THE ESSENCE OF THE FINE ARTS. 



know there are persons so absorbed in the ordinary business of life, that this would 

 sound in their ears like an unkown tongue. There are not wanting men, slaves of utility, 

 who would crush every emotion of the heart as weakness, and quench every spark of ima- 

 gination. They admire the powers and fivculties that, in the present state of society, most 

 rapidly lead to wealth, and despise those which have been the brightest glory of our race, 

 and the chief spur of civilization. Such persons will, however, in common with others, 

 look back with admiration and jjride at the great achievements of men in the past history 

 of the world, and particularly of their own countrymen; forgetting that from these very 

 faculties they affect to despise, have chiefl}^ resulted all that dazzles in the past, or in the 

 present possesses any real dignity or importance. We feel the limits of the human under- 

 standing, and, the more profound our researches in philosophy, the more palpably we ex- 

 perience it. We see the boundary-line bej'-ond which our minds cannot penetrate ; but we 

 are, at the same time, conscious of a void beyond that limit, which superior intelligence 

 might penetrate. It is by the creative faculties that this is to be filled up; hence their 

 advantage over reason. The imagination, swifter than the wings of the morning, trans- 

 ports us through the universe. The reason is limited, but the imagination is boundless. 

 By it we approach the Infinite and are linked to the Divinity. It is to other than reason 

 that the heroic deeds of those great spirits who have created epochs in chronology are to 

 be ascribed. The great wonders of the ancient world were not the result of reason. The 

 greatness of man is most apparent Avhen he works from the feelings — his power over his 

 fellows more complete when he holds them by the chords of the heart and imagination. 



The Arts, which will be treated upon in the following paper, are those of Architecture, 

 Painting, Sculptor, Poetry, Music; the latter two will be occasionally referred to, but my 

 attention will be chiefly given to the three former. To form the genealogical tree of art, 

 my course will be to trace its essence or principle — the beautiful — from its source; which 

 will divide the subject into three distinct branches : — there are three realms of the beauti- 

 ful, viz: Nature; the Human Mind, or Imagination; and Art itself 



On the first head little need be said. The most interesting of the three kingdoms of 

 Nature is the animal : the highest species of beaut}^ is to be found in that department. 

 The human form and foce divine, — the index of the character and passions, — is the chief 

 subject involved in the style called historic, the highest walk of art. The beauty exhi- 

 bited by the other creatures of God is various, but harmonious. Among the savage tribes 

 of the forest, in the depth of the sea, in the regions of the air, beauty reigns and rules in 

 every mood: — all is animated grace. What beauty is renewed tons every morning! The 

 eastern sky is a flood of glory, and the morning dew sprinkles the earth with diamonds. 

 The glory is repeated in the evening, but is only a prelude — a mere earthly pageant — to 

 the more glorious exhibition of the starry firmament — 



" When the heavens 

 Are thronged with constellations, and the sea 

 Strewn with their images." 



Tliis is the sublimest picture, the highest class of art, in the gallery of inanimate nature. 

 Philosophy has no power equal to these luminaries of night, these monitors of the sky, 

 to elevate the heart above the cares and anxieties of life. 



Beauty is to be found in nature in all seasons; it is not the nymph of the summer, but 

 the goddess of the year. From green-robed Spring, whose voice, 



" More s\veet than softest tovich of Doric reed, 



Or I^ydian Flute, can soothe the maildening winds," 



to Autumn, clad in the hues of the rainbow: nor beneath Winter's snowy mantle an 

 zone is it altogether concealed. 



No. I. 2. 



