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                         HE value of all verbal direction, in the manual
operations of art,
                         must be, necessarily, very limited, and can only
be available to
                         those already, in some degree at .least, familiar
with them.      Any
                         one who desires to make a beginning in any style
of painting can
                         learn more to the purpose by half an hour's observation
of an
                         artist at work than by toiling through. a dozen
volumes.          The
                         knowledge thus gained, however, can assist only
to a beginning,
                         by placing the means and materials in hand, a trial
of which,
once made, however unsuccessful, the work is commenced-a step is taken; the
next must lead
to progress, and then books and verbal instruction may become of real service.
 The main reliance,
in seeking the development of the power, capacity, and nature of the materials,
as well as in matu-
ring the hand and judgment in their proper application, must nevertheless
be placed in the lessons
to be derived from practical experience.  In this respect, the advice which
has been given, in
reibrence to linear operations, is equally applicable to painting, as to
all the processes, means, and
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