1 PRIDE OF SCIENCE II . ROMAN RENAISSANCE 43

artist has been annihilated, and the days which should haveled us to higher perfection are passed in guessing at, or inmourning over, lost processes; while the so-called Darkages, possessing no more knowledge of chemistry thana village herbalist does now, discovered, established, andput into daily practice such methods of operation as havemade their work, at this day, the despair of all who lookupon it.

§ 16. And yet even this, to the painter, the safest ofsciences, and in some degree necessary, has its temptations,and capabilities of abuse. For the simplest means arealways enough for a great man; and when once he hasobtained a few ordinary colours which he is sure will stand,and a white surface that will not darken, nor moulder, norrend, he is master of the world, and of his fellow-men.And, indeed, as if in these times we were bent on furnish-ing examples of every species of opposite error, while wehave suffered the traditions to escape us of the simplemethods of doing simple things, which are enough for allthe arts, and to all the ages, we have set ourselves todiscover fantastic modes of doing fantastic things,—newmixtures and manipulations of metal, and porcelain, andleather, and paper, and every conceivable condition of falsesubstance and cheap work, to our own infinitely multipliedconfusion—blinding ourselves daily more and more to thegreat, changeless, and inevitable truth, that there is butone goodness in art: and that is one which the chemistcannot prepare, nor the merchant cheapen, for it comesonly of a rare human hand, and rare human soul.

§ 1 7 - Within its due limits, however, here is one branchof science which the artist may pursue; and within limitsstill more strict, another also, namely, the science of theappearances of things as they have been ascertained andregistered by his fellow-men. For no day passes butsome visible fact is pointed out to us by others, which,without their help, we should not have noticed; and theaccumulation and generalization of visible facts have formed,in the succession of ages, the sciences of light and shade,and perspective, linear and aerial: so that the artist is nowat once put in possession of certain truths respecting the