FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 43 



dum? Receiving a certain impression from 

 Nature which they have not noticed before, 

 do they not straightway fal down and 

 worship it, and, forsaking all others, cleave 

 only unto that, to the destruction of their 

 art and their own usefulness ? 



Monet looks at a haycock in the broad 

 sunlight of a summer s day, and sees that 

 on the edges of the grass blades the rays 

 of light are broken into the prismatic 

 colours ! Presto ! the harvest field goes off 

 in a blaze of theatrical glory. The ninety- 

 nine per cent of the neutral tints are swept 

 into the limbo of nothingness, giving place 

 to a dust heap of broken rainbows, on a 

 crumpled field of crude pigments ; and all 

 the mysterious soft intricacy of Nature, 

 with its delicacy of suggestion, its harmony 

 and repose, are gone forever. 



I do not mean that these men (I only 

 use Monet s name as an instance) have 

 nothing to tell us, but merely that what 

 they have to say they tell in such a way as 

 to convey a false message ; they sacrifice 

 themselves, their art, and the interests en 

 trusted to them, by a false perspective. 

 They fail to see truly through their own 

 eyes, or else fail to report truly what they 

 see, which latter is the proper function of 



