Aphorisms.

Sentences Written by Mr. Allston on the Walls of His Studio.

1.  “No genuine work of Art ever was, or ever can be, produced but for its own sake; if the painter does not conceive to please himself, he will not finish to please the world.”—­FUSELI.

2.  If an Artist love his Art for its own sake, he will delight in excellence wherever he meets it, as well in the work of another as in his own.  This is the test of a true love.

3.  Nor is this genuine love compatible with a craving for distinction; where the latter predominates, it is sure to betray itself before contemporary excellence, either by silence, or (as a bribe to the conscience) by a modicum of praise.

The enthusiasm of a mind so influenced is confined to itself.

4.  Distinction is the consequence, never the object, of a great mind.

5.  The love of gain never made a Painter; but it has marred many.

6.  The most common disguise of Envy is in the praise of what is subordinate.

7.  Selfishness in Art, as in other things, is sensibility kept at home.

8.  The Devil’s heartiest laugh is at a detracting witticism.  Hence the phrase “devilish good” has sometimes a literal meaning.

9.  The most intangible, and therefore the worst, kind of lie is a half truth.  This is the peculiar device of a conscientious detractor.

10.  Reverence is an ennobling sentiment; it is felt to be degrading only by the vulgar mind, which would escape the sense of its own littleness by elevating itself into an antagonist of what is above it.  He that has no pleasure in looking up is not fit so much as to look down.  Of such minds are mannerists in Art; in the world, tyrants of all sorts.

11.  No right judgment can ever be formed on any subject having a moral or intellectual bearing without benevolence; for so strong is man’s natural self-bias, that, without this restraining principle, he insensibly becomes a competitor in all such cases presented to his mind; and, when the comparison is thus made personal, unless the odds be immeasurably against him, his decision will rarely be impartial.  In other words, no one can see any thing as it really is through the misty spectacles of self-love.  We must wish well to another in order to do him justice.  Now the virtue in this good-will is not to blind us to his faults, but to our own rival and interposing merits.

12.  In the same degree that we overrate ourselves, we shall underrate others; for injustice allowed at home is not likely to be corrected abroad.  Never, therefore, expect justice from a vain man; if he has the negative magnanimity not to disparage you, it is the most you can expect.

13.  The Phrenologists are right in placing the organ of self-love in the back of the head, it being there where a vain man carries his intellectual light; the consequence of which is, that every man he approaches is obscured by his own shadow.