Perhaps, however, the distinction between
keeping true to nature and servilely copying any one specimen of it is
not always clearly apprehended. It is indeed true, both of the writer
and of the painter, that he can use only such lineaments as exist, and as
he has observed to exist, in living objects; otherwise he would produce
monsters instead of human beings; but in both it is the office of high
art to mould these features into new combinations, and to place them in
the attitudes, and impart to them the expressions which may suit the
purposes of the artist; so that they are nature, but not exactly the same
nature which had come before his eyes; just as honey can be obtained only
from the natural flowers which the bee has sucked; yet it is not a
reproduction of the odour or flavour of any particular flower, but
becomes something different when it has gone through the process of
transformation which that little insect is able to effect. Hence, in the
case of painters, arises the superiority of original compositions over
portrait painting. Reynolds was exercising a higher faculty when he
designed Comedy and Tragedy contending for Garrick, than when he merely
took a likeness of that actor.
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