250 NATURE STUDY. 



learning. A similar conviction seems to have possessed 

 us in these days regarding drawing. We now believe 

 it criminal to allow any child to grow to adult age with- 

 out the power to read and write ; oar successors not 

 five hundred years hence will come to a similar con- 

 clusion about drawing the oldest written language of 

 the race, the only one now universally intelligible." 



Painting is, of course, the best means of express- 

 ing color ideas. Language does this very imperfectly. 

 Painting trains the color sense, and gives that nice dis- 

 crimination of tint and light and shade which adds so 

 much to the enjoyment of the beauty of the world about 

 us. 



But there are many practical difficulties which are 

 likely to prevent a general use, in elementary schools, 

 of color as a medium of expression. With the colored 

 crayons, sometimes used, the children cannot express 

 truthfully the colors of what they see. The colors of 

 the crayons do not match the colors in nature. The 

 pictures made by children with crayons are apt to be 

 hideously false. With water-colors more truthful rep- 

 resentations can be made ; but the mechanical difficulties, 

 in mixing and laying on the colors, and the expense of 

 the equipment for water-color work, are likely to prove 

 serious objections to the general introduction of water- 

 color painting. 



Language is the highest, broadest, and most universal 

 form or means of expression. It is the principal medium 

 of communication between intelligent beings. It is the 



