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• 1 2017-01-11T00:17:10-08:00 The First Discourse 12 3 plain 2017-01-15T22:29:18-08:00
  master of the rudiments. For it may be laid
  down as a maxim, that he who begins by
  presuming on his own sense, has ended his
  studies as soon as he has commenced them.
  Every opportunity, therefore, should be
  taken to discountenance that false and vulgar
  opinion, that rules are the fetters of genius;
  they are fetters only to men of no genius;
  as that armour, which upon the strong is an
  ornament and a defence, upon the weak and
  mis-shapen becomes a load, and cripples the
  body which it was made to protect.
   
  How much liberty may he taken to break
  through those rules, and, as the Poet ex-
  presses it.
   
       To snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,
   
  may be a subsequent consideration, when
  the pupils become masters themselves. It is
  then, when their genius has received its ut-
  most improvement, that rules may possibly
  be dispensed with. But let us not destroy
  the scaffold, until we have raised the
  building.