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4

Inhabitants shall increase, who may be able and willing suitable to reward them; since, from several instances, it appears that our people are not deficient in genius.

Five years earlier, Copley had written to West, as follows 

Your cautioning me against doing anything fancy I take very kind, being sensible of the necessity of attending to nature as the fountain head of all perfection.

BOTH ARTISTS FAILED, IN THEIR LATTER LIVES, TO FOLLOW THE PRECEPT. YET COPLEY WAS AWARE OF THE LIMITATIONS PLACED ON THE PAINTER BY THE NEED FOR OBTAINING THAT LIKENESS OR LIFE-LIKE-NESS WHICH CAUSED WASHINGTON TO BOW TO PEALE'S TWO YOUNG GENTLEMN ON THE STAIRS.

THE AGE WAS NOT, HOWEVER, A SELF-CONSCIOUSLY ANALYTICAL ONE, JUDGED BY PRESENT-DAY ESTHETICS. TRUE, HOGARTH, REYNOLDS AND WEST HAD ISSUED WEIGHTY PRONOUNCEMENTS ON "BEAUTY." BUT MOSTLY THE PAINTERS OF THE TIME WERE CONTENT TO DO THEIR JOB, AND LET THE ESTHETICS FALL WHERE THEY MIGHT. PROBABLY OUR MOST URBANE AMATEUR OF THE ARTS WAS JEFFERSON, A LONG A FRIEND OF PEALE LATE IN LIFE JEFFERSON WROTE HIM THAT THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES WASNOT YET READY TO SUPPORT A MUSEUM OR EDUCATION IN GENERAL — A STATE OF MIND SCARCELY CORRECTED IN OVER A CENTURY!