698 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



inner world of constructive thoiight. 

 The striking peculiarity of the work 

 causes them to overlook the delicate 

 and truthful touches by which the gen- 

 eral harmony and fitness are maintained. 

 The unprecedented qualities in a work 

 of genius are always sustained by a cer- 

 tain truth to nature. 



Originality generally causes severe 

 criticism from contemporary artists, 

 because its tendency is to displace or 

 weaken the established standards. In 

 fact, the opposition usually becomes so 

 intense that the merit of the old meth- 

 od is overlooked on one side, and the 

 great value of a new insight is over- 

 looked on the other. Conservative 

 critics have very often tried to check 

 venturesome innovators by misusing 

 the word mannerism, which does not 

 properly apply to peculiar work. The 

 word means tasteless uniformity. This 

 can be fairly maintained in opposition 

 to critics who think that any incessant- 

 ly-recurring effect, even though origi- 

 nal and striking, is mannerism. Such 

 critical objections ougbt not to influ- 

 ence an artist to abandon a forcible sys- 

 tem of treatment, because the danger 

 of anything really powerful dwindling 

 into a series of tedious repetitions is 

 very slight. 



Where there is merit there is con- 

 tinuous growth, whereby the strong 

 current of individuality or sameness of 

 treatment is accompanied by constant 

 transformations, absorbing new materi- 

 al, and finding new methods of expres- 

 sion. 



It seems obvious that, after suitable 

 instruction, during which any school 

 may have sway, the artist must look for 

 natural effects in the world directly 

 around him. and not in Rome or in 

 Paris. Nor should he use the special 

 colors or tones advocated by conform- 

 ists. Objects appear to him of a cer- 

 tain hue, or a certain action of the hu- 

 man figure appears worth rendering. 

 Let him delineate these as he sees them, 

 and be not discouraged by many failures 



and defects. His strong point may be 

 discerned by close attention to his nat- 

 ural tendencies. In this way the true 

 representation of his impressions will 

 make others conscious of something 

 which before lacked emphasis. Such 

 development of originality in art, ac- 

 companied by hard and conscientious 

 labor, may result in works of great 

 fame, and in the evolution of art to 

 a higher grade of adaptation to nature. 

 In the future, the artist may better ex- 

 press ideal conceptions, because a wider 

 mastery of facts and subjects involves 

 increased power and skill. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SERIES, 

 NO. XXX. 



Animal Life as affected by the Natural 

 Conditions of Existence. By Carl Sem- 

 per, Professor of the University of 

 \Viirtzburg. With Two Maps and One 

 Hundred and Six Woodcuts. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 472 



We have here a volume that will raise 

 still further the already high character of 

 the series to which it belongs. It is a fresh 

 and original contribution to a most interest- 

 ing branch of zoology, which will be indis- 

 pensable to every naturalist, and will be 

 prized by all readers who care for the prog- 

 ress of knowledge concerning the general 

 phenomena of life. Professor Semper is a 

 leading German biologist, and, being a mas- 

 ter of English, he was invited to come to 

 Boston and give a course of twelve lectures 

 before the Lowell Institute. He availed 

 himself of the occasion to bring forward, in 

 a form as popular as the nature of the ma- 

 terials allows, the results of his studies in a 

 special province, zoological science. 



The author is, of course, an evolutionist, 

 and recognizes that Darwin's views have 

 revolutionized biological method. But he 

 thinks one of the results has been to give 

 too great an impulse to speculation. He 

 says that enough has been done by Darwin- 

 ists in the way of philosophizing, and that 

 the task now before us is to apply the test 

 of exact investigation to the hypotheses 



