II - AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER, BEING “NOTES ON A PAINTER'S PROFESSION AS ENDING IRRELIGIOUSLY”

Summary

[This chapter, as it now stands, is much later in date than the second volume of Modern Painters, for it refers to the fourth volume of that book, and also to the Stones of Venice (see § 11). It appears, however, to be a contribution to the discussion of questions raised in the second volume (sec. i. ch. xv. § 5, p. 210), and there reserved for subsequent treatment. The additional chapter is, therefore, appropriate in this place, and its inclusion here is convenient owing to the greater thickness of the later volumes. The MS. from which it is printed is described above, p. 383. The paragraphs are here numbered for convenience of reference.]

1. The first point which I would wish the reader to mark in this review is the inseparable connection of beauty with truth. We have seen that exactly in proportion as painters thirsted for truth, and were stern, laborious, undivided, and untempted in the pursuit of it—just in that proportion their sense of beauty was quickened, and their power over it confirmed. We have also seen that all beauty is typical of divine attributes, and of moral principles: it might therefore seem that no eagerness in its pursuit was blameable.

But here we are met by grave facts and difficult questions. It is, indeed, simply to be stated, and easily comprehended, that when the truth is sought first and beauty afterwards, all is wrong: when vice versâ, all is right.