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fol. 39v 'Truth not easily Discerned' (Pt II, Sn I, Ch II) (3.145)
5
10
15 Note here . Chinese & Egyptian want of shade. I remember Barry
in his lectures - notices this with surprise . & mentions &c
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fol. 40r 'Truth not easily Discerned' (Pt II, Sn I, Ch II) (3.144-45)
by the tone & warmth of an Italian sky - yet not having traced the
feeling to its source - and supposing themselves impressed by its blueness
they will affirm a blue sky in a painting to be truthful - and reject
the most faithful rendering of all <its> {the} real attributes ^ {of Italy} as cold or
5 dull. And this influence of the imagination over the senses is
most importantly & constantly felt in the perpetual disposition of
mankind to suppose that they see , what they know . <a habit>
Thus if a child be <re>asked to draw the corner of a house - he will
lay down something in the form of the letter T . He has no
10 notion <of> that the two lines of the roof , which he knows to be
level , produce on his eye the impression of a slope . It requires
repeated & close attention before he detects this fact - or will feel
that his lines on his paper are false. So again ^ {because} , we know that
trees are green . {we suppose ourselves . usually to see them so .} and <we>
{a tyro will} affirm a painting of green trees to be
15 more truthful than one which shows them, as they generally are
in nature - detached from the sky in a cool grey. And the deception
which takes place in such broad cases as these - has infinitely greater
influence over our judgment of the more intricate and less tangible
truths of nature. We are constantly supposing that we see what
20 experience only has shown us - or can show us . to have existence -
and painters to the last hour of their lives - fall in some degree
into the error of painting what exists - not what is visible . I shall
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MW