opportunity, it will be proper afterwards to attend discussions and lectures on anatomy.

He should also use every possible opportunity of making observations on the actions of the muscles in nature.

Being thus thoroughly prepared, he will be enabled to draw the human figure with great advantage, and he will make a more rapid progress than he could have done without these previous studies.

Symmetry, or proportion, will be best learned by copying after the antique statues, of which plaster casts may be easily procured. Nature, which in the formation of every species seems to have aimed at the last degree of perfection, does not appear to have been equally solicitous in the production of individuals. Parts of individuals are frequently as beautiful as possible, but a complete whole is never to be met with.

The practice of the ancient Greek statuaries was to select from various individuals the most beautiful parts, and by combining them to produce figures more perfectly beautiful than nature ever presented.

Till the student has thus imbibed a proper relish for beautiful proportions, and been well grounded in their principles, he should not proceed to draw from living models.

In drawing from plaster casts, a good deal depends upon choosing a proper view, and placing the model properly with regard to the light, which should always come in obliquely from above, as it generally does in the daytime. If a candle be used, it should be so high as to cast the light downwards upon the model. The light should only come from one part, as cross lights will distract and spoil the shadows.

After the student has with indefatigable labour and persevering zeal gone through all these studies, and acquired a facility of drawing the human figure in every possible situation, and under every variety of form and circumstance, a great deal remains for him still to do, before he can be considered as an artist. He has as yet conquered only the mechanical difficulties; but his mind must be cultivated, and he has all the higher and more refined parts of his art to study.

It is the business and duty of the naturalist and historian to draw objects as they find them, and represent them with all those imperfections and blemishes to which, as individuals, they are subject. But an ideal painter, and such alone is a true painter, resembles the poet; his creative fancy soars above common nature, and he represents objects endued with all that perfection which belongs to the species, but which is rarely found in the individual.

A good choice of subjects for the exercise of his pencil is now to be considered. For this purpose, he should enrich his mind with a great variety of knowledge: historians and poets should be his constant companions; and he should make himself acquainted with the customs and manners of an-' cient as well as modern nations.

His invention should now be continually exercised, and free scope should be given to the wildest sallies of his imagination, which, however, should never exceed the bounds of probability.

"It is indisputably evident," says Sir J. Reynolds, "that a great part of every man's life must be employed in collecting materials for the exercise of genius. Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images

which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory. Nothing can come of nothing; he who has laid up no materials, can produce no combination.

"He should study the works of former artists, learn what subjects they have painted, and how they have treated them. A student unacquainted with the attempts of former adventurers, is always apt to over-rate his own abilities, to mistake the most trifling excursions for discoveries of moment, and every coast new to him, for a newly-discovered. country.

"On whom, however, can he rely, or who shall show him the path that leads to excellence? The answer is obvious: those great masters who have travelled the same road with success are the most likely to conduct others. The works of those who have stood the test of ages, have a claim to that respect and veneration to which no modern can pretend. The duration and stability of their fame. is sufficient to evince that it has not been suspended upon the slender thread of fashion and caprice, but bound to the human heart by every tie of sympathetic approbation.

"But though these masters should be studied, they should not be servilely followed. The student, instead of treading in their footsteps, should only keep the same road. He should endeavour to invent on their principles and way of thinking; he should possess himself with their spirit; he should consider how they would treat his subject, and should work himself into a belief that they are to see and criticise his picture when completed. Every attempt of this kind will rouse his powers.

Whenever a story is related, every man forms a picture in his mind of the action and the expression.

of the persons employed. The power of representing this mental picture on canvass is what we call invention in a painter.

In the conception of this ideal picture, all the little circumstances should be contrived in such a manner, that they shall strike the spectator no more than they did himself in his conception of the story. Thus there must be a principal object, which should receive the principal mass of light; and though a second and third group may be added, and a second and third mass of light, yet they should be all kept so subordinate, that they do not come in competition with the principal.

In the design or composition of a picture, simplicity is of the first importance. The story should be distinctly told, and nothing should be introduced but what is absolutely necessary.

Among the most difficult and important of the higher branches of the art, is the expressions of the passions.

It is not enough for a painter to delineate the most exquisite forms, give them the most graceful attitudes, and compose them well together; he must express by their actions and countenances the state of their minds; they must appear to feel and to think.

Many have written, and among the rest the famous Le Brun, on the various changes that, according to various passions, happen in the muscles of the face. They observe, for example, that in fits of anger, the face reddens, the muscles of the lips puff out, the eyes sparkle; and that, on the contrary, in fits of melancholy, the eyes grow motionless and dead, the face pale, and the lips sink in. It may be of service to a painter to read them

and such other remarks; but it will be of infinitely more service to study them in nature itself, from which they have been borrowed, and who exhibits them in that lively manner which neither tongue nor pen can express.

The colouring must be regulated by the same general principles as the composition. Gaudiness and glare ought to be studiously avoided, and a quietness and simplicity should reign through the whole work. In landscapes, distinct and unbroken colours, such as green, red, &c. are seldom or ever admissible; the tints should be always varied and broken. But in historical subjects frequently, distinct colours are employed, but they must be placed with respect to each other, so that the effect of the whole be harmonious.

The art of disposing the drapery makes a very considerable part of the painter's study. To make it merely natural is a mechanical operation, to which neither genius nor taste are required; whereas, it requires the nicest judgment to dispose the drapery, so that the folds have an easy communication, and gracefully follow each other with such natural negligence, as to look like the effect of chance, and at the same time show the figure under it to the utmost advantage.

In the higher style of painting, the difference in the materials of which the drapery is composed, that is, whether it is silk, linen, woollen, &c. is never remarked; it is simply drapery, and nothing

more.

We have now treated, as fully as our limits will permit, of the various excellencies necessary to be acquired by an artist. It will be easily perceived, that to accomplish all these objects is by no means