hus lighted in some parts by
the sun, it would appear to us that part of the grass was green, and
part a dusty yellow (very nearly of the color of primroses); and, if
there were primroses near, we should think that the sunlighted grass
was another mass of plants of the same sulphur-yellow color. We
should try to gather some of them, and then find that the color went
away from the grass when we stood between it and the sun, but not
from the primroses; and by a series of experiments we should find
out that the sun was really the cause of the color in the one,--not
in the other. We go through such processes of experiment
unconsciously in childhood; and having once come to conclusions
touching the signification of certain colors, we always suppose that
we _see_ what we only know, and have hardly any consciousness of the
real aspect of the signs we have learned to interpret. Very few
people have any idea that sunlighted grass is yellow.

Now, a highly accomplished artist has always reduced himself as
nearly as possible to this condition of infantine sight. He sees the
colors of nature exactly as they are, and therefore perceives at
once in the sunlighted grass the precise relation between the two
colors that form its shade and light. To him it does not seem shade
and light, but bluish green barred with gold.

Strive, therefore, first of all, to convince yourself of this great
fact about sight. This, in your hand, which you know by experience
and touch to be a book, is to your eye nothing but a patch of white,
variously gradated and spotted; this other thing near you, which by
experience you know to be a table, is to your eye only a patch of
brown, variously darkened and veined; and so on: and the whole art
of Painting consists merely in perceiving the shape and depth of
these patches of color, and putting patches of the same size, depth,
and shape on canvas. The only obstacle to the success of painting
is, that many of the real colors are brighter and paler than it is
possible to put on canvas: we must put darker ones to represent
them.

[2] Stale crumb of bread is better, if you are making a delicate
drawing, than india-rubber, for it disturbs the surface of the paper
less: but it crumbles about the room and makes a mess; and, besides,
you waste the good bread, which is wrong; and y