They bedazzle one another
with cross lights. There never should be more than one picture in a
room, nor more than one picture to be studied in one day. Galleries of
pictures are surely the greatest absurdities that ever were contrived,
there being no excuse for them, except that it is the only way in which
pictures can be made generally available and accessible.
We went first into the Gallery of British Painters, where there were
hundreds of pictures, every one of which would have interested me by
itself; but I could not fix nay mind on one more than another, so I
wandered about, to get a general idea of the Exhibition. Truly it is
very fine; truly, also, every great show is a kind of humbug. I doubt
whether there were half a dozen people there who got the kind of
enjoyment that it was intended to create,--very respectable people they
seemed to be, and very well behaved, but all skimming the surface, as I
did, and none of them so feeding on what was beautiful as to digest it,
and make it a part of themselves. Such a quantity of objects must be
utterly rejected before you can get any real profit from one! It seemed
like throwing away time to look twice even at whatever was most precious;
and it was dreary to think of not fully enjoying this collection, the
very flower of Time, which never bloomed before, and never, by any
possibility, can bloom again. Viewed hastily, moreover, it is somewhat
sad to think that mankind, after centuries of cultivation of the
beautiful arts, can produce no more splendid spectacle than this.
Pages:
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779