He was defrauded of much which the savage boy
enjoys. Indeed, he himself has occasion to say in this very
autobiography, when at last he escapes into the woods without the
gates: "Thus much is certain, that only the undefinable,
wide-expanding feelings of youth and of uncultivated nations are
adapted to the sublime, which, whenever it may be excited in us
through external objects, since it is either formless, or else
moulded into forms which are incomprehensible, must surround us
with a grandeur which we find above our reach." He further says
of himself: "I had lived among painters from my childhood, and
had accustomed myself to look at objects, as they did, with
reference to art." And this was his practice to the last. He
was even too _well-bred_ to be thoroughly bred. He says that he
had had no intercourse with the lowest class of his towns-boys.
The child should have the advantage of ignorance as well as of
knowledge, and is fortunate if he gets his share of neglect and
exposure.
"The laws of Nature break the rules of Art.
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