56 



On the concluding branch of his subject, — viz., a consideration of the 

 tendencies of art — he said, the poet's page had not only been dh-ectly the 

 instrument of the highest refinement and exaltation of wliich humanity 

 was susceptible to the favoured of nature, the elect of taste, but through 

 their medium, by means of their example, it had imbued with intellectual 

 sweetness the public mind, and conduced to the moral and mental im- 

 provement of the lowest in the social scale. But whilst the poet was 

 followed in his lofty flights by all who think and feel, how few were the 

 genuine recipients of the artist's inspirations, who entered his magic circle 

 and participated in his emotions ! 



The painter and sculptor were poets also, who, through their respective 

 media — their epics and dramas — expressed tiniths as great and as sublime ; 

 but what, he would ask, had they done ? — where were their fruits of 

 labour? They had, doubtless, given pleasure by symmetry of form, 

 contrast and harmony of colour, and light and shade, and all that go to 

 make up sensuous beauty ; they had gratified the animal feeling, but 

 what nobler purpose in relation to the soul had been answered by their 

 works ? The failure he complained of proceeded less from a want of 

 power in our art productions, than from the prevalence of narrow and 

 false views of art itself, and of what constitutes the perfect and entire 

 man. Pictorial and sculptural art spoke not merely to the intellect and 

 senses, but to the heart and spirit, carrying "healing on its wings ;" 

 and there were inherent qualities in the human breast to which its 

 objects appealed ; for beauty, which was the symbol of goodness, had a 

 natural tendency to exalt the mind ; but this truth was not generally 

 recognized, and art was estimated too much from an intellectual point 

 of view, to the neglect of the spiritual, and this narrowness of compre- 

 hension reflected back an injurious influence upon the quality of 

 art-produce. 



But a cause of the inefficacy of art, which he had never heard adverted 

 to, was its being unreflected in the daily lives of artists. We looked 

 for the most vivid manifestation of religion in the demeanour of its 

 ministers ; and if we did not find it, we hearkened but impatiently to 

 their precept. The artist was a revealer of the beautiful and true to 

 others, but what did the truth and beauty of the universe profit himself ? 

 He used the word artist here in its mdest sense, as inclusive of poet 

 and musician, along with the painter, sculptor, and architect ; and he 

 spoke advisedly when he said, that whatever eff'ect their art might have 

 upon the hves of others, it appeared to have none upon their own. Not 

 only were their lives out of keeping with their art-achievements, but 

 they were more out of harmony with the whisperings of art than other 

 men's. So far from being great men, — men commensurate with their 



