s of a Montaigne, he might tell us how he ties his
shoe-strings and how he shapes his moustache; but since we know that Mr.
Hamerton is a cultivated gentleman and serious student, we regret that
he exposes himself to the charge of being an English snob. Our simple
American Thoreau was endowed with better taste; for, though he wrote a
very detailed account of his hermit-life on the shore of Walden Pond,
his book is entirely free from vulgarity. Thoreau knew how to elevate
the trivial and confer dignity on the meanest. But Mr. Hamerton, hearty,
healthful, self-reliant Englishman that he is, contrives to let us know
that he is also a very elegant fellow even in camp. The personality
revealed in Mr. Hamerton's "Painter's Camp" is very English; and when we
have said this, we have said all. But let no one be deterred from making
the acquaintance of Mr. Hamerton even in his "Painter's Camp"; for he is
young, he is hearty, he is interesting, and he is manly.

We know of no books which are the result of more faithful study and
practical consideration of the painter's function, and which, at the
same time, are so free from technical jargon. Mr. Hamerton is
preeminently a useful writer on Art; he is certainly accurate and
comprehensive. Carefully going over the ground which he occupies with
his "Thoughts about Art," we have been surprised and delighted by the
seriousness and conscientiousness of his expositions. He spares no pains
to make his reader understand the present condition of Art, and he
fairly states and answers some of the most puzzling questions that have
agitated modern painters and confused simple students. He at all times
escapes cheap rhetoric and that facile enthusiasm begotten in some by
the very name of Art. He leaves all that to the _dilettanti_, and
addresses in a simple business-like style men who are not less serious
and earnest than himself. Yet Mr. Hamerton does not write a bald and
meagre style, nor is he insensible to the poetic and imaginative
elements of his theme. He can quicken a glow and arouse an emotion, when
he writes of the mighty poetry of Turner's Temeraire, or of the
mysterious, the melancholy charm of a portrait opposite the great
Veronese in the Louvre. Mr. Hamerton's literary skill is considerable;
but he does not abound in verbal felicities, nor has he any affluence of
style. He is at all times clear, he is at all times exact, and he is
often a vigorous writer. Common-sense, patience, and