VISUAL ART.
(ro TRR EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sta,—I reluctantly ask permission to reply to remarks that would seem to imply a somewhat hasty perusal on the part of your reviewer. You have not reviewed my "Preface "at all,—only a few sentences in the "Introduction," that need no apology from me. But if my illustrated chapter on the proper placement of objects within any artificial boundary be not sufficiently clear, the fault is not in the text. Nor is the latter "part of the book devoted to the manufacture of pigments," or in any way a trade dissertation, though the note to page 137 gives the names of those who have supplied me with the material essential of all paintings. For the rest, I quite agree with you that writing against the "powers that be" does one no good. Nathan could have done much better for his worldly prospects, had he not told that story to David. But for criticism, think of that of Byron on Burns, whose "monsie-pousie " rhymes are now "household words" all over the world; or of that egotist compiler on Wordsworth, so justly taken to task by the time- honoured periodical that has thus well " advertised " the care- ful publication of W. H. Allen and CO., the "Visual Art" of
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