258 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
tions upon the altars and various figures ; he appeared 
to understand the Latin and Greek, and it might have 
been expected that he would stay to look at the Ac- 
croupie. He did not; he worked all round the statue, 
reading every word legible on the base of the insigni- 
ficant figures against the wall, and so onwards down the 
salon. One of the most complete of the guide-books 
dismisses the Accroupie in a single line, so it is not sur- 
prising that people do not seek it. But what is sur- 
prising is that in a city so artistic as Paris there should 
be so few photographs of this statue. I could get but 
two—these were duplicates, and were all the proprietor 
of the shop possessed ; there was some trouble to find 
them. I was told that, as they were so seldom asked 
for, copies were not kept, and that there was only this 
one particular view—a very bad one. Other shops had 
none. The Venus of Milo is in every shop—in every 
size, and from every point of view; of the Accroupie 
these two poor representations were hunted out from the 
bottom of a portfolio. Of course, these remarks apply 
only to Paris as the public know it; doubtless the 
studios have the Accroupie, and could supply represen- 
tations of every kind: casts, too, can be obtained at the 
Louvre. But to those who, like myself, wander in the 
outer darkness of common barbarian life, the Accroupie 
is unknown till we happily chance upon it. Possibly 
the reason may be that this statue infinitely surpasses 
those fixed ideals of art which the studios have for so 
many centuries resolutely forced upon the world. It 
scems that after a certain length of art study the 
natural eyesight is lost. But I hope and believe there 
are thousands of people in the world in full possession 
of their natural eyesight, and capable of appreciating 
the Accroupie when once their attention is called to it. 
