line in nature, where all things are rounded and full. It is only in
modelling that we really draw,--in other words, that we detach things
from their surroundings and put them in their due relief. The proper
distribution of light can alone reveal the whole body. For this reason
I do not sharply define lineaments; I diffuse about their outline a
haze of warm, light half-tints, so that I defy any one to place a
finger on the exact spot where the parts join the groundwork of the
picture. If seen near by this sort of work has a woolly effect, and is
wanting in nicety and precision; but go a few steps off and the parts
fall into place; they take their proper form and detach themselves,
--the body turns, the limbs stand out, we feel the air circulating
around them.

"Nevertheless," he continued, sadly, "I am not satisfied; there are
moments when I have my doubts. Perhaps it would be better not to
sketch a single line. I ask myself if I ought not to grasp the figure
first by its highest lights, and then work down to the darker
portions. Is not that the method of the sun, divine painter of the
universe? O Nature, Nature! who has ever caught thee in thy flights?
Alas! the heights of knowledge, like the depths of ignorance, lead to
unbelief. I doubt my work."

The old man paused, then resumed. "For ten years I have worked, young
man; but what are ten short years in the long struggle with Nature? We
do not know the type it cost Pygmalion to make the only statue that
ever walked--"

He fell into a reverie and remained, with fixed eyes, oblivious of all
about him, playing mechanically with his knife.