322 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1853 



and sculpture. In these if an individual excel he excels for 

 himself; his skill is not transferable, though his example 

 may serve to awaken the same taste in many of his contem- 

 poraries and successors. For the development of these arts 

 the individualism of the Greeks was well adapted, and they 

 were accordingly advanced by this people almost, if not quite, 

 to their maximum state of perfection. 



These results of the labors of the ancients in the development 

 of the beautiful have not been lost ; on the contrary, they 

 will ever remain impressed upon the human mind. The 

 marble of the Parthenon may be reduced to atoms, and scat- 

 tered to the winds of Heaven, but its form is imperishable. 

 The moderns do not surpass the examples of the fine arts 

 bequeathed to them by the ancients, because it would be 

 idle to attempt to add to that which is perfect, — to paint the 

 lily, or to gild refined gold. But they have invented tools and 

 processes by which copies of these precious relics may be 

 multiplied indefinitely, with unerring precision, by the ap- 

 plication, not of manual skill, but of physical labor. 



This union of the industrial with the fine arts vastly en- 

 larges the influence of the latter, and enables them to be 

 appreciated and genius to be admired by millions whom 

 their single productions would never reach. There are at 

 this time more minds enthusiastically alive to the beauty of 

 ancient art than there were in the days of Phidias. Noth- 

 ing then of importance with reference to art has been lost, 

 but, on the contrary, much has been gained. 



In these remarks we seek not to disparage the past, nor to 

 unduly exalt the present. The character of the world, as it 

 now exhibits itself in its mental and moral development, its 

 knowledge of nature, and its skill in arts, is the result of all 

 the impressions made on it from the earliest dawn of civil- 

 ization to our own day. In the case of an individual every 

 impression to which his mind is subjected, either from ex- 

 ternal nature or his own mental operations, or those of his 

 fellow-men, produces an indelible effect, modifying all the 

 previous impressions, and co-operating with them to form 

 the peculiarities of his mental and moral character. An 



