[suggested translation, Marije Osnabrugge:] In observing the Drawings, Sketches and Prints, they should be used with the mind and not with the hand or eye to steal bits and pieces from it, even less to ape it entirely (although this also has its use when it applied well, as we teach in our Teycken-Konst,) {The right use of the Art of Print.} and they will continue to look through the Glasses of someone else. But no, one should aim to only impress the virtues, such as the lovely manner of composition, Drawing, clever thoughts and wise observations in his mind by looking, looking again, reasoning, deliberating and ruminating, and all this by repeatedly thinking about it, preserving; as such they will be turned into your own discoveries by the functioning of your Mind, and not those of someone else: So that they may serve as wise Councilors in the composing, ordering and decorating of your inventions. And this way one will become full of thoughts, quick of composition, mature and abundant of Painterly matter:

[suggested translation, Marije Osnabrugge:] In closing, we now want to talk about the finishing of the draught and the execution, about which it should be remarked with a learned Eye, that one does not simply ape the things that one sees in imitating, Figure after Figure, like Children do; but rather that one pays attention (whether one does something after a Print, Drawing or Painting) to what the Master of the Original wants to say with all that which he has put in his work; what his thoughts were about it; what this or that line, shadow, light or Highlight means, where it comes from, why he has made it dark here and there even darker, flat or light; and by what means, and for what reason, and such observations; to apply all that, following the rule of proportion, in your Drawing, and become learned in the Art. Similarly, one should notice in the observation of the natural life, of what members and parts a thing consists, through which we recognize it and it shows itself to us:

[suggested translation, Marije Osnabrugge:] And as all these things sufficiently prove, that the diversity of Beauty and Gracefulness with regard to the imitation in Painting, is not easily to accommodate in clearly defined rules, which one can then, as with an infallible model could overflow in Art-scenes with loveliness and without any further observation of Life; As such we should note in passing, that a diligent Painter should endeavor with all his might, through a consistent observation of all that he perceives of the human beauty, to imprint that which he deems the most exquisite of it so strongly in his mind, and to make it common to his imagination, that he will be able to depict, without its direct observation, the beauty of a Man in different ways and in distinct steps, so lovely and lively, as if he had Beauty itself before his eyes. {How Beauty has to be imprinted in the thoughts and mind of the Painter.} And he will be able to do this best, when he has not only studied well and carefully which Parts and Elements have been beautifully made, and which Proportion they should have, to depict them with the Draught; but then especially, when with regard to all the previous, will have observed precisely by which Step and coincidence this and other parts unites, lessens or increases the Beauty in this or that object to the whole: