a complex sentence

[NewHope]

To find excellences however dispersed, to discover beauties however concealed by the multitude of defects with which they are surrounded, can be the work only of him who, having a mind always alive to his art, has extended his views to all ages and to all schools, and has acquired from that comprehensive mass which he has thus gathered to himself, a well digested and perfect idea of his art, to which everything is referred.

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Regarding "and has acquired from that comprehensive mass which he has thus gathered to himself, a well digested and perfect idea of his art, to which everything is referred."

Does it mean:

1) and has acquired a well digested and perfect idea of his art;
2) (where he got the idea from? It is from that comprehensive mass which he has thus gathered to himself;
3) The "which" in " to which everything is referred" is the same as the "which" in "which he has thus gathered to himself"? That is, the both whichs refer to "mass".

[NewHope]

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[NewHope]

it is sad, a sad news.