CHAPTER I.

EDUCATED SIGHT.

[Sidenote: Born blind.]

We are all born mentally blind, but almost immediately we detect light, as can some of the lowest animals, then we _learn_ to distinguish the colours and forms of objects as we grow older, and there the majority of us stop, and yet we all think we can see equally well. That we cannot is a truism, for after being able to distinguish colours and forms, but very few persons go on to educate their sight more perfectly. [Sidenote: Trades.] Some of us may learn to distinguish certain kinds of material, the different aspects of these materials under different conditions, and so they learn trades and are excellent judges of tea, coffee, hosiery and paper. [Sidenote: Science.] Still higher come the scientific men who pay more attention to the education of the sight. They learn to distinguish the microscopic beings, the life-histories of the lower forms of animal life, the histology of flowers, the structure of the trees, the aspects of the skies, the physical and chemical phenomena of the elements, the movements of the planets, so that in all their walks nature is full of interest to them; they find wisdom in a pond, they revel in a marsh, or they travel to a far country for the sake of rare birds' eggs, or spend days and nights in their laboratories to solve new chemical problems, or organize expeditions to study unusual phenomena of the heavenly bodies; they see and love all these things. The man uneducated in science finds no interest in a drop of muddy water, he finds nothing wonderful in the vegetation of the country side, he passes unheeded the rarest birds, and the rainbow, and storm cloud, and the blazing comet, all alike to him have no interest, he is blind to them; or if he sees them at all, it is as through a glass, darkly.

[Sidenote: Art.]

All this the world allows, and allows that no one save those who by hard work have trained themselves can see these things. But mark the stupidity of mankind, he allows he is blind to the pleasures of science and will remain so, unless he studies the subject, but when it comes to art matters, like a weathercock, he shifts round and thinks he can understand all that without any training at all, yet he is born as blind and incapable of understanding art as he is of understanding science until he has trained himself to understand.

[Sidenote: The artist.]

The artist, like the scientific man, begins by studying closely his subject—nature as a whole—he studies her in all her aspects, he seeks for harmonies and arrangements in colour and form, for beautiful lines of composition, and only after long and close observation do the scales drop from his eyes and he sees a beautiful pose, even in a child digging up potatoes, or a man throwing a hammer or running a race, or he sees subtle beauties of colour in a reed-bed, or poetry and pathos in an old peasant stooping under a load of sticks, and this is far more difficult to see than it is to learn to see the scientific truths, and that is why there are so few real artists and poets and so many more scientific men. Art, alas, cannot be learned like science, hard work will not necessarily make an artist. [Sidenote: Photographers art-blind.] Most photographers are art-blind, but they are like the colour-blind old lady who did not know it, and of course the only hope for them is to be convinced of their blindness, then perhaps they may do something towards getting rid of the defect.

[Sidenote: Necessary to cultivate artistic faculty.]

The student should now clearly understand why it is so necessary that this faculty of artistic sight should be cultivated and trained, for since it is our fundamental principle that all suggestions for pictures should come from nature, we must first see the picture in nature and be struck by its beauty so that we cannot rest until we have secured it on our plate; we must therefore learn to see it in nature. If we see a beautiful pose, or a beautiful effect in nature, we should at least make a note of it if we cannot secure it. A slight sketch made at the time will do. Therefore, amateur reader, if you have not trained yourself by study to see these things in nature, blame no one but yourself, but remember you are blind, blind, blind; but there is a remedy, and no surgical operation is required either.

[Sidenote: Necessity of study.]

Study! You must ever be on the look-out for beauties, that is the necessary mental attitude, otherwise they will never be seen. You must look for a thing if you wish to find it, and it is only by showing us your finds that you will prove you have artistic insight, we shall not believe a word you say about art until we see it in your work. If you do not study, or if you are incapable, you will remain blind in spite of your looking, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you show to the world commonplaces which you think are gems, for the world will soon tell you they are commonplace. We once knew a person who was colour-blind, who resented the suggestion as a personal insult, until one evening her eyesight was tested, when her colour-blindness was proved.

Let the student then be assured that he is blind, he cannot _see_ art and nature until he has studied them long and closely. He may be arrogant enough to think he knows all about her without study. If that is so, as he grows older let him refer back to his earlier works, and if he has progressed meanwhile, let him recall how perfect he thought those early works at the time he did them, and then let him lash himself for his folly. A really good work will always bear looking back at, and will hold its own however old the artist gets. [Sidenote: No royal road.] There is no royal road to this appreciation of the beauties of art and nature, none but incessant and loving study, and though the cockney, or sage of the university, who dwells in towns and learns his art and his nature in the National Gallery and British Museum, may lecture on nature and art, let the student avoid him and his example. Lectures on art at any time are but Dead Sea fruit.

The student then must educate his eyesight in order to see the beauties of nature and art, and to do this he must study hard, for the true artist wishes to see these beauties and to record them, that is all, nothing more. The seers who see deeply, they are the poets! In science the original discoverers are the seers, and since but few can aspire to become seers, nevertheless let the rest be content to go on studying, for all of us can see these things with an educated and intelligent eye, and seeing, understand, and that reward is worth the pains.