SCIENCE VERSUS ART-APPRECIATION. 459 



This implies the perception of art. In this we have the process of 

 growth, for the standard of appreciation is built up out of a countless 

 number of these esthetic judgments judgments rendered by the joint 

 action of the emotion and the intellect. Hence the art-teacher is typified 

 by the horticulturist who trims, buds and nourishes, making all condi- 

 tions as favorable as possible, but recognizing that here his power ends, 

 and that all growth must come from within. As all plant culture 

 requires essentially the same methods, so the cultivation of appreciation 

 rests on a few identical principles, no matter what branch of art is 

 studied. Beneath the apparent diversity, art is a unity. When the 

 pupils of Angelo asked : ' Master, which is the greatest art ? ' he replied : 

 'I know of but one art.' So that our art instruction must rest on the 

 great fact that art is not something done in a corner, but is as broad as 

 human life. Not a nook nor cranny of human activity which does not 

 hold some gem of joyous workmanship. Art shuns no medium, but 

 clothes alike the Parthenon and the humblest object of daily use with 

 dignity and. beauty. As it forms some part of the environment of every 

 child we naturally begin to build its standard of appreciation with the 

 material nearest to hand. In literature, we do not begin with Words- 

 worth and Emerson, nor in music with the Ninth Symphony; why 

 should we begin the study of plastic art with its most exalted forms? 

 Life's interest centers in its immediate environment, and as it is with 

 this that all rational education begins, we commence our instruction by 

 teaching children to appreciate the art in the common and familiar 

 objects which they touch and handle every day. In spite of the most 

 rigid demands of utility, a big percentage of man's toil is devoted to 

 the ornamentation of practical objects. The concrete world takes on 

 every whimsical shape or color that can be thought of to solicit favor, 

 and we pick out objects chiefly for the attributes which please the eye. 

 Few will deny that very much of this is in bad taste and does not satisfy 

 the esthetic sense, but gratifies some merely transitory feeling. Not- 

 withstanding, we surround ourselves with these tawdry objects, because 

 in the bewildering flood of forms and colors in which human effort takes 

 shape we must direct our course by the chart with which we are most 

 familiar, and this as the world goes is a price-list. Trusting too much 

 to this, and urged on by fickle motives, it is not strange that in our 

 search for art we lose all bearings, like the sailors perishing from thirst 

 who hailed a distant ship for a little fresh water: 'Dip down! You're 

 in the Amazon ! ' was signaled back. 



Though few are aware of it, in every neighborhood are some works 

 of art in daily use, and more hidden away in garrets, such as articles of 

 table service, embroideries, household furniture, toys, kitchen utensils 

 and workmen's tools. Nearly every kind of article has at times been 

 made by artists. What a surprise to most young people to find out that 



