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I.]
Introductory.
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instant and therefore simultaneous response of every member to the calls made upon them for action by the dominant will,—the life,—which pervades them all. Art, as a reflex of intelligence, has a vitality of her own, endangered if any of her various members are long neglected, or suffered to decay or mortify through injury or misuse. As human life can only be sustained by constant nourishment, so must the life of Art be kept up by an incessant supply of art-making food. As the tree withers which is not constantly watered and manured, either by man's or heaven's ministrations, so we may never hope to repose under the goodly shadow of the far-stretching branches of the tree of art planted in the midst of us; or to gather its refreshing and abundant fruits, unless we tend it heedfully, not in its leaves, and in its twigs, not in its buds and in its blossoms only, but in its stem and in its roots, in its soil, and in its nurture, in its planting, its grafting, and, if need be, its pruning. Think of the end and heed no trouble. Work even in a good cause may be hard at first, but ultimately a true solace and enjoyment. "The labour we delight in physics pain."

Time warns me to dwell no longer upon the tempting theme of "how art should be studied," a subject which might very fitly demand a whole Lecture to itself; but I must pass on rapidly to urge upon you the necessity of losing no opportunity for the cultivation of your taste, and a concurrent training of the eye to appreciate noble works of art; to which I would, if possible, desire to add the acquisition of a power to delineate what you see, with correctness, if not artistic grace. Train, and do not waste, the powers with which nature may have endowed you with liberality. Such education must be both mechanical and intellectual to have any value. Keep a just balance between the head and the hand. Remember, as Shakspeare tells us, "Men's eyes were made to look;" and as man must both look, and by labour and the sweat of his brow earn his title to existence, it may be profitable,