n give rise. The
_plein air_, or broad daylight effects, are but one item of the great
range of this ever-changing and deepening mystery--from the hard reality
to the soft blending of evening when form almost disappears, even to the
merging of the whole landscape, nay, the whole world, into a
dream--which is felt rather than seen, but possesses a charm that almost
defies the pencil of the painter, and can only be expressed by the deep
and sweet notes of the poet and the musician. For love and reverence are
necessary to appreciate and to present it.

There is also much to learn about artificial light. For here, again, the
study is endless: from the glare of a hundred lights--electric and
otherwise--to the single lamp or candle. Indeed a whole volume could be
filled with illustrations of its effects. To those who aim at producing
intense brilliancy, refusing to acknowledge any limitations to their
capacity, a hundred or a thousand lights commend themselves; and even
though wild splashes of paint may sometimes be the result, still the
effort is praiseworthy. But those who prefer the mysterious lighting of
a Rembrandt will find, if they sit contemplating in a room lit with one
lamp only, that an endless depth of mystery surrounds them, full of dark
recesses peopled by fancy and sweet thought, whilst the most beautiful
gradations soften the forms without distorting them; and at the same
time he can detect the laws of this science of light and shade a
thousand times repeated and endless in its variety.

_Note._--Fig. 288 must be looked upon as a rough sketch which only gives
the general effect of the original drawing; to render all the delicate
tints, tones and reflections described in the text would require a
highly-finished reproduction in half-tone or in colour.

As many of the figures in this book had to be re-drawn, not a light
task, I must here thank Miss Margaret L. Williams, one of our Academy
students, for kindly coming to my assistance and volunteering her
careful co-operation.

CLXIV

REFLECTION

[Transcriber's Note:
In this chapter, [R] represents "R" printed upside-down.]

Reflections in still water can best be illustrated by placing some
simple object, such as a cube, on a looking-glass laid horizontally on a
table, or by studying plants, stones, banks, trees, &c., reflected in
some quiet pond. It will then be seen that the reflection is the
counterpart of the object reversed, and having the