Excerpt from The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters and Sculptors, Vol. 5 of 5<br><br>MY undertaking is now concluded, and I have the agreeable duty of thanking my friends for their aid, the public for its kindness, and critics for much mildness and forbearance. I at first imagined that three volumes, or at most four, would hold all I had to say but as the work ad vanced, new sources of intelligence were Opened. What was intended for a sketch took a more im portant form, and I soon perceived that I required more room, and greater fulness, both of narration and remark. The deaths, too, of such men as Lawrence and Jackson obliged me to extend my plan nor am I sure that I have yet admitted all artists of merit and genius into my volumes.<br><br>In tracing the lives and delineating the charac ters of the chief men of our native school of art, I have endeavoured to be scrupulously impartial it was my wish to speak warmly of merits and can didly of faults, and in no way to sacrifice my own opinion in matters either of taste or conduct. Yet.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.