338 FINE ARTS. 



The lecturer here enters, at considerable len^h, into details 

 connected with the finances and conduct of the institution, and 

 remarks in conclusion — "Charity," says the Apostle— that is— • 

 Christian fellowship — brotherly kindness — the benevolent, well- 

 regulated mind "thinketh no evil" — "envieth not" — it " seeketh 

 not its own" — that is, its improper aggrandizement, — but it is 

 added that it " rejoiceth in the truth" That is, its energies must 

 be kept awake to the perception of what is right and good, and 

 these ends must be pursued with alacrity. Be such our con- 

 fiding — such our active, discerning charity, and this institution 

 will soon take a different rank in the town from that which it 

 has hitherto held. Sunday Schools, Lancasterian, and National 

 Schools — Temperance Societies — Provident Societies, in all their 

 widest operations, should be considered but as inductions, 

 auxiliaries, adjuncts, to Mechanics' Institutions. It is ours to 

 apply to their best and final uses, the advantages gained by these 

 excellent subsidiaries. " Above all thy getting," says the wise 

 king of Israel, " get understanding." This great acquisition is 

 to be made, especially, here. It is here; — it is in Mechanics 

 histitutions that we shall best learn our own power and the mode 

 of wisely using it. If a change for the better is needed in our 

 social relations — as writers of all creeds and all opinions intimate 

 — it is here the nature of that change shall be best comprehended. 

 It is where knowledge holds her seat that the change shall be con- 

 temjdated with the steadiest eye — that the most determined 

 voice shall utter — " it is coming." While the joyous chorus 

 shall be re-echoed by all the worthy — all the discerning — all the 

 benevolent — " It must come — and let it come." 



FINE ARTS. 



While copious and earnest commentaries are bestowed upon music, 

 poetry, and the drama, it is still to be lamented that the pen of the 

 reviewer too often skims, like the rapid wing of the swallow, over the 

 subject of painting and sculpture. A few hurried lines, frequently most 

 cruelly seasoned with the hot spice of critical sarcasm — a mere word or 

 two of general praise or censure — a running nod of recognition — a sneer 

 or a smile en passant are, for the most part, all that are conceded to the 

 toils of the artist — to hours wasted by the midnight lamp, and to days 

 passed from the early dawn to the dim twilight in the solitary pursuit of 

 science. In vain the genius of historical painting put forth its 

 magnificent conceptions, and the deathless creations of the chisel appeal 

 by their impassioned beauty and grandeur to the eye and the brain of 

 the reviewer ; the briefest note in the tablet of ivory, and the narrowest 

 space in the page are, even reluctantly, doled out to their claims. Yet 

 what lengthy and numerous columns are lavished upon *' the very last 

 novel " — the jejune production of the silver-fork school — the melancholy 



