24 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



V. 



I HAVE been re-reading Ruskin s &quot;Ele 

 ments of Drawing.&quot; He may be as bad an 

 instructor as the art critics say, I think 

 perhaps he is, but we cannot possibly do 

 without him. Who has eyes if he has not ? 

 What a love for the facts of Nature ! What 

 a sense of the poetry of form and colour 

 and motion ! And what a vigorous pen and 

 what strong muscular English ! Yes, and 

 what magnificent prejudices and splendid 

 egotism ! Reject all his instructions, if you 

 like, and take some other course of study, 

 but do not fail to read and ponder all that 

 he has to say to you. And make sure that 

 if you do not look at Nature as lovingly as 

 he does, you will never do your best at 

 finding out her secrets and revealing them 

 (in confidence) to others. 



By the way, I do not know anything else 

 so preposterous as the claim made by some 

 who assume a special love for the spec 

 tacle of Nature, of her glorious clouds and 

 sparkling skies and sturdy trees and beau- 



