85 
Mr. West, after a few general observations on 
the necessary union between moral conduct and 
good taste, adverts to the alleged influence 
which such institutions as the Royal Academy 
have in producing mannerism in the students, 
than which nothing can be more obnoxious to 
the progress of refined art. " But," said he, 
" while I am urging the advantage of freedom 
and natnre in study to genius, let me not be 
misunderstood. 
There is no untruth in the idea, 
that great wits' are allied to great eccentricity. 
Genius is apt to run wild if not brought under 
some regulation. It is a. flood whose current 
will be dangerous if it is not kept within 
proper banks. But it is one thing to regulate 
its impetuosity-, and another very different 
to direct its natural courses.  In every 
branch 
of 
there 
art 
are 
certain 
laws 
by which 
genius may be chastened; but the corrections 
gained by attention to these laws amputate 
nothing that is legitimate, pure, and elegant. 
Leaving these graces untouched, the schools of 
art have dominion enough in curbing what is 
absurd. 
and 
irregular, 
wild,