INTRODUCTION
It is a happy memory that associates the foundation of our Royal
Academy with the delivery of these inaugural discourses by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, on the opening of the schools, and at the first annual meetings
for the distribution of its prizes. They laid down principles of art from
the point of view of a man of genius who had made his power felt, and
with the clear good sense which is the foundation of all work that looks
upward and may hope to live. The truths here expressed concerning Art
may, with slight adjustment of the way of thought, be applied to Literature
or to any exercise of the best powers of mind for shaping the delights that
raise us to the larger sense of life. In his separation of the utterance of
whole truths from insistance upon accidents of detail, Reynolds was right,
because he guarded the expression of his view with careful definitions of
its limits. In the same way Boileau was right, as a critic of Literature, in
demanding everywhere good sense, in condemning the paste brilliants of a
style then in decay, and fixing attention upon the masterly simplicity of
Roman poets in the time of Augustus. Critics by rule of thumb reduced
the principles clearly defined by Boileau to a dull convention, against
which there came in course of time a strong reaction. In like manner the
teaching of Reynolds was applied by dull men to much vague and
conventional generalisation in the name of dignity. Nevertheless,
Reynolds taught essential truths of Art. The principles laid down by him
will never fail to give strength to the right artist, or true guidance towards
the appreciation of good art, though here and there we may not wholly
assent to some passing application of them, where the difference may be
great between a fashion of thought in his time and in ours. A righteous
enforcement of exact truth in our day has led many into a readiness to
appreciate more really the minute imitation of a satin dress, or a red
herring, than the noblest figure in the best of Raffaelle\'s cartoons. Much
good should come of the diffusion of this wise little book.