Our Exhibitions [the Royal Academy] Have... A

In Portraits, The Grace And, We May Add, The Likeness Consists More In Taking The General Air Than In Observing The Exact Similitude Of Every Feature.

What Is A Well-chosen Collection Of Pictures, But Walls Hung Round With Thoughts?

I Am Convinced That This Is The Only Means Of Advancing Science, Of Clearing The Mind From A Confused Heap Of Contradictory Observations, That Do But Perplex And Puzzle The Student, When He Compares Them, Or Misguide Him If He Gives Himself Up To Their Authority; But Bringing Them Under One General Head, Can Alone Give Rest And Satisfaction To An Inquisitive Mind.

He Who Resolves Never To Ransack Any Mind But His Own, Will Be Soon Reduced, From Mere Barrenness, To The Poorest Of All Imitations; He Will Be Obliged To Imitate Himself, And To Repeat What He Has Before Often Repeated.

Our Exhibitions [the Royal Academy] Have... A Mischievous Tendency, By Seducing The Painter To An Ambition Of Pleasing Indiscriminately The Mixed Multitude Of People Who Resort To Them.