1883.] on the Influence of Atldetic Games upon Greek Art. 295 



From the nature of the subject dealt with in this address we have 

 necessarily only noticed Greek art in its expression of the physical 

 side of human life, leaving unobserved the spiritual side of their 

 great works. There is an erroneous notion abroad, started by those 

 who have but a superficial acquaintance with Greek art, that though 

 the Greeks represented with perfection the physical side of beauty, 

 they failed to render due justice to the spirit and the soul. If 

 sufficient time were at my disposal, I believe that I could show you 

 how erroneous is this notion. It is true the Greeks avoided the ex- 

 pression of physical emotion in their statues when it led to grimace, 

 yet their great statues are replete with the true soul of art. The 

 soul of art does not depend upon the immediate expression of emotion 

 in facial changes, any more than goodness with man dej)ends upon the 

 immediate act of charity in the most restricted sense. It may be a 

 truer and greater act of charity to teach our pupils mathematics when 

 pleasure calls us away, or to conform to the laws of good-breeding 

 when our inclination and comfort drive us the other way, than to 

 distribute a small share of our ready money to some beggar. The 

 soul of art is not to be found in the immediate attempts at repre- 

 senting what we believe to be the outer manifestation of human 

 souls ; but in the unity and harmony of organisation given to a work 

 through the design inherent in the creative artist's mind, the share of 

 soul which the creating artist transfers from himself to the work of 

 his hands, and above all in the comjDlete and inseparable harmony 

 that obtains between the subject represented and the material which 

 embodies the idea. A marble angel of death bearing heavenwards in 

 his arms a dead infant, with marble tears trickling down his cheek, 

 suspended from the ceiling of a drawing-room by a silver cord, has 

 less artistic soul than this Choiseul-Gouffier Pugilist ; because in the 

 athlete there is complete and inseparable harmony between the man 

 represented and the artistic stuff that he is made of. 

 • . [C. W.] 



