[58] Modern Painters, vol. iii., Preface, pp. 11, 12.
[59] Sir Francis Chantrey, the celebrated sculptor, shewed me, many years ago, a Sketch-Book, containing numerous drawings which he had made with the Camera Lucida, while travelling from London to Edinburgh by the Lakes. He pointed out to me the flatness, or rather lowness, of hills, which to his own eye appeared much higher, but which, notwithstanding, gave to him the idea of a greater elevation. In order to put this opinion to the test of experiment, I had drawings made by a skilful artist of the three Eildon hills opposite my residence on the Tweed, and was surprised to obtain, by comparing them with their true perspective outlines, a striking confirmation of the observation made by Sir Francis Chantrey.
[60] By using large lenses, we may obtain the picture of an object within the picture of an opaque one in front of it; and with a telescope, we may see through opaque objects of a certain size. Many singular experiments may be made by taking photographs of solid objects, simple or compound, with lenses larger than the objects themselves.
[61] In a landscape by Mr. Waller Paton, called the “Highland Stream,” now in the Edinburgh Exhibition, the foreground consists principally of a bed of water-worn stones, on the margin of a pool at the bottom of a waterfall. The stones are so exquisitely painted, that nature only could have furnished the originals. We may examine them at a few inches’ distance, and recognise forms and structures with which we have been long familiar. A water-ousel, peculiar to Scottish brooks and rivers, perched upon one of them, looks as anxiously around as if a schoolboy were about to avail himself of the missiles at his feet.
[62] These views are well illustrated by the remarkable photographs of the Crimean war.
[63] A French sculptor has actually modelled a statue from the stereoscopic relief of binocular pictures.
[64] See my Treatise on the Kaleidoscope, second edition, just published.
[65] “The importance of establishing a permanent Museum of Education in this country, with the view of introducing improvements in the existing methods of instruction, and specially directing public attention in a practical manner to the question of National Education, has been of late generally recognised.”—Third Report of the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, presented to both Houses of Parliament, p. 37. Lond., 1856.
[66] This fine invention we owe to Mr. Paul Pretsch, late director of the Imperial Printing Office at Vienna. It is secured by patent, and is now in practical operation in Holloway Place, Islington.
[67] An accomplished traveller, the Rev. Mr. Bridges, who ascended Mount Etna for the purpose of taking Talbotype drawings of its scenery, placed his camera on the edge of the crater to obtain a representation of it. No sooner was the camera fixed and the sensitive paper introduced, than an eruption took place, which forced Mr. Bridges to quit his camera in order to save his life. When the eruption closed, he returned to collect the fragments of his instrument, when, to his great surprise and delight, he found that his camera was not only uninjured, but contained a picture of the crater and its eruption.