There can be no doubt but the art is better learnt from the works
themselves than from the precepts which are formed upon these works; but
if it is difficult to choose proper models for imitation, it requires no
less circumspection to separate and distinguish what in those models we
ought to imitate.

I cannot avoid mentioning here, though it is not my intention at present
to enter into the art and method of study, an error which students are
too apt to fall into.

He that is forming himself must look with great caution and wariness on
those peculiarities, or prominent parts, which at first force themselves
upon view, and are the marks, or what is commonly called the manner, by
which that individual artist is distinguished.

Peculiar marks I hold to be generally, if not always, defects, however
difficult it may be, wholly to escape them.

Peculiarities in the works of art are like those in the human figure; it
is by them that we are cognisable and distinguished one from another, but
they are always so many blemishes, which, however, both in the one case
and in the other, cease to appear deformities to those who have them
continually before their eyes. In the works of art, even the most
enlightened mind, when warmed by beauties of the highest kind, will by
degrees find a repugnance within him to acknowledge any defects; nay, his
enthusiasm will carry him so far as to transform them into beauties and
objects of imitation.

It must be acknowledged that a peculiarity of style, either from its
novelty, or by seeming to proceed from a peculiar turn of mind, often