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IMPORTANCE OF THE ABSTHETIC AIM IN DRAWING. 465 
me, of their danger. For the study of drawing is really a much simpler 
matter than we seem to think. There is an object or a pattern that is 
simple and interesting. Look at it, and see if you can make a drawing 
that will recall its appearance or convey some notion of its form and 
character, some idea of its proportions, some hint of the grace that is in 
its lines, if there is any grace there. Until you can do this, no matter 
how old you are or how long you have been at it, it will not be of much 
ase to try to teach you the historical styles, or the making of working 
drawings or ‘geometric views,” whatever that may mean ; you need not 
sother your head with perspective, and all the original designs you can 
make will amount to nothing at all, or next to nothing. 
To draw a thing well is to convey by means of a drawing a fair idea of 
the qualities that distinguish it from other things, to portray its character, 
io emphasize and celebrate, if you please, the essential truths on which its 
appearance depends. This means, I think, that the object studied should 
have a definite and distinct character to begin with ; that it should not 
be commonplace or uninteresting, but should be something whose appear- 
ance would seem to deserve this kind of perpetuation and celebration ; 
and, as I have already tried to show, it seems to me that the one quality 
whose embodiment in all sorts of available objects for study is freest 
from technical or other complications, and whose message to the mind of 
the student is likely to be most direct and most universally profitable, is 
beauty, and I believe there was never a time when the duty of proclaiming 
his kind of truth was greater than it is at present. 
The tendency to exalt the commonplace, to celebrate the insignificant, 
is one of the most striking faults of the art of to-day. It will bear repeating 
on all sorts of occasions that it is our duty to ‘“love the highest,” and 
that it is the business of art to help us cherish noble ideals. Now the 
opposite of all this in drawing, as in all sorts of craftsmanship, is the 
mechanical babit. It is this that is to be dreaded and discouraged. 
Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying anything against 
.nechanical trades, against the use of tools and instruments of any kind. 
[ am speaking of that habit of mind which, for want of a better term, we 
2all mechanical, because, like the work of a machine—however accurate, 
ind even delicate, it may be—it is not self-directed, and its product is not 
the embodiment of an original conception. 
If we abandon or neglect the art idea we are pretty sure to pin our 
faith to the mechanical one, to attach undue importance to mere accuracy 
and to qualities that can be tested by rule and level. This habit cramps 
the mind instead of expanding it ; tends to make it timid and dependent, 
to rely on precedent and authority instead of seeking original sources of 
terest and power. But if the merely exact and mechanical is to be 
objected to, the merely natural is quite as carefully to be avoided ; and 
perhaps, on the whole, the grossness of nature-worship is more to be dreaded 
30