A great operator
told me that his hand could check itself within about the two-hundredth
of an inch, in penetrating a membrane; and this, of course, without the
help of sight, by sensation only. With help of sight, and in action on a
substance which does not quiver or yield, a fine artist's line is
measurable in its proposed direction to considerably less than the
thousandth of an inch.
A wide freedom, truly!
147. The conditions of popular art which most foster the common ideas
about freedom, are merely results of irregularly energetic effort by men
imperfectly educated; these conditions being variously mingled with
cruder mannerisms resulting from timidity, or actual imperfection of
body. Northern hands and eyes are, of course, never so subtle as
Southern; and in very cold countries, artistic execution is palsied. The
effort to break through this timidity, or to refine the bluntness, may
lead to a licentious impetuosity, or an ostentatious minuteness. Every
man's manner has this kind of relation to some defect in his physical
powers or modes of thought; so that in the greatest work there is no
manner visible.
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