Such Pictures as this was, and such as I fear always will be produced by those who work solely from practice or memory, may be a convincing proof of the necessity of the conduct which I have recommended. However, in justice I cannot quit this Painter without adding, that in the former part of his life, when he was in the habit of having recourse to nature, he was not without a considerable degree of merit--enough to make half the Painters of his country his imitators; he had often grace and beauty, and good skill in composition; but I think all under the influence of a bad taste: his imitators are indeed abominable. Those Artists who have quitted the service of nature (whose service, when well understood, is _perfect freedom_), and have put themselves under the direction of I know not what capricious fantastical mistress, who fascinates and overpowers their whole mind, and from whose dominion there are no hopes of their being ever reclaimed (since they appear perfectly satisfied, and not at all conscious of their forlorn situation), like the transformed followers of Comus-- "Not once perceive their foul disfigurement; But boast themselves more comely than before." Methinks, such men, who have found out so short a path, have no reason to complain of the shortness of life, and the extent of art; since life is so much longer than is wanted for their improvement, or, indeed, is necessary for the accomplishment of their idea of perfection. On the contrary, he who recurs to nature, at every recurrence renews his strength. The rules of art he is never likely to forget; they are few and simple; but nature is refined, subtle, and infinitely various, beyond the power and retention of memory; it is necessary, therefore, to have continual recourse to her. In this intercourse there is no end of his improvement; the longer he lives, the nearer he approaches to the true and perfect idea of art. FOOTNOTES: 14: In Ben Jonson's "Catiline" we find this aphorism, with a slight variation:-- "A serpent, ere he comes to be a dragon, Must eat a bat." 15: The addition of _accio_ denotes contempt, or some deformity or imperfection attending the person to whom it is applied. DISCOURSE XIII. _Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the Prizes, December 11, 1786._ ART NOT MERELY IMITATION, BUT UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE IMAGINATION.--IN WHAT MANNER POETRY, PAINTING, ACTING, GARDENING, AND ARCHITECTURE DEPART FROM NATURE.