[*†445.] Profit yourself by the counsels of the knowing; {445.} and do not arrogantly disdain to learn the opinion of every man concerning your work. All men are blind as to their own productions, and no man is capable of judging in his own cause. [*†449.] But if you have no knowing friend to assist you with his advice, yet {450.} length of time will never fail; it is but letting some weeks pass over your head, or at least some days, without looking on your work; and that intermission will faithfully discover to you the faults and beauties. Yet suffer not yourself to be carried away by the opinions of the vulgar, who often speak without knowledge; neither give up yourself altogether to them, and abandon wholly your own genius, so as lightly to change that which you have made; for he who has a windy head, and flatters himself with the empty hope of deserving the praise of the common people, (whose opinions are inconsiderate and changeable,) does but injure himself, and pleases no man. [Sidenote: LXIV. Know yourself.] Since every painter paints himself in his own {455.} works, (so much is nature accustomed to produce her own likeness,) it is advantageous to him to know himself; [*†458.] to the end that he may cultivate those talents which make his genius, and not unprofitably lose his time, in endeavouring to gain that, which she has refused {460.} him. As neither fruits have the taste, nor flowers the beauty which is natural to them, when they are transplanted into an unkindly or foreign soil, and are forced to bear before their season, by an artificial heat; so it is in vain for the painter to sweat over his works, in spite of nature and of genius; for without them, it is impossible for him to succeed. [Sidenote: LXV. Perpetually practise, and do easily what you have conceived.] [*†464.] While you meditate on these truths, and observe them diligently, by making necessary reflections on them; let the labour of the hand accompany the study of the brain; let the former second and support the latter; yet without blunting the {465.} sharpness of your genius, and abating of its vigour by too much assiduity. [Sidenote: LXVI. The morning most proper for work.] [*†466.] The morning is the best and most proper part of the day for your business; employ it therefore in the study and exercise of those things which require the greatest pains and application. [Sidenote: LXVII. Every day do something.] [*†468.] Let no day pass over you, without a line. [Sidenote: LXVIII. The passions which are true and natural.] Observe, as you walk the streets, the airs of heads; the natural postures and expressions; which are always {470.} the most free, the less they seem to be observed. [Sidenote: LXIX. Of table-books.]