22.  The greatest of all fools is the proud fool,—­who is at the mercy of every fool he meets.

23.  There is an essential meanness in the wish to get the better of any one.  The only competition worthy, of a wise man is with himself.

24.  He that argues for victory is but a gambler in words, seeking to enrich himself by another’s loss.

25.  Some men make their ignorance the measure of excellence; these are, of course, very fastidious critics; for, knowing little, they can find but little to like.

26.  The Painter who seeks popularity in Art closes the door upon his own genius.

27.  Popular excellence in one age is but the mechanism of what was good in the preceding; in Art, the technic.

28.  Make no man your idol, for the best man must have faults; and his faults will insensibly become yours, in addition to your own.  This is as true in Art as in morals.

29.  A man of genius should not aim at praise, except in the form of sympathy; this assures him of his success, since it meets the feeling which possessed himself.

30.  Originality in Art is the individualizing the Universal; in other words, the impregnating some general truth with the individual mind.

31.  The painter who is content with the praise of the world in respect to what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic,—­for his time, and not for his art.

32. Reputation is but a synonyme of popularity; dependent on suffrage, to be increased or diminished at the will of the voters.  It is the creature, so to speak, of its particular age, or rather of a particular state of society; consequently, dying with that which sustained it.  Hence we can scarcely go over a page of history, that we do not, as in a church-yard, tread upon some buried reputation.  But fame cannot be voted down, having its immediate foundation in the essential.  It is the eternal shadow of excellence, from which it can never be separated; nor is it ever made visible but in the light of an intellect kindred with that of its author.  It is that light which projects the shadow which is seen of the multitude, to be wondered at and reverenced, even while so little comprehended as to be often confounded with the substance,—­the substance being admitted from the shadow, as a matter of faith.  It is the economy of Providence to provide such lights:  like rising and setting stars, they follow each other through successive ages:  and thus the monumental form of Genius stands for ever relieved against its own imperishable shadow.

33.  All excellence of every kind is but variety of truth.  If we wish, then, for something beyond the true, we wish for that which is false.  According to this test, how little truth is there in Art!  Little indeed! but how much is that little to him who feels it!