e, in due time, care of itself. I call it outline, for the sake of
immediate intelligibility,--strictly speaking, it is merely the edge of
the shade; no pupil in my class being ever allowed to draw an outline,
in the ordinary sense. It is pointed out to him, from the first, that
Nature relieves one mass, or one tint, against another; but outlines
none. The outline exercise, the second suggested in this letter, is
recommended, not to enable the pupil to draw outlines, but as the only
means by which, unassisted, he can test his accuracy of eye, and
discipline his hand. When the master is by, errors in the form and
extent of shadows can be pointed out as easily as in outline, and the
handling can be gradually corrected in details of the work. But the
solitary student can only find out his own mistakes by help of the
traced limit, and can only test the firmness of his hand by an exercise
in which nothing but firmness is required; and during which all other
considerations (as of softness, complexity, etc.) are entirely excluded.

x. Both the system adopted at the Working Men's College, and that
recommended here, agree, however, in one principle, which I consider the
most important and special of all that are involved in my teaching:
namely, the attaching its full importance, from the first, to local
color. I believe that the endeavor to separate, in the course of
instruction, the observation of light and shade from that of local
color, has always been, and must always be, destructive of the student's
power of accurate sight, and that it corrupts his taste as much as it
retards his progress. I will not occupy the reader's time by any
discussion of the principle here, but I wish him to note it as the only
distinctive one in my system, so far as it _is_ a system. For the
recommendation to the pupil to copy faithfully, and without alteration,
whatever natural object he chooses to study, is serviceable, among other
reasons, just because it gets rid of systematic rules altogether, and
teaches people to draw, as country lads learn to ride, without saddle or
stirrups; my main object being, at first, not to get my pupils to hold
their reins prettily, but to "sit like a jackanapes, never off."

xi. In these written instructions, therefore, it has always been with
regret that I have seen myself forced to advise anything like monotonous
or formal discipline. But, to the unassisted student, such formalities
are indispensable, and I am no