SCIENCE LIBRARY: SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVance. 220 Sugar From Corn Stalks. A. Stevenson.. Birds That Sing in the Night. J. M. Edson.. 220 2201 SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. Having the largest stock of general Scientific Apparatus to be found in the United States, we are prepared to quote bottom prices for laboratory instruments and supplies. Our eight distinct departments comprise:-1. Ophthalmalogical instruments; 2. Mathematical and Surveying instruments; 3. Microscopes and Accessories; 4. Physicial and Electrical apparatus; 5. Projection Lanterns and supplies; 6. Meteorological instruments; 7. Photographic Cameras and Lenses; 8. Chemical apparatus and Chemicals. Ask for a list of sixteen catalogues which we publish, and correspond with us regarding your wants. QUEEN & CO., Incorpated, Seven Awards granted us at the World's Fair. MINERALS. 1MMMMMMMMMI New Store. New Stock. New Departments. A monthly magazine for the study GERMANIA of the German language and litera Send for our "Winter Bulletin," recently issued. ture, is highly recommended by college professors Minerals, Gems, Microscopical Sections, Fine Lap-and the press as "the best effort yet made to assist the student of German, and to interest him in his 221 idary Work. pursuit." Its BEGINNERS' CORNER furnishes every year a complete and interesting course in German grammar. $2 a year. Single copies 20 cents. P. O. Box 151, Manchester, N. H. 222 GEO. L. ENGLISH & CO., Mineralogists, 222 222 Removed to 64 East 12th Street, New York NEW METHOD OF PROTECTING BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING. PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. IN seeking a means of protection from lightning-discharges, we have in view two objects,-the one the prevention of damage to buildings, and the other the prevention of injury to life. In order to destroy a building in whole or in part, it is necessary that work should be done; that is, as physicists express it, energy is required. Just before the lightning-discharge takes place, the energy capable of doing the damage which we seek to prevent exists in the column of air extending from the cloud to the earth in some form that makes it capable of appearing as what we call electricity. We will therefore call it electrical energy. What this electrical energy is, it is not necessary for us to consider in this place; but that it exists there can be no doubt, as it manifests itself in the destruction of buildings. The problem that we have to deal with, therefore, is the conversion of this energy into some other form, and the accomplishment of this in such a way as shall result in the least injury to property and life. Why Have the Old Rods Failed? When lightning-rods were first proposed, the science of energetics was entirely undeveloped; that is to say, in the middle of the last century scientific men had not come to recognize the fact that the different forms of energy heat, electricity, mechanical power, etc.- were convertible one into the other, and that each could produce just so much of each of the other forms, and no more. The doctrine of the conservation and correlation of energy was first clearly worked out in the early part of this century. There were, however, some facts known in regard to electricity a hundred and forty years ago; and among these were the attracting power of points for an electric spark, and the conducting power of metals. Lightning-rods were therefore introduced with the idea that the electricity existing in the lightning-discharge could be conveyed around the building which it was proposed to protect, and that the building would thus be saved. The question as to dissipation of the energy involved was entirely ignored, naturally; and from that time to this, in spite of the best endeavors of those Interested, lightning-rods constructed in accordance with Franklin's principle have not furnished satisfactory protection. The reason for this is apparent when it is considered that the olectrical energy existing in the atmosphere before the discharge, or, more exactly, in the column of dielectric from the cloud to the earth, above referred to, reaches its maximum value on the surface of the conductors that chance to be within the column of dielectric; so that the greatest display of energy will be on the surface of the very lightningrods that were meant to protect, and damage results, as so often proves to be the case. It will be understood, of course, that this display of energy on the surface of the old lightning-rods is aided by their being more or less insulated from the earth, but in any event the very existence of such a mass of metal as an old lightning-rod can only tend to produce a disastrous dissipation of electrical energy upon its surface,-"to draw the lightning," as it is so commonly put. Is there a Better Means of Protection? Having cleared our minds, therefore, of any idea of conducting electricity, and keeping clearly in view the fact that in providing protection against lightning we must furnish some means by which the electrical energy may be harmlessly dissipated, the question arises, "Can an improved form be given to the rod so that it shall a. n this dissipation? " As the electrical energy involved manifests itself on the surface of conductors, the improved rod should be metallic; but, instead of making a large rod, suppose that we make it comparatively small in size, so that the total amount of metal running from the top of the house to some point a little below the foundations shall not exceed one pound. Suppose, again, that we introduce numerous insulating joints in this rod. We shall then have a rod that experlence shows will be readily destroyed-will be readily dissipated - when a discharge takes place; and it will be evident, that, so far as the electrical energy is consumed in doing this, there will be the less to do other damage. The only point that remains to be proved as to the utility of such a rod is to show that the dissipation of such a conductor does not tend to injure other bodies in its immediate vicinity. On this point I can only say that I have found no case where such a conductor (for instance, a bell wire) has been dissipated, even if resting against a plastered wall, where there has been any material damage done to surrounding objects. Of course, it is readily understood that such an explosion cannot take place in a confined space without the rupture of the walls (the wire cannot be boarded over); but in every case that I have found recorded this dissipation takes place just as gunpowder burns when spread on a board. The objects against which the conductor rests may be stained, but they are not shattered, I would therefore make clear this distinction between the action of electrical energy when dissipated on the surface of a large conductor and when dissipated on the surface of a comparatively small or easily dissipated conductor. When dissipated on the surface of a large conductor, a conductor so strong as to resist the explosive effect,-damage results to objects around. dissipated on the surface of a small conductor, the conductor goes, but the other objects around are saved When A Typical Case of the Action of a Small Conductor. Franklin, in a letter to Collinson read before the London Royal Society, Dec. 18, 1755, describing the partial destruction by lightning of a church-tower at Newbury, Mass., wrote, "Near the bell was fixed an iron hammer to strike the hours; and from the tail of the hammer a wire went down through a small gimlet-hole in the floor that the bell stood upon, and through a second floor in like manner; then horizontally under and near the plastered ceiling of that second floor, till it came near a plastered wall; then down by the side of that wall to a clock, which stood about twenty feet below the bell. The wire was not bigger than a common knitting needle. The spire was split all to pieces by the lightning, and the parts flung in all directions over the square in which the church stood, so that nothing remained above the bell. The lightring passed between the hammer and the clock in the above-mentioned wire, without hurting either of the floors, or having any effect upon them (except making the gimlet-holes, through which the wire passed, a little bigger), and without hurting the plastered wall, or any part of the building, so far as the aforesaid wire and the pendulum-wire of the clock extended; which latter wire was about the thickness of a goose-quill. From the end of the pendulum, down quite to the ground, the building was exceedingly rent and damagei. No part of the aforementioned long, small wire, between the clock and the hammer, could be found, except about two inches that hung to the tall of the hammer, and about as much that was fastened to the clock; the rest being exploded, and its particles dissipated in smoke and air, as gunpowder is by common fire, and had only left a black smutty track on the plastering, three or four inches broad, darkest in the middle, and fainter towards the edges, all along the ceiling, under which it passed, and down the wall." One hundred feet of the Hodges Patent Lightning Dispeller (made under patents of N. D. C. Hodges, Editor of Science) will be mailed, postpaid, to any address, on receipt of five dollars ($5). ... Correspondence solicited. Agents wanted. AMERICAN LIGHTNING PROTECTION CO., 874 Broadway, New York City. THE American Bell Telephone COMPANY. 125 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters - Patent No. 186,787, granted to Alexander Graham Bell, January 30th, 1877, the scope of which has been defined by the Supreme Court of the United States in the following terms: "The patent itself is for the mechanical structure of an electric telephone to be used to produce the electrical action on which the first patent rests. The third claim is for the in such instruments of a diaphragm, made of a plate of iron or steel, or other ma use terial capable of inductive action; the fifth, of a permanent magnet constructed as described with a coil upon the end or ends nearest the plate; the sixth, of a sounding box as described; the seventh, of a speaking or hearing tube as described for conveying the sounds; and the eighth, of a permanent magnet and plate combined. The claim is not for these several things in and of themselves, but for an electric telephone in the construction of which these things or any of them are used." Edited by Jane Loring Gray. With Portraits and Professor Gray was not only one of the foremost Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Selected by Charles Sprague Sargent, Vol. II. Essays, Biographical Sketches, 1841-1886. Prof. Sargent says in the Introduction: "Many every way admirable. The Silva of North America. A description of the Trees which grow__naturally "One of the most important works of descriptive 7. Autumn. 8. Winter. 9. Excursions in Field and Forest. 10. Miscellanies. With a Biographical Sketch by The Witness to Immortality, By Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, of the Old South This Company also owns Letters-Patent A Japanese Interior. No. 463, 569, granted to Emile Berliner, November 17, 1891, for a combined Telegraph By Alice M. Bacon, author of "Japanese Girls and and Telephone, and controls Letters-Patent Women." 16mo, $1.25. A book of equal value and No. 474,231, granted to Thomas A. Edison, interest, describing, from personal observation, May 3, 1892, for a Speaking Telegraph, hotels, temples, food, dress, fireworks, the climate, Japanese home and school life, theatres, traveling, which cover fundamental inventions and earthquakes, etc. embrace all forms of microphone transmitters and of carbon telephones. Sold by all Booksellers. Sent, postpaid, by HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston. ought to and robust years to come. When we see in children tendencies to weakness, we know they are missing the life of food taken. This loss is overcome by Scott's Emulsion of Cod Liver Oil, with Hypophosphites, a fat-food that builds up appetite and produces flesh at a rate that appears magical. Almost as palatable as milk. Prepared by Scott & Bowne, N. Y. All druggists. HANDY BOOKS. A SYSTEM OF EASY LETTERING by Howard THE ORNAMENTAL Penman's pocketbook of Mention this paper. 12 Cortlandt St., N. Y Pennsylvania Bedford Springs Mineral Water For Liver, Kidney and B dder Troubles. It has been used medicinally and prescribed by physicians for nearly one hundred years. DIRECTIONS:-Take one or two glasses about a half-hour before each meal. Case One Dozen Half-Gallon Bottles, $4.50. 11 EAST 17TH STREET, NEW YORK. N. D. C. HODGES, 874 Broadway, N. Y. NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20, 1893. INDIAN RELICS. BY C. M. PLEYTE, KEEPER OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF NATURA ARTIS MAGISTRA, AMSTERDAM. SOME time ago Mr. R. J. Neervoort v. d. Poll, well known among entomologists, invited me to see his ethnological collection, the specimens of which amounted at that time to about a hundred and fifty. Though his collection has been, brought together by buying and exchanging a new object here and there, it contains, as nearly every private collection does, weapons, utensils, dresses, tools, etc., from all parts of the world. The greater part of them, however, were brought back from Indonesia (the Malay Archipelago), especially from the island belonging to the Dutch crown, as well as from our colonies in the West Indies, especially Surinam. This country was visited by Mr. v. d. Poll himself, some years ago, with the purpose of completing his collection of insects. On his return from his journey, after the determination of the new additions had been finished, Mr. v. d. Poll went to Paris in order to make arrangements for the publication of these new specimens. It was on this occasion that he had the good luck to fall in with some very good old American Indian objects, the description of which I think may interest the readers of Science. The reason why I think it worth while to publish them in this paper is that they are really relics, gathered at a time when the Indians had not yet experienced the influence of civilization so much as now-a-days, and, moreover, as the person who collected them was no less than the Prince Maximilian of Wied. Mr. v. d. Poll bought them from a friend of the painter Bodmer, one of the Prince's companions on his travels. Bodmer was rather badly off in his last days. He had scarcely enough to live upon. Therefore from time to time he sold some of the objects which were left to him to his friends, very glad to receive some money in exchange, and at last he gladly accepted the offer made by the lithograph N. N. for the rest of his curiosities and original drawings made when in America. The latter gentleman sold them to Mr. v. d. Poll, who entrusted them afterwards to the Ethnological Museum of the Royal Zoological Society Natura Artis Magistra, at Amsterdam, so that the remnants of this expedition, till of late lying forgotten in private profession, can now be studied by everybody who will take the trouble to visit the museum above mentioned. The objects are nine in number. I. Pipe with nicely carved bowl of green soapstone, somewhat in the shape of a very small tomahawk. The bowl is fastened to a reed stem, provided with a small, cylindrical, bone mouthpiece. Blackfoot Indians II. Tomahawk made of a cylindrlcal piece of green-andwhite spotted serpentine fastened in a wooden handle. The latter is a wooden strip bent round the stone. The two remaining ends are laid against each other and firmly bound together with a strip of buffalo hide of a reddish color, ending in a loop. Mandan Indians III. Pair of moccasons of yellowish leather. The instep is richly decorated with blue and red porcupine quills. Mandan Indians IV. Pair of moccasons of black leather, on the instep and at the sides docorated with dyed porcupine quills. Blackfoot Indians V. Medicine bag made out of a dried dogskin from which the hair has been scraped off. The bag is split at the chest, and is drawn together by means of a hard leather ring round the neck. The head, legs and tail dangle loosely at the bottom part of the bag. The tail is ornamented with red flannel. Mandan Indians VI. Medicine bag made out of a dried skin, the sides are ornamented with dyed porcupine quills and bundles of hair. Mandan Indians VII. Sheath for a knife, made of leather, richly decorated with dyed porcupine quills and leather fringe. Mandan Indians VIII. Leather jacket made of soft yellow leather, with short sleeves, decorated all over with blue and black bundles of hair fitted into little tin cones. On the front the totem is embroidered with silk, a black circle with two red ornaments in it. Blackfoot Indians IX. Buffalo robe, the outside still showing the hair, the inside prepared and adorned with porcupine quills forming a striped, square pattern with bird-shaped ornaments at the sides. Blackfoot Indians The costume formed by the Nos. I., IV., VIII. and IX. was taken from a Blackfoot chief, whose portrait, unhappily enough, is not found in any of the editions of the Prince's famous work on North America. SCIENCE TEACHING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. BY GEO. G. GROFF, LEWISBURGH, PA. ATTENTION should be called to the very loose and imperfect manner in which many of the more popular textbooks for use in elementary and secondary schools have been prepared. A few years ago copies of an elementary work on natural history were sent the writer for examination. After looking it over, the publishers were informed by the writer that he could not endorse the book. In reply, he received a printed list of names of several hundred educators who strongly commended the work. This list was carefully studied, but not a name known to science could be found in it. The book referred to was written in such a slipshod manner as to contain misleading errors of statement on every few pages. There is a very popular chemistry in use in secondary and high schools, of which it is affirmed that in the first editions the author said, "An old woolen shirt can be made to yield its weight of sugar!" Be that as it may, the errors still in the book after use in the schools for nearly a generation are numerous enough. The following may serve to illustrate "We say, 'We are so warm that we pant.' Really it is the reverse. The panting is the cause of our warmth." Speaking of the borax beds of Nevada, the statement is made "There are hundreds of acres covered to a depth of nearly two feet with crude semi-crystalline borax." Of chloral hydrate it is remarked, "Taken in proper quantities it is entirely safe, and is exceedingly pleasant in its influence." "Albumen may thus be carried by the blood through the system, but when once deposited, it cannot be dissolved and washed away again." Probably no school books are so full of errors as those hastily prepared to meet the demands of the new temperance laws now in force in most of the states, requiring the effects of alcohol and tobacco on the body to be taught in the schools. One of the best of these books several times makes the positive assertion that tobacco produces cancer in its users. Another volume asserts that consumption may be caused by putting on spring clothing too early in the season! One also reads that cider-drinkers are peculiarly crabbed and cross, that tobacco makes old men illnatured, that sour milk is unwholesome, cheese is indigestible, pork is a meat not fit to eat, and bile has the properties of baking soda? Here is a fish story told in the words of a highly commended book: "The Esquimaux who live in Greenland, drink one or two quarts of oil, and eat several pounds of candles every day!" But see how a story will "grow" even in a scientific text-book. In the next number of the "series" written by the same author, and from the same reliable notes, doubtless, we read, "An Esqui:naux consumes about twenty pounds of blubber fat daily, besides drinking several quarts of train oil." What it will be in the next volume, who can tell? As to the style and accuracy of these "scientific" treatices, the following may be taken as samples: The eyeball is a bag (!) almost round, thick and dull everywhere but in front, where it has a transparent covering called the cornea, meaning a horn. This is fitted into the eye just as a watch-crystal is fitted into a watch."! How lucid and true, now proceed, "The back chamber" (of the eye) "also holds a jelly-like fluid, called the 'glassy humor,' which allows the iris-curtain to float and move freely." Who don't understand that much at least? Another matter in connection with these physiologies should receive attention. Many of them contain a statement, printed in a prominent manner in the first portion of the book, that they contain "a fyll and fair treatmant of the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics in connection with relative Physiology and Hygiene." When the books are examined, however, the "full and fair treatment" dwindles into statements true and imaginary, of the evil effects of alcohol on the body. There is no effort at all made to discuss the different effects of large and small doses, of the effects on a full and on an empty stomach, of individual idiosynerasies and not a word of the beneficial effects of alcohol and narcotics when properly used. There can be no doubt but this unfair, unscientific and untruthful manner of presenting this subject is having an effect, exactly the reverse to that which is intended. Children will soon find out that they have been deceived, and the result will be worse than if nothing had been said at all on the subject. The strictures here noted apply to the books used in the public schools, and to a very limited extent to those used in academies and colleges. BIRDS OF RARE OCCURRENCE IN NORTHERN COLORADO. BY WM. OSBURN, NASHVILLE, TENN. COLORADO is prolific in bird life. There the eastern and western forms converge. There mountain, valley, woodland, lake and barren plain, contribute their peculiar species, thus furnishing to the student a field most varied. When observers have completed the record, their labors will probably show a list approaching four hundred species and varieties. During the years 1888, 1889 and 1890 I had opportunity to study the avi-fauna of a small section of the State. My field of observation was Larimer County, with Loveland, Colorado, as headquarters. Loveland is about seventy-five miles north of Denver, in the midst of a rich farming section, with the foothills some six miles to the west and the open plains a few miles east. During the period named two hundred and forty-one species and varieties were observed. All but a very few of these were actually taken in the field; their skins were preserved, and such data recorded as sex, measurements, color of iris, contents of stomach, etc. From this list I have selected ten birds which to me proved of unusually rare occurrénce. Their enumeration may be of interest to other observers. It is not improbable that a few of these have hitherto escaped observation in the locality named and contiguous parts. Micropalama himan'opus. Stilt Sandpiper. Occasionally met with during the spring migration, in May and early June. Pediocaetes phasianellus campestris. Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse. This bird was formerly quite abundant. Accipiter atricapillus. American Goshawk. A male of this species was captured on February 26, 1889, at Arkins, Colorado. A female was taken in the same locality on March 5. The male was much darker than the female, and with finer markings on the under parts, answering to the description of variety striatulus. Mr. Wm. G. Smith, a careful observer of birds, reported at the time that he had not seen a specimen of this hawk during five years residence. In his "Key to North American Birds" Dr. Elliott Coues says: "It breeds in mountainous regions as far south at least as Colorado, where I have seen it in summer. Bubo virginianus arcticus. Arctic Horned Owl. A fine Horned Owl, which I have referred to this variety, was shot in the mountains and brought to me on Nov. 29, 1890. It was nearly white. A dissection revealed a large tape-worm in the back, above the intestines. Colaptes auratus. Flicker. Flicker. A typical Flicker was taken during the fall migration, September 24, 1889. While the hybrid form, exhibiting every conceivable gradation between auratus and cafer, is quite abundant, yet a typical auratus is seldom observed. Con Zonotrichia coronata. Golden-crowned Sparrow. cerning the habitat of this species, Dr. Coues makes the following record: "Pacific coast (to Rocky Mountains?) from Alaska to Southern California." A small flock of these birds spent the winter of 1889 in a thicket along the Big Thompson. They were associated with Intermediate Sparrows. One specimen was taken on February 23. Dendroica gracie. Grace's Warbler. During the spring migration of 1889 a small flock of this species was seen near the foothills. One specimen, taken April 25, is in the writer's possession. Cistothorus palustris. Long-billed Marsh Wren. Two specimens were taken in March, 1889. Its occurrence is apparently not common. Among others collected, the following may be named as more common than the preceding, yet only met with occasionally: Golden-crowned Kinglet, Wilson's Warbler, White-throated Swift, Cedar Waxwing, Slate-colored Junco, House Finch, Arizona Goldfinch, Pallid Horned Lark, Woodhouse's Jay, Hammond's Flycatcher, Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker, Pigmy Owl, Prairie Falcon, Richardson's Merlin and American Golden Plover. "Our Own Birds," by Wm. L. Bailey, published by J. B. Lippincott Company, is an excellent little manual for those who wish to become familiar with the common birds of this country. It contains a number of half-tone fullpage illustrations, with others in the text. SCIENCE: PUBLISHED BY N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, New York. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ANY PART OF THE WORLD, $3.50 A YEAR. To any contributor, on request in advance, one hundred copies of the issue containing his article will be sent without charge. More copies will be supplied at about cost, also if ordered in advance. Reprints are not supplied, as for obvious reasons we desire to circulate as many copies of SCIENCE as possible. Authors are, however, at perfect liberty to have their articles reprinted elsewere. For illustrations, drawings in black and white suitable for photo-engraving should be supplied by the contributor. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the "Wants" column. It is invaluable to those who use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be given in full, so that answers will go direct to them. The "Exchange" column is likewise open. CAN WE SEE THE PICTURE IN THE LANDSCAPE? BY WALDO DENNIS, CHICAGO, ILL. OFTEN while enjoying a painting I have wondered where lay the secret of transforming commonplace scenes into interesting and beautiful pictures. I have been entranced by paintings of which the scenes themselves, I am sure, would not have stirred my feelings. Coloring did not account for this magical change, thought I, for in both scene and picture they are the same. To say it was the artist's power to idealize, even if true, left the matter no clearer. Because "idealize" stood not for something known, but for something unknown, and thus, instead of clearing up the mystery, it only appeared to. Lately while looking at a painting in the Art Building at the World's Fair, some light came to me. The painting was beautiful, and yet the scene was commonplace. At once came the question, "Was that landscape really so beautiful to the artist as he has made his picture? Did the artist really see, in the scene before him, the picture he has painted? In short, was the scene a picture to him before he painted it?" Thus meditating, I unconsciously tried to see the landscape as he must have seen it, to look at it through his eyes. Evident at once was the difference between looking at a landscape and the picture of it. A landscape covers several or many square miles. In looking at it, our eyes wander over it, from place to place. To look to the left, a direction to the right has to be turned away from. While regarding the farmyards in the foreground, we see less distinctly the wooded hill of the background. As one part passes into view, another part passes out of it. In fact, every portion of the scene before us must be seen in its own particular direction, and with its own particular focal adjustment. The conditions of distinct vision thus imposed enable us to see one thing well at the cost of seeing all else faintly. How different is all this in looking at the picture. The many square miles have been reduced to a square yard. The multitude of objects, which to be seen well require the eyes to wander about, and to constantly readjust themselves, have all been brought to the same plane, and can all be seen at one glance. Moreover, while looking at the square yard of picture your attention is not distracted, as in the scene, by a flock of blackbirds suddenly flirting up from among the cattle in the pasture, circling about in a whimsical way, and then as suddenly dropping down again in the same place. The man at the plow does not finally reach the end of his furrow, turn his horses and come back; nor does the wagon on the road move along as it seems to be doing, and compel your gaze to follow it till it passes behind the hill out of sight. All things are caught in an eternal pose, which offers no interruption to your gaze. You see it all at a glance, and you see it always the same, that is, without distracting changes. In this transfer of a scene to canvas, plainly the beauty of the landscape is concentrated. The variety of color and form scattered through miles of extent is crowded into a glittering square yard. It is like the enchantment wrought for us as children by a fragment of looking glass. The glass reduced the landscape before us to a picture, and thus enabled us to comprehend it; beauty flashed out upon us, where before we had not so much as thought of there being any beauty, and I am persuaded that, in general, only as we have power in some way to picture the scene before us, do we gather its beauty. We may be greatly attached to a familiar scene; this attachment may help us to its beauty; but how much of this we see, depends on our power to picture the scene. As And here our question comes back to us: Did the artist see his picture in the scene from which it was taken before he painted it? But for an experience of my boyhood I should conclude that to see a landscape as picture were out of the question. When a boy I was somewhat addicted to dreaming with my eyes open. my reverie engaged consciousness, I was little aware of the scene before me. But as the reverie concluded itself the scene began to obtrude itself. In this condition of waking from what was passing within to a consciousness of what was present without, there was an interval, during which I saw the scene before me as a whole, as a picture. Consciousness not yet distracted into making a focal change was passively attentive to a larger and larger field of the retina. The eyes, in their staring fixedness, seemed literally optical instruments through which an inner self was peeping, and stealthily peeping, lest a disturbance should take away the opportunity by destroying the conditions. This experience was like waking from a delightful dream; it always left me feeling like one having visited another world whose beauty was unspeakable. Recalling this experience led me to conclude that the power to see natural scenes as pictures may be acquired. Subsequent trial has proved it to be true. Of course we cannot escape our visual limitations. As the field of view becomes larger and larger, distinctness of the whole of it suffers. But experience shows this to be no serious obstacle. Our general familiarity with nature enables us to form a clear mental image from an indistinct visual impression. The man we see at his work or the cattle in the pasture need not be seen very distinctly for us to know what they are and what they are doing. In their contribution to the picture this is sufficient. The enjoyment of standing at will in the midst of a gallery of pictures in nature's own coloring can be understood only by one who can see them. Whoever enjoys nature enough to look for her pictures will find them. And in them, once found, his eyes will be opened to beauty that he knew not of before. Thus to see and feel the unity in the scene before us, seems like seeing with other eyes than the physical, like neglecting external form and getting at the spirit of beauty. |