3 o2 LIFE AND HABIT. 



scientific accuracy would be de rigueur; but I have been 

 trying to paint a picture rather than to make a dia- 

 gram, and I claim the painter's license "quidlibet 

 audendi" I have done my utmost to give the spirit of 

 my subject, but if the letter interfered with the spirit, I 

 have sacrificed it without remorse. 



May not what is commonly called a scientific subject 

 have artistic value which it is a pity to neglect ? But 

 if a subject is to be treated artistically — that is to say, 

 with a desire to consider not only the facts, but the way 

 in which the reader will feel concerning those facts, 

 and the way in which he will wish to see them rendered, 

 thus making his mind a factor of the intention, over 

 and above the subject itself — then the writer must not 

 be denied a painter's license. If one is painting a hill- 

 side at a sufficient distance, and cannot see whether it is 

 covered with chestnut-trees or walnuts, one is not bound 

 to go across the valley to see. If one is painting a city, 

 it is not necessary that one should know the names of 

 the streets. If a house or tree stands inconveniently 

 for one's purpose, it must go without more ado ; if two 

 important features, neither of which can be left out, 

 want a little bringing together or separating before the 

 spirit of the place can be well given, they must be 

 brought together, or separated. Which is a more truth- 

 ful view, of Shrewsbury, for example, from a spot where 

 St. Alkmund's spire is in parallax with St. Mary's — a 

 view which should give only the one spire which can be 

 seen, or one which should give them both, although the 

 one is hidden ? There would be, I take it, more repre- 

 sentation in the misrepresentation than in the repre- 



