The necessary modification

If there was at one time within our memory some fear of artificiality in art, the danger now lies in [a] literalism which assumes a copy of nature to be not only art, but the highest form of art (...)

It is [the artist's] misfortune (more so nowadays than ever it was) that it is extremely difficult for him to make up his mind precisely as to the relation of art to nature. (...)

The actual thing is not malleable enough for his purpose, whereas an impression or a memory of it accommodates itself in the most surprising manner to the conditions of the case, and the necessary modification occurs as though it were a matter of course.

Lewis F. Day, Nature in Ornament (1898)

It feels like almost a lie (although it is not) that I didn't realize these were dated exactly a year apart (11/09/12, 11/09/13) until after I wrote this post and made it public. It would, however, be disingenuous to pretend I don't edit my posts as a matter of course.