Nature and Art
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music.
But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful - as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony.
To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano .., The dignity of the snow-capped mountain is lost in distinctness, but the joy of the tourist is to recognize the traveller on the top. The desire to see, for the sake of seeing, is, with the mass, alone the one to be gratified, hence the delight in detail.
And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us - then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and her master - her son in that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.
To him her secrets are unfolded; to him her lessons have become gradually clear. He looks at her flower, not with the enlarging lens, that he may gather facts for the botanist, but with the light of the one who sees in her choice selection of brilliant tones and delicate tints, suggestions of future harmonies.
He does not confine himself to purposeless copying, without thought, each blade of grass, as commended by the inconsequent, but, in the long curve of the narrow leaf, corrected by the straight tall stem, he learns how grace is wedded to dignity, how strength enhances sweetness, that elegance shall be the result.
In the citron wing of the pale butterfly, with its dainty spots of orange, he sees before him the stately halls of fair gold, with their slender saffron pillars, and is taught how the delicate drawing high upon the walls shall be traced in tender tones of orpiment, and repeated by the base in notes of graver hue.
In all that is dainty and lovable he finds hints for his own combinations, and thus is Nature ever his resource and always at his service, and to him is naught refused.
参考译文
自然与艺术
无论从色彩还是形状来讲，大自然都蕴涵着所有的绘画成分，就如同键盘包含着所有音乐的音符一样。
而艺术家天生便具有这种才华，从这些成分加以选择，并巧妙的结合起来，绘一幅美丽的画卷。这就好比是音乐家从无序的声音中选择音符，形成自己的和弦之音，创作出优美和谐的乐章。
如果说画家是以大自然的本貌去创作，那么对于演奏家而言，他便可以坐在钢琴旁了……高山巍立，白雪皑皑，却因过于清晰而失去了威严，然而攀爬者却因能一睹登颠者之风采而独享一份乐趣。与众人登高一望，满足极目远眺之愿，然乐趣却也只体现在一睹细枝末节罢了。
傍晚，诗般迷雾如面纱笼罩溪边，破旧的房屋隐遁于昏暗的夜色中，高耸的烟囱好似一座座钟楼，间间库房宛如夜里的宫殿，整座城市悬于天宇，一切如仙境般呈现在我们眼前。此时，旅人疾步踏归途；而无论是劳动者，有学识者，智者，还是享乐之人，均因再看不见这一切而无顿悟。曾经歌唱的大自然，此刻只为艺术家吟唱美妙的旋律，他既是她的儿子也是她的主人——爱而为其子，知而为其主。
为艺术家，大自然展示着她的奥秘；也只因他，其内涵才渐渐得以显现。艺术家对花的观察，不是用植物学家收集实证的放大镜，而是用一屡光，透过它便可以看到由灿烂的色调及美妙的色彩所将描绘出的和谐画面。
他不会像那些于此不搭调的人那样，不假思索，毫无目的地誊摹每一片叶子；相反地，他却从卷曲的叶脉和细长的茎干中，领略到其庄严中透着优雅，力量中透着甜美，最终创作出高雅美妙的作品。
一只浅色的蝴蝶，柚色的翅膀上嵌有精美的橘色斑点，而呈现在他眼前的却是金碧辉煌的殿堂上竖着细长金黄立柱，并意识到那誊于高墙上的精美画卷，是以柔和的雄黄色配以更淡的底色描绘而成。
所有的这些精美可爱的色彩都给予他创作的灵感。大自然成了他创作的源泉，为他服务，无丝毫拒绝。
