THE WOMBAT. 37 



accuracy of detail or of transient effects and delineation of 

 quickly moving objects. For certain scientific purposes it 

 is of course without compeer, but we are dealing with it 

 principally in connection with its pictorial capabilities. 



Restrictions of space forbid an exhaustive treatment, so 

 we will confine ourselves to a consideration of picture-making 

 proper as distinct from portraiture and other special branches, 

 and even the former has several subdivisions, some of which 

 necessitate diversity of treatment. For instance, there are 

 land and sea-scapes, figure and genre pictures generally, and 

 even in the former the purpose may be an artistic result or 

 simply a literal matter of fact reproduction of some thing or 

 place, as a building, a tree, a street scene, and so on. In 

 such cases as the latter sharpness of definition is no doubt 

 one of the prime desiderata, but it is enough to make the 

 artistic gods weep, or at least induce an irritation calculated 

 to prejudice their mental balance to see some photographic 

 " exhibits " in which repose, breadth effects, and sentiment 

 are sacrificed for the sake of an oppressive distinctness. 



Nature and female beauty are both equally wise in fre- 

 quently accentuating their charms by coquettishly more or less 

 veiling them ; but there are people whose tastes lie rather in the 

 direction of utilising the " Rontgen rays " in viewing either, 

 and the more powerful those rays the more their artistic 

 sense (?) is gratified. 



But after all "art" in the broad sense is a variable 

 quantity, and the satisfaction afforded by a picture is very 

 largely a matter of individual taste and association of pre- 

 dilections. Thus, a " horsey " man would probably prefer a 

 Carbine on canvas to anything else except perhaps a Venus, 

 or a Hebe ; the average Highlander, especially if an exile, 

 would revel in pictorial reminders of the " Land of brown 

 heath and shaggy wood, land of the mountain and the flood," 

 the Norwegian in the scenery of his rugged Fjords, the 

 Dutchman in the flat and foggy picturesqueness of his native 

 polders and canals, while none of these would possess much 

 charm for the average Australian unless suggestive of sport 

 associated with the saddle and the gun ; an Esquimeau would 

 doubtless prefer a representation of the fat and greasy face of 

 a woman of his own race, to that of an English or Grecian 

 beauty ; a follower of Isaac Walton would appreciate a " bit " 

 suggestive of his favourite recreation, and so on. Some sub 

 jects suggest romance, some the delights of open air and rural 

 life so beautifully crystallised by Gray in such expressions as 

 " the breezy call of incense breathing morn," " the glimmer- 

 ing landscape" by Tennyson in "The Brook," by Scott, 

 Goldsmith and others ; some are suggestive of the " dolce far 

 niente " or other enjoyments. There are numerous people so 



