332 IDENTIFICATION OF THE AETISAN AND ARTIST. 



which the reality could impart. And so it is with every other object. 

 Each of us is, but for the present moment, the same as he is in this 

 instant of his i)ersonal existence through which he is now passing. Ho 

 is the child, the boy, the man, the aged one bending feebly over the last 

 few steps of his career. You wish to possess him as he is now, in his 

 youthful vigor, or iu the maturity of his wisdom, and a Eembraudt, or 

 a Titian, or a Herbert seizes that moment of grace, or of beauty, or of 

 sage experience ; and he stamps indelibly that loved image on his can- 

 vas; and for generations it is gazed on with admiration and with love. 

 We must not pretend a fight against nature, and say that we icill mahc art 

 different from what she is. I will read you some beautiful lines, which 

 show how our art must be derived from nature. I translate them from 

 the excellent poem of Schiller, addressed to artists : 



The clioicest blossom which the parterre warms, 



Iu cue rich posy skillfully combiued — 

 Siicli, infaut Art crept first from Nature's arms: 



Then are the posies in «ne Avreath entwined. 

 A second Art, in manlier beariug, stands, 

 Fair work of man, created in his hands. 



I believe the idea of these beautiful lines is taken fii'om the anecdote 

 which Pliny has preserved to us of the contest of art between Pausias 

 the painter and Glycera the flower-girl ; she used to combine her flowers 

 with such exquisite beauty that they excited the admiration of the chief 

 of artists, and he did not think it beneath his art to copy on the can- 

 vas the operation of her naturally-instructed fingers 5 and then she, iu 

 her turn, again would rival the picture, and produce a more beautiful 

 bouquet still; and the j)ainter, with his pencil, would again rival her, 

 and produce by his avl the same effect as she had done with the flowers 

 of nature. Let us therefore loolc on art hut as the highest image that can be 

 made of nature. Consequently, while religion is the greatest and noblest 

 mode in which we acknowledge the magnificeut and all-wise majesty of 

 Godj and what he has done both for the spiritual and the physical exist- 

 ence of man, let tis loolc ujpoii art as hut the most graceful and natural trib- 

 ute of homage 7ve can pay to Eim for the heauties ichich he has so lavishly 

 scattered over creation. Art, then, is to my mind, and I trust to you all, 

 a' sacred and a reverend thing, and one which must be treated with all 

 nobleness of feeling and with all dignity of aim. We must not depress 

 it; the education of our art must always be tending higher and higher; 

 we must fear the possibility of our creating a mere lower class of artists 

 which would degrade the higher departments, instead of endeavoring to 

 blend and harmonize every department, so that there shall cease to exist 

 in the minds of men the distinction between high and low art. I will con- 

 clude with another beautiful sentiment from the same poem: 



The bee may teach thee an industrious care ; 

 The worm, in skill, thy master thou must own; 

 With higher spirits, ivisdom thou dost share. 

 But Art, O man! hast tJiou aloue. 



