er because he perceives in it some harmony
of color and form which through the eye appeals to the emotions.
His vision does not transmit every fact in the landscape;
instinctively his eye in its sweep over meadow and trees and hill
selects those details that compose. By this act of _integration_ he is
for himself in so far forth an artist. If he were a painter he would
know what elements in the landscape to put upon his canvas. But he
has no skill in the actual practice of drawing and of handling the
brush, no knowledge of mixing colors and matching tones; he
understands nothing of perspective and "values" and the relations of
light and shade. He knows only what he sees, that the landscape as
he sees it is beautiful; and equally he recognizes as beautiful the
presentment of it upon canvas. He is ignorant of the technical
problems with which the painter in practice has had to contend in
order to reach this result; it is the result only that is of concern to
him in so far as it is or is not what he desires. The painter's color is
significant to him, not because he knows how to mix the color for
himself, but because that color in nature has spoken to him
unutterable things and he has responded to it. The layman cannot
make a sunset and he cannot paint a picture; but he can enjoy both.
So he cares, then, rather for what the painter has done than for how
he has done it, because the processes do not enter into his own
experience. The picture has a meaning for him in the measure that it
expresses what he perceives and feels, and that is the beauty of the
landscape.

Any knowledge of technical processes which the layman may
happen to possess may be a source of intellectual pleasure. But for
appreciation, only so much understanding of technique is necessary
as enables him to receive the message of a given work in the degree
of expressiveness which the artist by his use of his medium has
attained. A clue to this understanding may come to him by intuition,
by virtue of his own native insight and intelligence. He may gain it
by reading or by instruction. He may go out and win it by intrepid
questioning of those who know; and it is to be hoped that such will
be very patient with him, for after all even a layman has the right to
live. Once started on the path, then, in the mysteries of art as in the
whole complex infinite business of living, he becomes his own tutor
by observation and experience; and he may develop into a fuller
kn