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Most children practise sketching, and all observant fathers will 
have seen with pleasure their beginnings in the art, 
Sketching is one of the most useful of the Arts. In mechanics, 
the master mind, or the inventor who may be thoughtful and 
theoretical only, who can convey his thought to the practical 
workmen by means of accurate sketches, is at a great advantage 
as compared with him who has to depend on written descriptions 
only. In architecture it is a necessity, and members of this 
profession are amongst the greatest adepts in the Art. 
I need not remind you how valuable sketching is in supplying 
pictures for our illustrated papers. How the scenes described 
are brought most vividly before us by the talented artists who 
sketch for those papers. We have only to think for a moment 
what our many periodicals would be without their cartoons and 
sketches, to be assured of the immense value of sketching in 
connection with the literature of to-day. 
Take and examine the “Illustrated London News.’ What 
charming sketches of cathedrals S. Kead has furnished. What 
beautiful woodland and river scenes have come from the pencil 
of Montbard. How natural the sketches of animals, birds, &c., 
by Harrison Weir. And what a grand dash about the war 
pictures of Woodville, making the hideous horrors and the 
heroisms of war to appear before us as no written description 
could. 
In school teaching and in lecturing, sketches are often most 
useful. Many subjects can be made plain and much more 
interesting by a few happy strokes on the black board. 
In the army, sketching is used to make the officers acquainted 
with the country they intend conquering, its strongholds and 
bridges, its rivers and hills. 
Our scientists are, by sketching what the microscope reveals 
to them, enabled to convey the results of their long and patient 
investigations to the world, by means of these published sketches 
and the diagrams for lectures. Our astronomers, in like manner, 
by sketching, convey the appearance of the heavenly bodies as 
seen through their powerful telescopes. 
Summer is by far the best time for out-door sketching, as 
warmth is needed to enable one td sit comfortably outside. 
Furnished with paper and colours, ‘‘ the days of sweet leisure ”’ 
float pleasantly by, as we give rapt attention and close study to 
Nature in her varying moods, and visit scenes of various types of 
beauty and grandeur, 
