SHORT ADDRESS ON LITERATURE AND THE 

 FINE ARTS. 



By James Edward Neild, M.D. 



The title of this short paper is comprehensive, and there is 

 very much more to be said thereon than can be compressed 

 in the ten minutes allotted to me ; but as I have an end to 

 serve, namely, the formulation of a section not as yet formu- 

 lated, and as my purpose can be achieved as easily in ten 

 minutes as in two hours, I accept the limitation. I will not 

 attempt a history of the subject, even in epitome. I will not 

 even try to describe what has recently been done in the 

 domain of Literature and Art, for even within these confines 

 it would be impossible to set forth, even categorically, what 

 has of late been accomplished in the di)'ection of books, pic- 

 tures statues, and buildings. I will be provincial, and I will 

 use only so much of the limited material at my command, 

 as to draw attention to the much-regretted neglect by the 

 Royal Society, of Section G, which, as you know, takes in 

 Literature and the Fine Arts, including Architecture. And 

 considering that the first clause of the Laws of the Society 

 declares that the institution was founded for the advance- 

 ment of Science, Literature, and Art, it is at least remarkable, 

 that, hitherto, the operations of the Society have been almost 

 exclusively confined to the consideration of the first of these 

 subjects. 



In Law 53, it will be observed, provision is made for 

 departmental work, this being defined in an enumeration 

 of eight sections, all of them, however, curiously enough, 

 having reference to Science, except Section G, which, as I 

 have intimated, deals with " Literature and the Fine Arts, 

 including Architecture." I am quite sure it is not because 

 these subjects have been considered of subordinate import- 



