NATURE-STUDY AND EXPRESSION 55 



be used. As an illustration of this point, it may be said that when 

 a child sketches a tree in winter with its bare branches, color plays 

 a secondary and unimportant part ; but the outline of the tree, by the 

 direction of its branches and the contour of its top gives rise to an 

 image involving direction and distance, and the image is therefore 

 chiefly motor, and drawing is the direct and appropriate mode of 

 expression. But in the summer, when the life of the tree is shown 

 in the color of the leaves, the contour of the top and other outlines 

 are secondary ; the image is chiefly visual and painting becomes 

 the appropriate mode. 



III. :modelixg. 

 The relation of both these modes of expression to modeling is 

 obvious. When the function of the thing is expressed wholly or 

 chiefly only when the third dimension is taken into account, then 

 the image becomes motor, and it is clear that modeling is the directly 

 appropriate mode of expression. For example, in the case of a 

 fruit, the chief function is not dependent upon either color or out- 

 line, but upon the form in three dimensions. The image is, there- 

 fore, motor ; and since the three dimensions are involved, modeling 

 is the mode that should be used. If, now, color, too, plays an 

 important function, as it does in the case of some fruits, then the 

 model should be colored also, because an important aspect of the 

 image is visual. 



IV. MAKING. 



The great value of making, which is here intended to include 

 all forms of manual training and constructive work, lies in the fact 

 that the thing made need not be constructed in accordance with 

 any model or pattern. In painting a landscape, the result, to be 

 rational, must embody the essential features of this or that area, 

 or it may be a composite of many areas. But in building a con- 

 veyance, for example, the maker is at liberty to invent a form never 

 yet beheld by anyone — the only prime requisite being that it shall 

 perform its function better than any other conveyance already built. 

 In this respect, mechanical drawing is closely allied to making. 



Nature-study opens up an exhaustless field for manual work, 

 not only in the construction of apparatus, but in the performance 

 of experiments in physics, chemistry, and other sciences, all of 

 which require the constant exercise of the inventive function of the 

 mind and the greatest manual skill that the pupil can command. 



