Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-04-06
"HAvlNG EYES, THEY SEE NOT
How Few of Us Ever Apply the
knowledge We So Painfully Acquire.

III Niit' VI tLit ttil'IIdSlS tIittt up-to-
date pedagogy lays upon the training
of the powers OF observation. it re-
mains true that the average man is
decidedly binder than the much
maligned bat to the details of almost
every picture in Natures gallery,
whether by land or sea or sky.
Suppose new star, as bright as
Sirius made its appearance in Bootes,
or Andromeda. or Cygnus. Suppose
Sirius himself vanished from the firm
ancnt How many people would no.
tice the change in the celestial pic
turc? Suppose, by some studendous
miracle, all the stars Mere shifted
about, like the bits of glass In q
Kaleidoscope. and grouped in new
consultations. How many men of the
class that calls itself educated
would. from personal observation,
gather the slightest inkling of what
had taken place?
What proportion of the community
beyond sehoelboy age. can tell the
order OF the colors OF the rainbow >
Most of Us once acquired this bit of
information from book, and speedily
forgot it; for the information was
b. an examination of the rainbow it
self.
Vicarious observation is an indo-
lent habit common to all classes.
scientific men are prone to it. Even
painters. who, so to speak, live by
their eyes, are, as Ruskin has vehem-
entity told us, blinded by convention
to the most obvious facts of nature.
The lessons of Ruskin, and of others
who have preached sincerity in art.
need to be reiterated today. The
crescent moon is still frequently paint
ed with her horns to the west; not
withstanding the fact that this par
ticular piece of imbecility on the part
of the artists has been denounced
again and again. The midnight sky
is still shown with its stars scattered
about wherever the caprice of the
artist chooses to put them. To one
who knows the considerations no
amount of beauty in the ensemble can
save the effect Of such a picture from
being grotesque. AS well represent
herd of cattle adorned with wings. or
the Madonna with a superfuous nose.
Frank conventionalizing is we'll
a wall paper pattern to have much in
common with those depicted in botan-
ical textbooks. But art that aspires to
be more than decoration cannot profit
ably dispense with tine knowledge de-
rived from accurate observation. The
distinction lies in the fact that the
conventional design does not pretend
to portray Nature, while the painting
OF impossible moons and stars does;
and we are repealed by the display Of
the artists ignorance, or perhaps by
what We feel to be his assumption of
our own.
John Burroughs has pointed out that
American poets are prone to pervert
natural history by transplantng the
fauna and flora of Europe across the
Atlantic. The Skylark. of heavenly
voice. is d part of the poets stock
in trade; hut in poem the locale of
which happens to be Iowa, or Nebras-
ka, or Tennessee. he is exactly as
much out of place as the roc or the
dodC. Some of our poets appear to
think that he is, to all intents and
purposes. the same thing as the mead
ow lark-they are both "larks." This
is like expecting pineapples to grow
on pine trees.
Nature lies close about us. from in
fancy to old age. Books are not want
ing TO enable us to interpret her. In
fact. the literature of Nature is just
now enjoying an unprecedented vogue.
The books are Indispensable, even if
they serve no other purpose than to
supply us with our vocabulary-to en-
able us to name what we see. But
let US not trust to books alone, or
chiefly. Let us use our eyes.
Let us apply the great art of OBJ
servation. instead of merely preach
ing about it.-Scientific American.