provement.

He that imitates the Iliad,

the

says Dr. Young, is not imitating Homer. It is not by laying up in the memory particular details of any of the great works of art, that any man becomes a great artist, if he stops without making himself master of the general principles on which these works are conducted. If he even hopes to rival those whom he admires, he must consider their works as the means of teaching him the true art of seeing nature. When this is acquired, he then may be said to have appropriated their powers, or at least the foundation of their powers, to himself; the rest must depend upon his own industry and application. The great business of study is, to form a mind, adapted and adequate to all times and all occasions; to which all nature is then laid open, and which may be said to possess the key of her inexhaustible riches.

DISCOURSE XII.

DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF

THE ROYAL ACADEMY,

ON THE

DISTRIBUTION OF THE PRIZES,

DECEMBER 10. 1784.

DISCOURSE XII.

PARTICULAR

METHODS OF STUDY OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE. LITTLE OF THE ART CAN BE TAUGHT. LOVE OF METHOD OFTEN A LOVE OF IDLENESS. PITTORI IMPROVVISATORI APT TO BE CARELESS AND ORIGINAL AND STRIKING.

INCORRECT; SELDOM

THIS PROCEEDS FROM THEIR NOT STUDYING THE WORKS OF OTHER MASTERS.

IN

GENTLEMEN,

consequence of the situation in which I have the honour to be placed in this Academy, it has often happened, that I have been consulted by the young Students who intend to spend some years in Italy, concerning the method of regulating their studies. I am, as I ought to be, solicitously desirous to communicate the entire result of my experience and observation; and though my openness and facility in giving my opinions might make some amends for whatever was defective in them, yet I fear my answers have not often given satisfac

tion. Indeed I have never been sure, that I understood perfectly what they meant, and was not without some suspicion that they had not themselves very distinct ideas of the object of their inquiry.

If the information required was, by what means the path that leads to excellence could be discovered; if they wished to know whom they were to take for their guides; what to adhere to, and what to avoid; where they were to bait, and where they were to take up their rest; what was to be tasted only, and what should be their diet; such general directions are certainly proper for a Student to ask, and for me, to the best of my capacity, to give; but these rules have been already given: they have, in reality, been the subject of almost all my Discourses from this place. But I am rather inclined to think, that by method of study, it was meant, (as several do mean,) that the times and the seasons should be prescribed, and the order settled, in which every thing was to be done: that it might be useful to point out to what degree of excellence one part of the Art was to be carried, before