| § 1. | Public opinion no criterion of excellence, except after long periods of time. | 1 |
| § 2. | And therefore obstinate when once formed. | 4 |
| § 3. | The author's reasons for opposing it in particular instances. | 5 |
| § 4. | But only on points capable of demonstration. | 5 |
| § 5. | The author's partiality to modern works excusable. | 6 |
| § 1. | Distinction between the painter's intellectual power and technical knowledge. | 8 |
| § 2. | Painting, as such, is nothing more than language. | 8 |
| § 3. | "Painter," a term corresponding to "versifier." | 9 |
| § 4. | Example in a painting of E. Landseer's. | 9 |
| § 5. | Difficulty of fixing an exact limit between language and thought. | 9 |
| § 6. | Distinction between decorative and expressive language. | 10 |
| § 7. | Instance in the Dutch and early Italian schools. | 10 |
| § 8. | Yet there are certain ideas belonging to language itself. | 11 |
| § 9. | The definition. | 12 |
| § 1. | What classes of ideas are conveyable by art. | 13 |
| § 2. | Ideas of power vary much in relative dignity. | 13 |
| § 3. | But are received from whatever has been the subject of power. The meaning of the word "excellence." | 14 |
| § 4. | What is necessary to the distinguishing of excellence. | 15 |
| § 5. | The pleasure attendant on conquering difficulties is right. | 16 |
| § 1. | False use of the term "imitation" by many writers on art. | 17 |
| § 2. | Real meaning of the term. | 18 |
| § 3. | What is requisite to the sense of imitation. | 18 |
| § 4. | The pleasure resulting from imitation the most contemptible that can be derived from art. | 19 |
| § 5. | Imitation is only of contemptible subjects. | 19 |
| § 6. | Imitation is contemptible because it is easy. | 20 |
| § 7. | Recapitulation. | 20 |
| § 1. | Meaning of the word "truth" as applied to art. | 21 |
| § 2. | First difference between truth and imitation. | 21 |
| § 3. | Second difference. | 21 |
| § 4. | Third difference. | 22 |
| § 5. | No accurate truths necessary to imitation. | 22 |
| § 6. | Ideas of truth are inconsistent with ideas of imitation. | 24 |
| § 1. | Definition of the term "beautiful." | 26 |
| § 2. | Definition of the term "taste." | 26 |
| § 3. | Distinction between taste and judgment. | 27 |
| § 4. | How far beauty may become intellectual. | 27 |
| § 5. | The high rank and function of ideas of beauty. | 28 |
| § 6. | Meaning of the term "ideal beauty." | 28 |
| § 1. | General meaning of the term. | 29 |
| § 2. | ideas are to be comprehended under it. | 29 |
| § 3. | The exceeding nobility of these ideas. | 30 |
| § 4. | Why no subdivision of so extensive a class is necessary. | 31 |
| § 1. | No necessity for detailed study of ideas of imitation. | 32 |
| § 2. | Nor for separate study of ideas of power. | 32 |
| § 3. | Except under one particular form. | 33 |
| § 4. | There are two modes of receiving ideas of power, commonly inconsistent. | 33 |
| § 5. | First reason of the inconsistency. | 33 |
| § 6. | Second reason for the inconsistency. | 34 |
| § 7. | The sensation of power ought not to be sought in imperfect art. | 34 |
| § 8. | Instances in pictures of modern artists. | 35 |
| § 9. | Connection between ideas of power and modes of execution. | 35 |
| § 1. | Meaning of the term "execution." | 36 |
| § 2. | The first quality of execution is truth. | 36 |
| § 3. | The second, simplicity. | 36 |
| § 4. | The third, mystery. | 37 |
| § 5. | The fourth, inadequacy; and the fifth, decision. | 37 |
| § 6. | The sixth, velocity. | 37 |
| § 7. | Strangeness an illegitimate source of pleasure in execution. | 37 |
| § 8. | Yet even the legitimate sources of pleasure in execution are inconsistent with each other. | 38 |
| § 9. | And fondness for ideas of power leads to the adoption of the lowest. | 39 |
| § 10. | Therefore perilous. | 40 |
| § 11. | Recapitulation. | 40 |
| § 1. | Sublimity is the effect upon the mind of anything above it. | 41 |
| § 2. | Burke's theory of the nature of the sublime incorrect, and why. | 41 |
| § 3. | Danger is sublime, but not the fear of it. | 42 |
| § 4. | The highest beauty is sublime. | 42 |
| § 5. | And generally whatever elevates the mind. | 42 |
| § 6. | The former division of the subject is therefore sufficient. | 42 |
| § 1. | The two great ends of landscape painting are the representation of facts and thoughts. | 44 |
| § 2. | They induce a different choice of material subjects. | 45 |
| § 3. | The first mode of selection apt to produce sameness and repetition. | 45 |
| § 4. | The second necessitating variety. | 45 |
| § 5. | Yet the first is delightful to all. | 46 |
| § 6. | The second only to a few. | 46 |
| § 7. | The first necessary to the second. | 47 |
| § 8. | The exceeding importance of truth. | 48 |
| § 9. | Coldness or want of beauty no sign of truth. | 48 |
| § 10. | How truth may be considered a just criterion of all art. | 48 |
| § 1. | The common self-deception of men with respect to their power of discerning truth. | 50 |
| § 2. | Men usually see little of what is before their eyes. | 51 |
| § 3. | But more or less in proportion to their natural sensibility to what is beautiful. | 52 |
| § 4. | Connected with a perfect state of moral feeling. | 52 |
| § 5. | And of the intellectual powers. | 53 |
| § 6. | How sight depends upon previous knowledge. | 54 |
| § 7. | The difficulty increased by the variety of truths in nature. | 55 |
| § 8. | We recognize objects by their least important attributes. Compare Part I. Sect. I. Chap. 4. | 55 |
| § 1. | Necessity of determining the relative importance of truths. | 58 |
| § 2. | Misapplication of the aphorism: "General truths are more important than particular ones." | 58 |
| § 3. | Falseness of this maxim, taken without explanation. | 59 |
| § 4. | Generality important in the subject, particularity in the predicate. | 59 |
| § 5. | The importance of truths of species is not owing to their generality. | 60 |
| § 6. | All truths valuable as they are characteristic. | 61 |
| § 7. | Otherwise truths of species are valuable, because beautiful. | 61 |
| § 8. | And many truths, valuable if separate, may be objectionable in connection with others. | 62 |
| § 9. | Recapitulation. | 63 |
| § 1. | No accidental violation of nature's principles should be represented. | 64 |
| § 2. | But the cases in which those principles have been strikingly exemplified. | 65 |
| § 3. | Which are comparatively rare. | 65 |
| § 4. | All repetition is blamable. | 65 |
| § 5. | The duty of the painter is the same as that of a preacher. | 66 |
| § 1. | Difference between primary and secondary qualities in bodies. | 67 |
| § 2. | The first are fully characteristic, the second imperfectly so. | 67 |
| § 3. | Color is a secondary quality, therefore less important than form. | 68 |
| § 4. | Color no distinction between objects of the same species. | 68 |
| § 5. | And different in association from what it is alone. | 69 |
| § 6. | It is not certain whether any two people see the same colors in things. | 69 |
| § 7. | Form, considered as an element of landscape, includes light and shade. | 69 |
| § 8. | Importance of light and shade in expressing the character of bodies, and unimportance of color. | 70 |
| § 9. | Recapitulation. | 71 |
| § 1. | The importance of historical truths. | 72 |
| § 2. | Form, as explained by light and shade, the first of all truths. Tone, light, and color, are secondary. | 72 |
| § 3. | And deceptive chiaroscuro the lowest of all. | 73 |
| § 1. | The different selection of facts consequent on the several aims at imitation or at truth. | 74 |
| § 2. | The old masters, as a body, aim only at imitation. | 74 |
| § 3. | What truths they gave. | 75 |
| § 4. | The principles of selection adopted by modern artists. | 76 |
| § 5. | General feeling of Claude, Salvator, and G. Poussin, contrasted with the freedom and vastness of nature. | 77 |
| § 6. | Inadequacy of the landscape of Titian and Tintoret. | 78 |
| § 7. | Causes of its want of influence on subsequent schools. | 79 |
| § 8. | The value of inferior works of art, how to be estimated. | 80 |
| § 9. | Religious landscape of Italy. The admirableness of its completion. | 81 |
| § 10. | Finish, and the want of it, how right—and how wrong. | 82 |
| § 11. | The open skies of the religious schools, how valuable. Mountain drawing of Masaccio. Landscape of the Bellinis and Giorgione. | 84 |
| § 12. | Landscape of Titian and Tintoret. | 86 |
| § 13. | Schools of Florence, Milan, and Bologna. | 88 |
| § 14. | Claude, Salvator, and the Poussins. | 89 |
| § 15. | German and Flemish landscape. | 90 |
| § 16. | The lower Dutch schools. | 92 |
| § 17. | English school, Wilson and Gainsborough. | 93 |
| § 18. | Constable, Callcott. | 94 |
| § 19. | Peculiar tendency of recent landscape. | 95 |
| § 20. | G. Robson, D. Cox. False use of the term "style." | 95 |
| § 21. | Copley Fielding. Phenomena of distant color. | 97 |
| § 22. | Beauty of mountain foreground. | 99 |
| § 23. | De Wint. | 101 |
| § 24. | Influence of Engraving. J. D. Harding. | 101 |
| § 25. | Samuel Prout. Early painting of architecture, how deficient. | 103 |
| § 26. | Effects of age upon buildings, how far desirable. | 104 |
| § 27. | Effects of light, how necessary to the understanding of detail. | 106 |
| § 28. | Architectural painting of Gentile Bellini and Vittor Carpaccio. | 107 |
| § 29. | And of the Venetians generally. | 109 |
| § 30. | Fresco painting of the Venetian exteriors. Canaletto. | 110 |
| § 31. | Expression of the effects of age on Architecture by S. Prout. | 112 |
| § 32. | His excellent composition and color. | 114 |
| § 33. | Modern architectural painting generally. G. Cattermole. | 115 |
| § 34. | The evil in an archæological point of view of misapplied invention, in architectural subject. | 117 |
| § 35. | Works of David Roberts: their fidelity and grace. | 118 |
| § 36. | Clarkson Stanfield. | 121 |
| § 37. | J. M. W. Turner. Force of national feeling in all great painters. | 123 |
| § 38. | Influence of this feeling on the choice of Landscape subject. | 125 |
| § 39. | Its peculiar manifestation in Turner. | 125 |
| § 40. | The domestic subjects of the Liber Studiorum. | 127 |
| § 41. | Turner's painting of French and Swiss landscape. The latter deficient. | 129 |
| § 42. | His rendering of Italian character still less successful. His large compositions how failing. | 130 |
| § 43. | His views of Italy destroyed by brilliancy and redundant quantity. | 133 |
| § 44. | Changes introduced by him in the received system of art. | 133 |
| § 45. | Difficulties of his later manner. Resultant deficiencies. | 134 |
| § 46. | Reflection of his very recent works. | 137 |
| § 47. | Difficulty of demonstration in such subjects. | 139 |