license, and under what rubric I am to admit these painted lookers-on. _Agent._--Fortunately, the opera is repeated to-night; I trust you will not miss it. _Spectator._--On no account. _Agent._--And the painted men? _Spectator._--Shall not drive me away, for I think myself something more than a sparrow. _Agent._--I hope that a mutual interest may soon bring us together again. SIMPLE IMITATION OF NATURE, MANNER, STYLE (1789) It does not seem to be superfluous to define clearly the meaning we attach to these words, which we shall often have occasion to make use of. For, however long we may have been in the habit of using them, and however they may seem to have been defined in theoretical works, still every one continues to use them in a way of his own, and means more or less by them, according to the degree of clearness or uncertainty with which he has seized the ideas they express. _Simple Imitation of Nature_ If an artist, in whom we must of course suppose a natural talent, is in the first stage of progress, and after having in some measure practised eye and hand, turns to natural objects, uses all care and fidelity in the most perfect imitation of their forms and colors, never knowingly departs from nature, begins and ends in her presence every picture that he undertakes,--such an artist must possess high merit, for he cannot fail of attaining the greatest accuracy, and his work must be full of certainty, variety and strength. If these conditions are clearly considered, it will be easily seen that a capable but limited talent can in this way treat agreeable but limited subjects. Such subjects must always be easy to find. Leisurely observation and quiet imitation must be allowed for; the disposition that occupies itself in such works must be a quiet one, self-contained, and satisfied with moderate gratification. This sort of imitation will thus be practised by men of quiet, true, limited nature, in the representation of dead or still-life subjects. It does not by its nature exclude a high degree of perfection. _Manner_