and the scattered light accounts for the brightness of the shadows.  It should be obvious that variations of these factors affect the appearance or expression of three-dimensional objects.  Therefore the position of a sculptured object with respect to the window or other skylight and the amount of light reflected from the surroundings are important.  Visits to art museums with these factors in mind reveal a gross neglect in the lighting of objects of art which are supposed to appeal by virtue of their appearances, for they can arouse the emotions only through the doorway of vision.

A century ago mankind gave no thought to utilizing the expressive and impressive powers of light except in religious ceremonies.  It was not practicable to utilize light from the feeble flames of those days in the elaborate manner necessary to draw upon these powers.  Man was concerned with the more pressing needs.  He wanted enough light to make the winter evenings endurable and the streets reasonably safe.  The artists of those days saw the wonderful expressions of light exhibited by Nature, but they dared not dream of rivaling these with artificial light.  To-day Nature surpasses man in the production of lighting effects only in magnitude.  Man surpasses her artistically.  In fact, the artist becomes a master only when he can improve upon her settings; when he is able by rare judgment in choosing and in eliminating and by skill and ingenuity to substitute a complete harmony for her incomplete and unsatisfactory reality.  But everywhere Nature is the great teacher, for her world is full of an everchanging infinitude of expressions of light.  Mankind needs only to study these with an attuned sensibility to be able eventually to play the music of light for those who are blessed with an esthetic sense.

XXIV

LIGHTING THE HOME

In the home artificial light exerts its influence upon every one.  Without artificial lighting the family circle may not have become the important civilizing influence that it is to-day.  Certainly civilized man now shudders at the thought of spending his evenings in the light of the fire upon the hearth or of a burning splinter.

The importance of artificial light is emphatically impressed upon the householder when he is forced temporarily to depend upon the primitive candle through the failure of the modern system of lighting.  He flees from his home to that of his more fortunate neighbor, or he retires in his helplessness to awaken in the morning with a blessing for daylight.  He cannot conceive of happiness and recreation in the homes of a century or two ago, when a few candles or an oil-lamp or two were the sole sources of light.  But when the electric or gas service is again restored he relapses shortly into his former placid indifference toward the wonderfully efficient and adequate artificial light of the present age.