._--I hope it is not necessary to urge the
importance of _work_. It is not of much use to work only when we _feel
inclined_; many people very seldom do feel naturally inclined. Perhaps
there are few things so sweet as the triumph of working _through_
disinclination till it is leavened through with the will and becomes
enjoyment by becoming conquest. To work through the dead three o'clock
period on a July afternoon with an ache in the small of one's back and
one's limbs all a-jerk with nervousness, drooping eyelids, and a general
inclination to scream. At such a time, I fear, one sometimes falls back
on rather low and sordid motives to act as a spur to the lethargic will.
I think of the shortness of the time, the greatness of the task, but
also of all those hosts of others who, if I lag, must pass me in the
race. Not of actual rivals--or good nature and sense of comradeship
would always break the vision--but of possible and unknown ones whom it
is my habit to club all together and typify under the style and title of
"that fellow Jones." And at such a time it is my habit to say or think,
"Aha! I bet Jones is on his back under a plane tree!"--or thoughts to
that effect--and grasp the charcoal firmer.

It is habits and dodges and ways of thinking such as these that will
gradually cultivate in you the ability to "stand and deliver," as they
say in the decorative arts. For, speaking now to the amateur (if any
such, picture-painter or student, are hesitating on the brink of an art
new to them), you must know that these arts are not like
picture-painting, where you can choose your own times and seasons: they
are always done to definite order and expected in a definite time; and
that brings me to speak of the very important subject of "Clients."

_Of Clients and Patrons._--It must, of course, be left to each one to
establish his own relations with those who ask work of him; but a few
hints may be given.

You will get many requests that will seem to you unreasonable and
impossible of carrying out--some no doubt will really be so; but at
least _consider them_. Remember what we said a little way back--not to
be set on your own allegory, but to accept your subject from outside and
add your poetic thought to it. And also what in another place we said
about keeping all "solvent"--so do with actual suggestion of subject and
with the wishes of your client: treat the whole thing as "raw material,"
and all surrounding questions as facto