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and have carried many to attempt essays of 
research and learning, before they were well 
grounded in the principles of professional prac- 
tice. What other consequences can follow from 
such a course, but that the student will turn in. 
discontent from his own productions, because 
they fall short of the ideas in his mind; and in- 
duce him, perhaps, to abandon, with disgust, a 
profession in which he might have shone with 
distinction, had he taken a right method of cul- 
tivating his own powers! 
" The great masters were all at an early age 
great in the mechanical department of their art, 
before they established any name by their phi- 
losophical style and character. Michael Angelo, 
when a mere youth, modelled and drew in a 
manner which astonished his own master. 
Raphael, at not more than nineteen years of 
age, rivalled, his instructor, Pietro Perugino, in 
his executive. talent; and, owing to this, he was 
enabled, at the age of only twenty-five, to send 
-forth his two great works, the Dispute on the 
Sacrament, and the School Qf Athens. Guido, 
Bernini, and many others of the first class, pur- 
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