ONE of the most experienced artists in New York remarked recently that he believed the time would come when schools would be established to teach the eye how to see, just as schools are formed now to educate the voice. Such schools undoubtedly are needed. Many of my young readers have heard or read about optical illusions, — the curious mistakes which the eye sometimes makes concerning an object at which it is looking; but few of us know how frequently we ourselves are the victims of optical illusions of one sort or another. The fact is, we see nearly as much with our experience as we see with our eyes. We know an object to be of a certain form in one position, and of a certain color in one light; and we are too apt to fancy that we see it of that form and color in all positions and lights, regardless of the fact that, seen from another stand-point, the contour of it may appear entirely different, and that a different light may totally change the color of it. We all know that the actual color of clean boots is black, and a beginner in painting almost always paints them perfectly black, whereas the direct rays of the sun or of an artificial light may make them appear nearly white in parts; while if they be placed near some bright substance, such as a piece of orange-peel, or a crimson scarf, they will

reflect the color of that object, and so become orange or red in parts, and an expert painter would so represent them. We hear people speak of "the white of the eye," and beginners with the brush often give a very ghastly expression to their attempts at portraiture by painting the white of the eye pure white; whereas, owing to the projection of the brows, the lids, and the lashes, it is often thrown into deep shade, and may be even darker than some of the flesh tints. Now, if their eyes were trained like those of a skilled artist, they would know the true color of all objects they beheld. But this is the very hardest thing an artist has to learn, namely, to know really what he does see.

In coloring, almost everything depends upon the nature of the light. A white handkerchief is black in a dark room.

An excellent aid to the study of color is to take a white card, and with your paints try to match on it some tint in any oil - painting, chromo, or even colored fabric which you may have. Then cut a small hole in the card adjoining your tint, and place the card over the tint you have copied, so that you can see it through the hole, side by side with your own attempt. Then you will see at once how nearly you have matched the tint.

Some people, as we know, are color-blind, or unable to distinguish one color from another; while some races, particularly the people of India,

its details may appear dimmed; or, to attain the same effect, a piece of gauze may be held before the eyes. And while suggesting expedients, I may mention that you can make for yourself a capital mechanical aid to accurate drawing by taking a hollow frame,-a box with the bottom removed is the best,and dividing one of the open ends into squares by means of threads placed cross-wise and perpendicularly, as shown in the illustration. Set up this frame at a distance of several feet from your eye, between you and the object you wish to draw, so that you see the object and its surroundings (or the piece of landscape) through the frame, divided into squares by the threads. Then divide your paper into similar squares with pencil lines corresponding to the threads, and, guided by the threads and the lines, you have only to copy the picture that is framed by the box.

can perceive a great variety of shades, which the most cultivated European eye fails to distinguish.

But if color is deceptive, so are form and size; and, as to these, we see, even more than in the case of color, with our experience rather than with our eyes. If it were possible for a person who had been born blind to be suddenly endowed with sight, and with the faculty of drawing, I have little doubt that he would delineate objects presented to him more correctly than one who had always had the use of his eyes. It is good practice for beginners in drawing to make strenuous efforts to look at all objects as merely masses of light and shade. To this end it is well to look at the thing to be delineated, with half-closed eyes, so that

As an illustration of our natural tendency to see with our experience, rather than with our eyes, observe how children when they first begin to draw generally represent the nose of a full face, in profile,—and put a full-face eye into a profile face, as represented in Figures 2 and 3.

In his first attempts, too, the school-boy pictures the feet invariably in profile, and the hands flat,

FIG. 3.

FIG. 2.

as if spread out on a table. To put either a hand or foot in any other position utterly baffles him. But hands and feet are the most difficult things

FIG. 8.

FIG. 9.

which even the artist finds to draw. Look at these two black forms, Figures 4 and 5. Would you think that they represented the outlines of a

the experiment of trying to indicate the supposed height of a silk hat. It is probably familiar to mcst of you. Ask any one who has not tried it, to indicate on the wall, with the point of a cane, the level to which he thinks a gentleman's silk hat would reach if placed upon the floor. In nine cases out of ten, the person asked will touch the wall at a height of from ten to twelve inches above the floor, whereas a silk hat is rarely more than six inches high. How deceptive, too, is the length of a horse's head. It seems almost incredible that it should be as long as a flour-barrel; yet such is the fact. Thorough-bred steeds have smaller heads than ordinary horses; but I find that the head of a certain famous racer measures two feet and two inches in length, while the height of a flour-barrel is but two feet four inches.

There are few things so puzzling to estimate correctly, at sight, as the size and form of objects seen "in perspective," as the artists say. To illustrate this: Look at the triangle shown in Figure 8. That little triangle would hardly suggest, to the unpracticed eye, the rails of several miles of railway; yet two lines of

and from H to I. Cut entirely through the cardboard, however, from G to B, from F to E, from H to C, and from I to D. Now fold the four sides of the diagram up into the form of a box, and paste the corners of the ends (marked "Gum") to the outside of the sides.

Now, if you look through the round hole, A, you will see a very long street, the roadway of the greater part of which will be formed by the little triangle, which looks so insignificant in the drawing.

Of course, the effect will be improved if you are enough of an artist to make the drawing upon a larger scale than that of the one here shown, or if some friend will make an enlarged drawing for you. In that case a good way to make the model is to draw your diagram on paper and then paste its parts on the inside of a long box. The boxes in which ladies' corsets are packed are admirably suited for the purpose. By this means you get a stronger and stiffer model, although you may find a little trouble in pasting the drawing neatly and accurately inside the box.

By coloring the houses red, and brown, and white, and the sky blue, the effect will be very much improved.

a very good idea of the first principles of perspective, which are very difficult to acquire from any kind of written explanation. Your eye will thus be taught to know what it sees when it views forms "in perspective," and you will realize that you have not before understood many of the reports of your own eyesight.

I do not know how useful this education of the eye might be to the world at large, except on the general principle that, in all things, accuracy is preferable to inaccuracy; but for all persons who are destined to be engaged in works of skill, from the mechanic to the artist, the training would undoubtedly be of great benefit.

In the present day, accuracy of eye is necessary in a great variety of callings, not only for the mechanic, in the production of manufactures, and the merchant, who must judge of the products, but for the thousands of employees on railroads, steamboats, and ferries, where the safety of life and property often depends, in great degree, upon this accuracy.

With the artist, the training of his eye to know what it sees should precede all other studies, or, at least, should keep step with every advance which he makes in the skill and dexterity belonging to