d more practical, but less
eloquent, defines the relation of the painter to Nature and the
limitations of imitation. Ruskin splendidly opened the campaign for
modern Art, and he has found servile and ignorant executive officers;
but Hamerton is an independent officer, who crosses the enemy's country,
beats his foe in detail, and according to his own method. Ruskin is
superb in his combinations; Hamerton exact in his method, and careful to
protect his rear. Therefore the most _useful_ books that could be placed
in the hands of the American Art public at present are Hamerton's
"Painter's Camp" and "Thoughts about Art." The latter volume is most
carefully considered, and is the result of unwearied practice in the
study of Art and Nature. For Mr. Hamerton has studied Nature as a man
indoctrinated with the ideas of Ruskin; he has generalized about Art as
one who has emancipated himself from a master in thought; and he has
enlarged his views by varied reading and familiarity with ancient and
modern painting. In some respects Mr. Hamerton's books may be taken as
the literary proof of a school which is said to include "many men of
rare gifts and uncommon culture," and which, profiting by the reform
introduced by Millais, Hunt, and Rossetti, yet also supplements that
reform with a more catholic taste and a less ascetic manner than were
shown by the immediate agents of the first great revolution in English
Art. It follows that some account of Mr. Hamerton's writings is called
for, and will be welcomed. He is at once able, useful, and
representative of the latest tendencies of Art criticism.

Mr. Hamerton's first volume, entitled "A Painter's Camp in the
Highlands," we regret to say, is not a felicitous introduction to the
valuable "Thoughts about Art," which give the title to the second. It is
unpleasantly inlaid with egotism and enamelled with self-consciousness.
Mr. Hamerton's critics cannot withhold attention from so prominent a
feature of his book. The obtrusiveness of his personality invites
attention. He seems not to have learned the art of existing fully in his
work, without dreaming to speak of himself. True, any account of a
painter's camp necessarily solicits much consideration of its occupant;
but it does not follow that we should be bored with trivial details, and
anecdotes simply flattering to the personal appearance of the painter.
If Mr. Hamerton proposed to write a book of gossip, if he were ambitious
of the honor