28 FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



heard talk about&quot; the law of contradicto 

 ries.&quot; I haven t the least idea what &quot;the 

 law of contradictories&quot; means, but I think 

 that, without serious trouble, I could de 

 fine such a law. Kuskin says in this vol 

 ume : &quot; No touch or form is ever added to 

 another by a good painter, without a men 

 tal determination and affirmation.&quot; The 

 same day that I read this, I read in the 

 introduction to &quot;The Rosenthal Method of 

 Practical Linguistry &quot; : &quot;No action can be 

 done well which is not done unconsciously.&quot; 

 Both are true statements; this is an illustra 

 tion of the many-sidedness of life. If you 

 have read the late William M. Hunt s 

 &quot;Conversations upon Art,&quot; you will re 

 member that he asserts at one moment the 

 diametric opposite of that which he strenu 

 ously insists upon at another. He is right : 

 we must view both sides of the shield, if 

 we would know it for what it is. 



But how can I contend that that which 

 is the result of a mental determination can 

 be unconscious ? Easily. The time was, 

 when the act could only be done con 

 sciously and painfully. But llu-ii, as llos- 

 enthal says, it could not be well done. It 

 must be &quot;word upon word, line upon line, 

 here a little and there a little,&quot; until both 



