the force of that word of the Lord to the first toiler, "In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."

Three men are standing before Millet's canvas.

One recognizes the subject of the picture. With the pleasure of
recognition he notes what the artist has here represented, and he is
interested in the situation. This is a peasant, and he is sowing his
grain. So the onlooker stands and watches the peasant in his
movement, and he _thinks_ about the sower, recalling any sower he
may have read of or seen or known, his own sower rather than the
one that Millet has seen and would show to him. This man's pleasure
in the picture has its place.

The second of the three men is attracted by the qualities of execution
which the work displays, and he is delighted by what he calls the
"actual beauty" of the painting. With eyes close to the canvas he
notes the way Millet has handled his materials, his drawing, his
color, his surfaces and edges, all the knack of the brush-work,
recognizing in his examination of the workmanship of the picture
that though Millet was a very great artist, he was not a great painter,
that the reach of his ideas was not equaled by his technical skill.
Then as the beholder stands back from the canvas to take in the
ensemble, his eye is pleased by the color-harmony, it rests lovingly
upon the balance of the composition, and follows with satisfaction
the rhythmic flow of line. His enjoyment is both intellectual and
sensuous. And that too has its place.

The third spectator, with no thought of the facts around which the
picture is built, not observing the technical execution as such,
unconscious at the moment also of its merely sensuous charm, feels
within himself, "_I_ am that peasant!" In his own spirit is enacted
the agelong world-drama of toil. He sees beyond the bare subject of
the picture; the medium with all its power of sensuous appeal and
satisfaction becomes transparent. The beholder enters into the very
being of the laborer; and as he identifies himself with this other life
outside of him, becoming one with it in spirit and feeling, he adds
just so much to his own experience. In his reception of the meaning
of Millet's painting of the "Sower" he lives more deeply and
abundantly.

It is the last of these three men who stands in the attitude of full and
true appreciation. The first of the three uses the picture simply as a
point of departure; his thought travels away from the canvas, and he
bu