A PAINTER'S EYH. 87 



of improving the trade itself ; but the eye is a tool 

 in every trade, a universal tool ; and therefore every- 

 body should be diligent in its improvement. 



The eye can work to a greater distance than any 

 other organ, and it works much faster. When you 

 come over the last height, and look down upon a 

 fine city, with its domes, and spires, and pinnacles, 

 and surrounding villas, and gardens, and groves, and 

 rich fields, if your eye has been duly exercised, the 

 city is taken and your own at a glance ; and we 

 very frequently find that a keen-eyed visitant, who 

 remains but for an hour, will discover in a place 

 many beauties that were unknown to the whole of its 

 inhabitants, but which have been afterward found 

 worthy of admiration, and admired by them, and 

 have been visited and admired by others, and the 

 place has thriven and grown from a small village to 

 a goodly town, simply because one man, who had 

 eyes in his head and could use them, happened to 

 look at it, possibly without any intention but that 

 of feasting his hungry eyes at the moment. 



A disquisition on the anatomical structure of the 

 eye forms no part of the eye's education ; because 

 it is not the matter of the eye that wants to be 

 taught, it is the mode of its action ; and all that can be 

 said is, give it plenty of exercise ; keep it always 

 hungry for knowledge of whatever can come before 

 it, and do not fatigue it either by excess or monotony. 

 The invitation of all nature to the eye is, " Come 

 and see." 



