some, nor is it possible
that it should be otherwise, so long as the pupil works unassisted by a
master. For the smooth and straight road which admits unembarrassed
progress must, I fear, be dull as well as smooth; and the hedges need to
be close and trim when there is no guide to warn or bring back the
erring traveller. The system followed in this work will, therefore, at
first, surprise somewhat sorrowfully those who are familiar with the
practice of our class at the Working Men's College; for there, the
pupil, having the master at his side to extricate him from such
embarrassments as his first efforts may lead into, is _at once_ set to
draw from a solid object, and soon finds entertainment in his efforts
and interest in his difficulties. Of course the simplest object which it
is possible to set before the eye is a sphere; and practically, I find a
child's toy, a white leather ball, better than anything else; as the
gradations on balls of plaster of Paris, which I use sometimes to try
the strength of pupils who have had previous practice, are a little too
delicate for a beginner to perceive. It has been objected that a circle,
or the outline of a sphere, is one of the most difficult of all lines to
draw. It is so; but I do not want it to be drawn. All that his study of
the ball is to teach the pupil, is the way in which shade gives the
appearance of projection. This he learns most satisfactorily from a
sphere; because any solid form, terminated by straight lines or flat
surfaces, owes some of its appearance of projection to its perspective;
but in the sphere, what, without shade, was a flat circle, becomes,
merely by the added shade, the image of a solid ball; and this fact is
just as striking to the learner, whether his circular outline be true or
false. He is, therefore, never allowed to trouble himself about it; if
he makes the ball look as oval as an egg, the degree of error is simply
pointed out to him, and he does better next time, and better still the
next. But his mind is always fixed on the gradation of shade, and the
outline left to take, 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