The errors of genius, however, are pardonable, and none even of the more
exalted painters are wholly free from them; but they have taught us, by
the rectitude of their general practice, to correct their own affected or
accidental deviation. The very first have not been always upon their
guard, and perhaps there is not a fault but what may take shelter under
the most venerable authorities; yet that style only is perfect in which
the noblest principles are uniformly pursued; and those masters only are
entitled to the first rank in, our estimation who have enlarged the
boundaries of their art, and have raised it to its highest dignity, by
exhibiting the general ideas of nature.

On the whole, it seems to me that there is but one presiding principle
which regulates and gives stability to every art. The works, whether of
poets, painters, moralists, or historians, which are built upon general
nature, live for ever; while those which depend for their existence on
particular customs and habits, a partial view of nature, or the
fluctuation of fashion, can only be coeval with that which first raised
them from obscurity. Present time and future maybe considered as rivals,
and he who solicits the one must expect to be discountenanced by the
other.



A DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy on the Distribution of the
Prizes, December 10, 1772, by the President.


Gentlemen,--I purpose to carry on in this discourse the subject which I
began in my last. It was my wish upon that occasion to incite you to