To return to Teniers (for a moment in passing), I cannot bring to mind one of his pictures which I have seen that could in any way be improved in the composition, added to, or taken from; every accessory tells its own portion of the general story, and this I would once more point out to the composer of a picture, along with a few simple laws which occur to me as I write. The principal object is the first object which rises up before the mind's eye, and fixes the composition when the story is heard or read, therefore the main object to be considered and first set up or drawn in--as the figure of the queen in Orchardson's 'Queen of Swords'; the philosopher nearest us in 'Bacchanalian Philosophers,' by Teniers; the two front figures in Rembrandt's 'Night Watch,' one dark, one light, the dark one put in by Rembrandt first; and the child with its cart even before the lighted-up woman and child who come before 'The Blind Fiddler,' by Wilkie. There is too much in this composition, particularly that group of foreground objects, which bear such evident traces of having been so carefully selected and placed in such a variety of artificial carelessness--watering-pan, cabbage, box and utensils, basin, stool, with little bat, and knife, placed so exactly as they ought to be, like the hills of Borrowdale--all being, after consideration, painty improvements, never dropped upon accidentally and not at all required. You will find nothing of this sort in Rembrandt's pictures, or in Rubens' (lavish though he is), or in Teniers', and seldom in Pettie's or Orchardson's. In Vandyke's you may, or in Wilkie's, because both Vandyke and Wilkie, being Court favourites, permitted their own individuality and good taste to be oftener biassed by the buzzing of the gartered insects about them; yielding to make this or that improvement to suit a foolish patron, until their own gifts became obscured, and their taste perverted to the level of a pair of Court breeches. Rembrandt and Rubens were strong enough men always to lead the fashion, and too strong ever to be led. But the times are changed with us now, so that I do not think there is any danger of Orchardson getting spoilt by good fortune; he is not in any way hurt by it yet, at all events. After we get the first object set up, the others all fall into place to suit that central or main object, and this rule holds with the arranging of light and shadow, as well as form--one minute centre of light round which the half-lights range, and the deepest shadow where you can best afford it. The central form, the central light, is of paramount importance--all the rest are matters of convenience, chance, and discretion. Think less about what you may put in to help your picture than upon what you may keep out, to give it importance and repose.