732 THU POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



kind. According to a recent definition of art, that of Mr. Benjamin, 

 "Art may be said, in a general way, to spring from the poetic yearn- 

 ings and emotions suggested by aspirations after the true, the good, 

 and the beautiful . . . . the material means for expressing such feelings 

 appealing to the imagination through the eye by the use of external 

 forms." The highest art, according to this definition, must include the 

 good, the true, and the beautiful ; the physically beautiful, or the beau- 

 tiful and the good, is not the aim of the highest art ; the true must be 

 added for a work that shall rank as such for all time. 



A painting or a statue may be beautiful, as interpreting the emo- 

 tions or religious beliefs of man at any particular epoch of bis history ; 

 but, if the ideas symbolized or suggested become untrue or unbeliefs, 

 they thereby lose in artistic value, and no longer belong to the do- 

 main of the highest art. Nothing that is simply temporary, no mere 

 conventionalism, however beautiful at the time, which becomes un- 

 natural or impossible as man advances in knowledge, can, in my opin- 

 ion, belong to the highest art. 



Any one who discusses the principles of art from the point of view 

 of the true, without reference to the beautiful, labors under great dis- 

 advantages, arising chiefly from the intimate connection between art 

 and religion. Most of the best works of the old and modern masters, 

 in painting especially, embody the theologic beliefs of the period, and 

 suggest ideas of spiritual, not of physical truth. As there is evolution 

 in nature and in theology, let us hope there is also evolution in art ; 

 we can not stand still in any matters of knowledge, for, if we go not 

 forward, we practically go backward, as all the interests of humanity 

 will leave us behind. 



The faith in spiritual truths which artists embody by symbols, with- 

 out being of necessity weakened, will be modified by knowledge, and 

 thus render forms once suggestive of beauty and goodness now untrue 

 and monstrous. I know that the old objection will be urged that, 

 though scientific truths rest upon reason, there are spiritual truths in- 

 capable of demonstration, emotions above and beyond reason. Even 

 educated persons have very indefinite and very difi'erent ideas on the 

 nature of the mental evidence arising from religious aspirations, and 

 the wish is very apt to be " father to the thought " in symbolic repre- 

 sentations of supernatural attributes and powers. 



There may be no contradiction in the belief in the existence of 

 spiritual beings far above us in power, and that such may even commu- 

 nicate with mankind in various ways ; but, if they assume to the eye 

 the shape and functions of humanity, they should be made to conform 

 to the laws of human anatomy and physiology. 



Those who are easily and strongly moved by these spiritual emo- 

 tions will not listen to reason, which they maintain has nothing to do 

 in the premises. Let such cling to their spiritual truths, and to the 

 artistic representations which embody and suggest them, and regard 



