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fol. 66r [fol. 65v is blank] 'Of Truth of Space … Focus of the Eye' (Pt II, Sn II, Ch IV) (3.324) *
{spectator} <eye> was compelled to go forward into the waste of hills - <it>
could not
<stop on> {<at> hestitate over} the near rocks - nor dabble in the gutters, at
the side of the road .
{<Walk>} <Wander he must> - There - where the sun broke on the far hillside .
he must walk and wander - he could not stop to botanize on the
5 first inches of his <road> path . And the impression of these pictures was always {<&>} great {&} - enduring - a<n>s it was simple & truthful - nothing
that
art has yet produced - <so> {more} completely gave the force & feeling of nature in these particular scenes . <But it was different with Fielding &
Turner> But - unhappily - it seems that Fielding arrived at this result
10 by accident rather than by principle - and that the excellence of these
foregrounds was rather the result of carelessness & haste , (united with
great knowledge of facts) than of the scientific application of the principle
developed <for> {by} Turner . For year after year . he has since devoted more
<time> {attention} <&> and given more decision & form to his nearer objects -
and his
15 pictures have ^ {just} lost as much in truth and sublimity - as they have consumed
additional time Nor has any other artist - except Turner - been bold or
skilful enough ^ {entirely} to convey that mystery & indistinctness into a
foreground
which thy have been accustomed to consider as characteristic of distance -
and in consequence - the<y> foreground not only is felt by the artist to be
20 the most embarrassing & unman<eg[?]>ageable part of his composition - as
every landscape painter will confess - but in ninety nine cases out of a hundred -
it destroys ^ ^ {one half of its} <the> effect <of the picture> - The ^ {best of the} old masters ^ {were} often ^ {obliged to} make <of> it merely
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MW