58. All apparatus destroys terror, as all ornament grandeur: the minute
catalogue of the cauldron's ingredients in Macbeth destroys the terror
attendant on mysterious darkness; and the seraglio-trappings of Rubens
annihilate his heroes.
59. All conceits, not founded upon probable combinations of nature, are
absurd. The _capricci_ of Salvator Rosa, and of his imitators, are, to
the fiends of Michael Angelo, what the paroxysms of a fever are to the
sallies of vigorous fancy.
60. Distinguish carefully between bold fancy and a daring hand; between
the powers of nature and the acquisitions of practice: most of
Salvator's banditti are a medley made up of starveling models and the
shreds of his lumber-room brushed into notice by a daring pencil.
61. Distinguish between boldness and brutality of hand, between the face
of beauty and _the bark of a tree_.