ratique
de Perspective_ of M. A. Cassagne (Paris, 1873), which is thoroughly
artistic, and full of pictorial examples admirably done; and to
M. Henriet's _Cours Rational de Dessin_. There are many other foreign
books of excellence, notably M. Thibault's _Perspective_, and some
German and Swiss books, and yet, notwithstanding this imposing array of
authors, I venture to say that many new features and original problems
are presented in this book, whilst the old ones are not neglected. As,
for instance, How to draw figures at an angle without vanishing points
(see p. 141, Fig. 162, &c.), a new method of angular perspective which
dispenses with the cumbersome setting out usually adopted, and enables
us to draw figures at any angle without vanishing lines, &c., and is
almost, if not quite, as simple as parallel perspective (see p. 133,
Fig. 150, &c.). How to measure distances by the square and diagonal, and
to draw interiors thereby (p. 128, Fig. 144). How to explain the theory
of perspective by ocular demonstration, using a vertical sheet of glass
with strings, placed on a drawing-board, which I have found of the
greatest use (see p. 29, Fig. 29). Then again, I show how all our
perspective can be done inside the picture; that we can measure any
distance into the picture from a foot to a mile or twenty miles (see p.
86, Fig. 94); how we can draw the Great Pyramid, which stands on
thirteen acres of ground, by putting it 1,600 feet off (Fig. 224), &c.,
&c. And while preserving the mathematical science, so that all our
operations can be proved to be correct, my chief aim has been to make it
easy of application to our work and consequently useful to the artist.

[Footnote 2: There is another book called _The Jesuit's Perspective_
which I have not yet seen, but which I hear is a fine work.]

The Egyptians do not appear to have made any use of linear perspective.
Perhaps it was considered out of character with their particular kind of
decoration, which is to be looked upon as picture writing rather than
pictorial art; a table, for instance, would be represented like a
ground-plan and the objects upon it in elevation or standing up. A row
of chariots with their horses and drivers side by side were placed one
over the other, and although the Egyptians had no doubt a reason for
this kind of representation, for they were grand artists, it seems to us
very primitive; and indeed quite young beginners who have never drawn
from real