judging whether it is warm or cold, and what is its tone in relation to objects

near.

This is of so much importance to secure the completeness or truth, of which I spoke at the beginning of my lecture, that you should try for a few seconds to look at nature with the eyes of an engraver, who has to copy a colored picture without colors. The use of slightly gray spectacles will help you to do this. I use them also to keep off the glare of the white paper when I am first drawing my subject. One of the most serious mistakes made in reference to tone is that of making a dark red setting sun darker than the sky through which it shines. It is quite possible, however, to have such a sun darker in tone than clouds situated higher in the sky above the dark atmosphere, through which the sun is shining.

You cannot have a better study of tones than snow-covered ground (especially in the evening) or our beautiful white chalk cliffs. The tone of these, especially if in half shade against the sky, is difficult to paint. Indeed if you can do this correctly I think you don't want to learn any more about tones; but if you study the cliffs-and I may mention that it is very important to make a careful study of all objects before you attempt to paint them-you will notice that every projection has several faces which take different shades with different reflected lights from all sides. You will also observe that all holes or hollow places are full of warm reflected light from below, which, if not painted correctly, will prevent the cliffs from looking white. Don't try to paint the cliffs white all at once, but get the general warm coloring first, and then the angles which reflect the cold gray or bluish color from the sky. Body color white is peculiarly adapted to the colder parts, as it is actually of a chalky nature, but very little of it is sufficient.

I am now going to approach a somewhat alarming subject, namely, perspective, but instead of telling you what you can read in any treatise on the subject, and taking you through those awful problems and journeys from A B C through the point K to D E F, and puzzling you with a multitude of lines, I propose to show you a simple rule-a

carpenter's rule, with which you can measure correctly any angle required and trace it on to your paper. My folding rules are made by Kemp & Co., No. 9 Holden Terrace, Victoria Station; but any folding rule held up to the angles of a room or house will show you at once how easy it is to reproduce the object in perspective. A drawing done in this way may be tested by the ordinary rules, and will be found to be absolutely correct. Of course there are other measurements that must be done by other methods, but the angles formed by lines converging to a point of sight are the most important.

As to measuring, I am pleased to find that our great art critic now permits us to measure as much as we like.

I think even tracing may be done if it will help to secure correct drawing. It was only by tracing one side after getting the other as correct as possible that I was able to draw those exquisitelyformed domes near Cairo, called the tombs of the califs. It is by thus halving any equal-sided figure you can get it correct.

Let us now discuss what we should select to paint.

The most important thing is to select subjects which have what the Italians call a “motivo." Some feature which attracts the attention, some marked light or dark, something that will give special interest to your drawing. Without this the most praiseworthy sketch may be tame and uninteresting. Sometimes the motive may be twofold. Try to make your drawing tell a story. A ray of sun. a shadow, or shower, or a rainbow may appear opportunely. To do these you must be rapid, so take care that your apparatus is complete and simple. Sun, wind, and rain may prove awkward customers, and as to midges-without a veil they will crush you! With Mr. Fenn's permission I will read you an extract from his delightful book, Blind Man's Holiday, written since the artist became blind:

"Only think of those awful midges. It is impossible to forget them, and yet the thought is maddening. The irrepressible, the insignificant, the infusorial point-like atoms! What can I say that will describe the monstrous torture to which they subject the landscape painter? He may light fires of peat all round him, he may smoke himself silly, or scratch

himself raw he may oil himself like a salad, or bedevil himself like a kidney with all sorts of antidotes; he may put on a mask of gauze and become a ghostly terror to the children, but he cannot defy the sting of the outrageous midge. You slaughter him by myriads; you swallow him if you eat; you drink him if you drink; you paint him into your picture until, rushing madly about like an infuriated bull, you spike yourself on your own camp-stool, knock down your easel, and strangle yourself with a tent-rope."

To escape from the midges we will rush into water. In painting masses of trees or other objects reflected in water, what the poet Keats describes as "A crystal mocking of the trees and sky," you will find that two or three brushes ready charged with different colors will enable you to paint the variegated downward streaks quickly, and with the blended effect they have in nature.

or

I think that slightly troubled water may, like almost everything else, be painted on a system, or with the knowledge of some system. If you watch a large surface of undulating waves, not caused by direct wind, you will observe that they have the appearance of hundreds of irregular diamonds. ovals, and after studying these carefully you will observe that the hollows and sides reflect separately the different ob jects above or opposite to them. Cliffs, trees, and clouds will all be reflected downward, in broken streaks, through these diamond-shaped hollows or oval basins.

In

It may sound like a paradox, but I maintain that a picture, and certainly a sketch, may not be an exact imitation of a scene in nature viewed from one spot, and may yet convey to the spectator a better idea of the place than a drawing done literally, or a photograph. painting a coast scene at Kildonan in Arran, I had to move a few yards to get rid of a mass of sea-weed which would have spoiled my picture. This dark seaweed was an accident, but the sand was a characteristic of the whole sea-shore. An artist has this great advantage over a photographer, that he can give effect to peculiar features. Sir Edwin Landseer may be quoted as the greatest example of an artist who knew exactly what to leave out.

I will now say a few words as to washing and softening.

If you find that you must take out an object which you have painted in rather strongly, use a small Turkey sponge* and blot off the color with rags. For subduing or softening, large brushes are best, and a hog's hair brush is invaluable for some kinds of work. If you want to get a large sky even and soft, it is a good plan to lay your drawing flat and work over the sky with plenty of water. By thus keeping the drawing in a horizontal position you can get wonderful softness and gradation even on rough paper. Smooth paper has its advantages, but colors certainly look more brilliant upon the thin rough Whatman paper. Some writers say that painting should be done all at once, and condemn what they call "messing," but I am quite sure that many of the cleanest-looking drawings by some of our best artists have gone through more than one messy stage. Of course if you get a thing right it is better to leave it alone, at all events leave it until the rest of your work makes it look wrong. When a drawing has a hard and dry appearance you may treat it like a dirty child, and give it a bath, but this requires experience, and it is better to try your hand upon some old sketches first.

Not only in painting, but in everything, I think knowledge is best acquired by actual experiments. Don't mind a few failures: they will teach you quite as much as successes. By degrees you will acquire more and more certainty, until at last you will know what you are going to do. This is a sign of real advance. Never object to criticism. I have found even the remarks of children useful. Self-satisfaction is detrimental to good work. Remember that perfection is not to be attained in art-the greatest artist is always learning, and never reaches the goal toward which all his efforts are directed.

Learn to rely upon yourself. Sir Joshua Reynolds was asked by a student, going to Italy, what he ought to observe and study, and found himself greatly puzzled to answer. What he did say may be summed up as follows: "If you have no talent or genius, it does not matter what you select or study. If you have talent or genius, you will find out for yourself."

* These can be got at any chemist's.

The same great painter says in his Discourses (which I advise those to read who have not read them) that the rules of art are few and easily learned; but nature is too infinitely various, too subtle, and beyond the power and retention of memory. You should therefore constantly study nature, and accumulate facts, never forgetting that all good art depends upon a subtle choice of what is most beautiful, interesting, or necessary to the work in hand. The power of selecting, and the knowledge of what is beautiful, are not easily acquired. My late sister, Mrs. Newton, who was endowed with genius and refinement, said of portrait-painting that it ought to be the "truth lovingly told." The remark applies equally to landscape painting. As it is impossible to make an exact imitation of nature, you must discriminate. If you doubt what I say about the impossibility of copying nature exactly, I will ask you to consider for a moment what millions of small objects go to make up a landscape. Think of the grass and the flowers, the fern and the heather, the trees with their innumerable leaves and branches-the earth and stones, cliffs and hills, with countless cracks and hollows all subject to differ ent lights and shades! or if you are a marine painter, consider the millions of waves spreading over the ocean!

Will any one venture to say that a picture can represent all that we see? Well, as this is not possible, we must revert to the choice, to the discriminating sense of the painter. If, for instance, we try to copy all the markings upon a stone in sunshine, we lose the broad effect of light. Mr. Ruskin says, "In order that color may be right, some markings necessary to express form must be omitted."

Good painting, and more especially sketching from nature, consist in generalizing by short and simple methods. If you have not the rare gift of preserving the majesty and poetry of nature without rendering minutely all details and facts-if you are not a Turner or a Constable, rest satisfied with the amount of art used by Millais, Vicat Cole, and Brett, whose pictures bear the stamp of nature more conspicuously than that of art; but always remember that art is nature passed through the alem

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bic of man;" or, as Bacon remarks. "Homo additus naturæ."

No one can say that Turner's pictures are literally like nature. You will find curious inaccuracies, and apparent untruths, but all are done with a purpose, and the work as a whole conveys the idea which he meant to convey. All painting is an artifice a deception. Objects of all shapes must be made to look real upon a flat surface. Any one who can paint at all can execute individual parts, but to keep those parts in proper relation to each other, to make a picture, requires a broad comprehensive grasp, which denotes genius more surely than any other quality.

It may be said that no two artists see nature in the same way. Take four of our best men-De Wint, Cox, Turner, and Müller-utterly different from each other in style, and yet each truthful according to his lights. Look at the sombre, unostentatious De Wint, and then at the pale, delicate, lively Turner. Compare these with a truthful simple Müller, or a daylighty Cox, so bright as to stand splashes of positive blue rubbed on the sky with a cake of paint! Can anything be apparently more different, and yet all are excellent, all are like nature. They must therefore have something in common. What is it? That is indeed the question! Shall we call it a higher kind of truth which exists in all good art (in poetry, sculpture, and music more especially), or shall we call it harmony or oneness? I cannot say, for I think it is indefinable; but I venture to repeat that this mysterious completeness, this adjustment of the whole, may exist in a sketch from nature even more than in a finished picture.

In conclusion, let me again advise you to lose no opportunity of observing nature. Whether you are walking, whether you are boating, or whether you are travelling by rail, look at all things worthy of notice, and study them. You may have before you a hundred miles of sea, or a few ox-eye daisies, or a splendid mountain. Whatever it is, observe closely how the lights and shadows fall; make notes of colors; fill lots of sketch books; and if you can't find a kindred spirit to go with you, go alone. Others may feel solitary, but the student of art ought not to know what it means.

Truly may it be said of him or her, "Never less alone than when alone.'

In doing rapid work out of doors, colors must be so arranged as to allow for accidental mixing. When colors get dry and hard, soak them and replenish out of tubes, otherwise you will wear out the points of your best brushes. For rapid sketching, thin rough Whatman, properly stretched upon a board, is as good as any other paper. It should be strained over the edge of a board (not on the face), and glue should be used if the paper is required for immediate use, or strips of card-board or tape

may be tacked on round the edge of the board. In this way several sheets may be strained on the same board. Block books are better for drawing than for painting. Sketch books which fold in two are useful, and I have a large pocket made in the back of my coat to hold them. For large drawings, a light frame, with folding-up legs, is what I use; my umbrella has a curtain which is very quickly fixed on, and by a simple contrivance the central stick is got to one side, out of the way of the sitter and easel.-Macmillan's Magazine.

How or whence a proverb has originated is in most cases a matter of doubt. Some few perhaps are choice morsels culled from the writings of noted authors; others are adaptations from the literature of ancient nations, and notably from that of the Hebrews; but in most cases they can be safely included under the heading" old sayings." This is the case with English proverbs; but it is more especially so with the twenty or twenty-five thousand which form the principal adornments of Chinese conversation. Mr. Scarborough has devoted considerable time and trouble to making a methodical collection of the wise or witty sayings of the Celestials, and has produced a book ("Chinese Proverbs," Trübner & Co., London), which will repay perusal, firstly, on account of the amusement which may be extracted from its pages; and secondly, because it serves to illustrate the morals, customs, and habits of those peculiar people.

Chinese proverbs are not without wit, although they do not always incline to brevity. In fact some of them may be fairly entitled "short moral stories," in which the Chinese excel; although, as the author of the work above referred to remarks, their conduct is not by any means in accordance with their preaching. Illustrative of their eagerness for obtaining a bargain, we quote the following generally accepted maxims: "Calculate what you can sell before you buy."

Who does not ready money clutch,
Of business talent has not much-

When two partners have one mind,

Clay is into gold refined.

Whilst very much disposed to sharp practice, the Chinaman is fully alive to the fact that if he would attain either eminence or competence, he must work hard. Invitations to perseverance and to thoroughness of purpose are frequent. "If you don't scale the mountain, you cannot view the plain ;" and, "You had better go home and make a net than go down the river and wish for the fishes,' are illustrations of the Chinese method of expressing this sentiment.

The caution of the Chinese character is fairly represented by: "If the wind be strong, yield to the wind; if the rain be heavy, get away from it ;" and their dislike of procrastination after resolution, by the proverb: "Wait till the Yellow River becomes clear, and how old will you be?" The fact being that