This opinion of the impossibility of acquiring those beauties which

stamp the work with the character of genius, supposes that it is

something more fixed than in reality it is, and that we always do,

and ever did agree, about what should be considered as a

characteristic of genius.

But the truth is that the degree of excellence which proclaims

genius is different in different times and different places; and

what shows it to be so is that mankind have often changed their

opinion upon this matter.

When the arts were in their infancy, the power of merely drawing

the likeness of any object was considered as one of its greatest

efforts.

The common people, ignorant of the principles of art, talk the same

language even to this day. But when it was found that every man

could be taught to do this, and a great deal more, merely by the

observance of certain precepts, the name of genius then shifted its

application, and was given only to those who added the peculiar

character of the object they represented; to those who had

invention, expression, grace, or dignity; or, in short, such

qualities or excellences the producing of which could not then be

taught by any known and promulgated rules.

We are very sure that the beauty of form, the expression of the

passions, the art of composition, even the power of giving a

general air of grandeur to your work, is at present very much under

the dominion of rules. These excellences were, heretofore,

considered merely as the effects of genius; and justly, if genius

is not taken for inspiration, but as the effect of close

observation and experience.

He who first made any of these observations and digested them, so