FIELD AND STUDY 



photograph of my friend than a painting, it is that 

 the photograph brings him nearer. The painter will 

 disguise him a Httle. Would not one rather have a 

 photograph of any of the great characters of the 

 past, or of his own great-great-grandfather, than 

 a picture of him by any portrait-painter? One 

 would like to know exactly how he looked, the 

 naked reality. Yet a painting of my native hills 

 pleases me more than a photograph, because I sup- 

 pose the question of color and atmosphere plays 

 such a part, while in the face of your friend expres- 

 sion plays the main part and color a very minor one. 

 The camera has no imagination, no sentiment, and 

 no memory, and its literal truth is not art; but for 

 that very reason, it gives us the nude reality when 

 we wish it most. Our own memories and feelings do 

 the rest. 



Here we come upon ticklish ground and must 

 choose our words. I have no sympathy with those 

 readers who, for instance, had rather read Audu- 

 bon's account of a bird than see and hear the bird 

 itself, or read a great historian's description of a 

 battle than to have witnessed it. The great and the 

 momentous things in life one wants to see; in the 

 absence of that experience, then an account of them 

 by a great writer. In all cases the written descrip- 

 tion will give one a kind of pleasure that the real- 

 ity could not give, an sesthetic pleasure, but the 

 reality drives deeper and is unforgettable. You for- 



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