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Show 514 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. In the productions of the fine arts, w e expect to see the beauties, not the defects, of their great model-Nature, imitated. The more fervid and active the fancy is, the more likely is she to carry us beyond the limits prescribed by reason ; hence arise the defects observable in the performances of m e n endowed with great genius. Reason should be the inseparable companion of the imagination. The desire of producing something new or uncommon frequently begets extravagance and improbability ; and it is this desire that allures artists from the imitation of what is fine in nature, and which has brought on a decline in the fine arts. Good taste is thus injured, and requires some time to recover itself. Even men of genius, fearing to pass for servile imitators, and confiding too much in their own powers, often forget the models of perfection, and produce things monstrous and absurd, which the public applaud because they are novel. Other artists of less talent, following the footsteps of their mistaken predecessors, out-do them in absurdity ; such is the pernicious consequence of a bad precedent; and thus fantastic follies gradually increase, until every thing is distorted, and he who produces the greatest and most surprising deformity, is rewarded with that palm which is due to true merit alone : hence taste is destroyed, and truth, beauty, and sublimity are excluded from works of art. In order to produce any thing excellent, that is to say, a work in which art and genius united have done their best, the instructions of great masters must be strictly observed : study their principles with the mind of a philosopher ; judge for yourself, but do not lose sight of truth and beauty-" decor, splendor boni,-" and strive to merit the praise of m e n of true taste and sound judgment. In this manner works are produced capable of enduring the hand of time. |