Some Account xv
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was a great relief to my mind ; and on
inquiring further of other students, I found
that those persons; only who from natural
imbecility appeared to be incapable of
ever relishing those divine performances,
made pretensions to instantaneous raptures on
first beholding them. — In justice to myself,
however, I must add, that though disap-
pointed and mortified at not finding myself
enraptured with the works of this great
master, I did not for a moment conceive
or suppose that the name of Raffaelle, and
those admirable paintings in particular,
owed their reputation to the ignorance and
prejudice of mankind ; on the contrary,
my not relishing them as I was conscious
I ought to have done, was one of the
most humiliating circumstances that ever
happened to me. I found myself in the
midst of works executed upon principles
with which I was unacquainted: I felt my
ignorance, and stood abashed. All the in-
digested notions of painting which I had