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others chosen for the ideas and feelings they are adapted to convey. The difference is like that between poetry and mere musical verse.

It is natural that as excellence in composition declines, it should be replaced by mere ingenuity; but the attention that is now paid to execution in painting, seems to us to have acted also as a cause in degrading the art. Success in that is comparatively so easy - and satisfies so many minds, that the attention of the artist is drawn from the more laborious task of invention. The common course of study too, gives an undue importance to mere skill of hand. It is all that can be taught by a master, and those who study under distinguished artists, are apt to be content with what they learn of them. This is on bad effect, which we attribute to all academies. They can but teach the form and manner of the art, and they attach