"This, and many other opinions which I have ventured to advance, has roused a nest of hornets from whose stings I would wish to guard myself, as I am conscious that they will try to condemn all my works by my own rules. To disappoint these insects I have, in my explanatory prints, done the Antinous, Venus, etc. in a slighter style than the other figures, to show that they are introduced as mere references to the originals; and I will not now attempt to paint my Goddess of Beauty.[53] Who can tell how long the artist was employed in giving such exquisite grace to the Grecian Venus? he might perhaps think that a single super-excellent statue would confer immortality, and was sufficient for a whole life. Can any one expect to see equal perfection in that which is done in little, and in a short space of time? "With respect to beauty, though men felt its effects, yet both artists and others appeared to me to be totally ignorant of its principles, and contented themselves with bestowing undistinguishing praise, and giving us cold and servile copies of the fine models of antiquity, without making any inquiry into the system by which they were produced. The few who wished to learn the principles found themselves so bewildered and confounded by the vague and contradictory opinions which they had heard and read concerning beauty and grace, that they began to suspect the whole to be an illusion, and that neither one nor the other existed except in fancy and imagination. This should excite less surprise, from its having sometimes happened in a matter of an infinitely higher and more important nature; and were it politically right, it is possible that a small octavo might be written, which would start as many folios of theological controversy as would fill Westminster Hall, though the whole put together might be mere lumber, and of no more use than waste paper. But this by the by. To return into my own path, and resume the reasons that induced me to tread it in a new character. In doing this, it will be proper to give a succinct statement of the strange way in which this subject has been treated by preceding writers.