When nature paints she does so with the brush of beauty, dipped in the pigment of truth. The tender affection of a ray of light touches the heart of a rose, brings a blush to its cheek, and life, becoming the bride of chemical affinity, blooms into surpassing beauty and loveliness. Photography is closely allied to nature’s painting, for just as light brings into existence nature’s living beauties, so does light fix, preserve, and perpetuate these beauties by the same subtile and mysterious agency of a quickened chemical affinity. Photography is both an art and a science, and as such is both beautiful and true. It is an art intimately associated with the tenderest affections of the human heart in keeping alive its precious memories. By it the youthful sweetheart of long ago, the loving face of the departed mother, and the cherished form of the dead child are brought back to us in familiar presence, while our great men have become the every-day friends and ideals of the common people. What an enrichment and satisfaction it would have added to our lives if the art had been coeval with history, and all the world’s exalted scenes and faces had come to us through the camera with the knowledge of absolute truth and fidelity. But not only in portraiture is photography a great art, for it catches the stately pose of the mountain, the grandeur of the sea, the beauty of the forest, or the majesty of Niagara Falls, and brings them all home to us, even to the vision of the bed-ridden invalid. The camera alike records the secrets of the starry heavens and the bacteria of the microscopic world. Hanging on the tail of a kite it photographs the face of mother earth, and, acting quicker than the lightning, it catches and defines the path of that erratic flash. It plays the part of a private detective, and its testimony in court is never doubted. The architect, engineer, and illustrator find it in constant requisition. By the aid of the Roentgen Rays, it locates a bullet in a wounded soldier, and takes a picture of one’s spinal column. In fact, it sees and records things both visible and invisible, acts with the rapidity of thought, and is never mistaken.