'To admire on principle, is the only way to imitate without loss of SECOND EDITION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1870 PREFACE. IF, from all that has been written on Painting, the truth could be brought out and presented clear from every ambiguity of language, the student of the present day would stand in little need of further guidance to its true principles. It is not from the want of sound dicta, or because enough has not been given to the world in the way of theory and criticism, that something still remains to be said; but it is because far too much has been written; and because it is the nature of error to be more prolific than truth; and because those points on which the best writers may be mistaken, or what has more frequently happened, those points on which they have been mistaken by inferior minds, have generally become starting-places from which plausible, but unsound, criticism has spread itself out through all the avenues of the popular literature of the day. The Fine Arts are often selected as themes affording opportunities for the display of eloquence and learning; and in apparently profound dissertations accompanied often with much valuable information, theories are not unfrequently advanced utterly adverse to the right |