en rearrange
them. For example, a description by Ruskin begins, "Nine years old."
Either a boy or a girl, the reader thinks, as it may be in his own
home. In the case of this reader it is a boy, rather tall of his age,
with brown hair and dark eyes. But the next phrase reads, "Neither
tall nor short for her age." Now the reader knows it is a girl of
common stature. Later on he learns that her eyes are "deep blue;" her
lips "perfectly lovely in profile;" and so on through the details of
the whole sketch. Many times in the course of the description the
reader makes up a new picture; he is continually reconstructing. Any
one who will observe his own mind while reading a new description can
prove that the picture is arranged and rearranged many times. This is
due to the means by which it is presented. Language presents only a
phrase at a time,--a fragment, not a whole,--and so fails in the
instantaneous presentation of a complete picture.

Painting and Sculpture.

The painter or sculptor who upon canvas or in stone flashes the whole
composition before us at the same instant of time, has great
advantages over the worker in words. In these methods there is needed
no reconstruction of previous images, no piecing together of a number
of fragments. Without any danger of mistakes which will have to be
corrected later, the spectator can take in the whole picture at
once,--every relation, every color, every difference in values.

It is because pictures are the surest and quickest means of
representing objects to the mind that books, especially text-books,
and magazines are so profusely illustrated. No magazine can claim
popularity to-day that does not use illustrations where possible; no
text-book in science or history sells unless it contains pictures. And
this is because all persons accurately and quickly get the idea from a
picture.

Advantages of Language.

Whatever be the disadvantages of language, there are some advantages.
Who could paint this from Hawthorne?

"Soon the smoke ascended among the trees, impregnated with
_savory incense,_ not _heavy, dull,_ and _surfeiting,_ like
the steam of cookery indoors, but _sprightly_ and _piquant._
The _smell_ of our feast was akin to the woodland odors with
which it mingled." ("Mosses from an Old Manse.")

Or this from Lowell?--

"Under the yaller-pines I house,
When sunshine makes 'em all _sweet-scented,_
An' _hear_ among their f