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On Copying. 
The very confession which young Artists make of their inability to copy is itself an argument in favor of the practice, as it is a confession of deficiency in the faculty of comparison and of skill and patience to accomplish a given task. A Portrait, to be copied, placed at a imitable distance and elevation, stands in the situation of the Original represented, and is to be [strikethrough] understood [/strikethrough] viewed as an object not only of Colour, light and shade, but of proportions, boundaries, outlines, + all its characteristics, as things to be represented by specific touches shades and Colours. 

The most perfect Pictures that can be seen, is the reflection from a Mirror, if the objects reflected are judiciously placed, with the proper light + shade, [[strikethrough]] with every necessary accomplishment of [[/strikethrough]] drapery, background, etc. An Artist who cannot copy this Picture is deficient in the right conception of his Art, and the means which its study affords, and it should be one of the many things he should learn. 

The young student is often led astray by his vanity, instigated by the opinions of ill-informed friends, with false notions of Original genius. If it be irksome to copy, it is because it is irksome to study - whilst an Original effort [[strikethrough]]of[[/strikethrough]] in a new Creation is flattering to the [[strikethrough]]vanity[[/strikethrough]] self esteem of the Artist, and gratifying by its novelty to the spectator, who always wants to see something which he has never seen before. 

The young Painter should alternatively study from Nature and good Pictures; He should paint from Nature, boldly, rapidly, and yet with careful discrimination - and then he should copy either from his own studies, to improve them, or digest their principles;