we ask, "Who is she, or he?" The general and not the particular suffices;
the type not the person. The painter's art contains few stronger touches
through this means than the incident of the sleeping senator in Gerome's
_"__Death of Caesar__"_.

In the suggestion of an idea, graphic and plastic art rise to the highest
levels of poetry. The picture or the poem then becomes the surface,
refracting the idea which stretches on into infinity.

The dying lion of Lucerne, mortally pierced by the shaft, the wounded lion
of Paris, striking under his forepaw the arrow meant for his destruction
are symbols memorializing the Swiss guard of Louis XVI, and the unequal
struggle of France against Germany in '72.

At the death of Lorenzo the arts languished and Michel Angelo's supine and
hanging figures in his tomb are there to indicate it.

MYSTERY.

Suggestion with its phantom guide-posts leads us through its varied mazes
to the dwelling-place of mystery. Here the artist will do well to tarry
and learn all the oracle may teach him.

The positive light of day passes to the twilight of the moon and stars.

What things may be seen and forms created out of the simple mystery of
twilight!

Its value by suggestion may be known technically to the artist, for
through the elimination of detail, the work is sifted to its essence and
we then see it in its bigness, if it has any, and if not we discover this
lack. When the studio light fails our best critic enters and discloses in
a few moments what we have been looking for all day long.

There should be in most pictures an opportunity of saying that which shall
be interpreted by each one according to his temperament, a little place
where each may delight in setting free his own imagination.

To account for the popularity of many pictures in both color and black and
white on any other ground than that of mystery seems ofttimes impossible.
The strong appeal made to all classes by subjects containing mysterious
suggestion is evidenced by the frequency of awards to such in photographic
and other competitions.

The student of photography asks if blurred edges, empty shadows and
vaporous detail mean quality. They certainly mean mystery, which when
applied to an appropriate subject signifies that the artist has joined his
art with the imagination of the beholder. He has therefore let it out at
large usury.

A cottage near a wood may be a very ordinary subject at three in the