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bound up with things invisible. I have some right to speak 
authoritatively on this subject, since for the last twenty-five 
years the fine arts have been the special subject of my studies ; 
and I can tell you honestly, that for me they have enormously 
enhanced the value of existence. I cannot remember a day 
during the last twenty years which has not been made more 
interesting and profitable to me, directly or indirectly, by my 
knowledge of art, which, though of course, very small at first, 
and limited even yet, has given the constant pleasure which 
attends a gradual increase. There is hardly any subject worth 
studying at all which is not connected in some way with the fine 
arts ;—hardly any subject in which the student of art will not be 
able to find something which bears more or less directly upon 
his own pursuit. Almost all history, and at least two-thirds of 
the sciences, can teach an art critic something that he is the 
better for knowing. And I may add, that no people are likely 
to be benefited so decidedly by the love and knowledge of art, as 
those who live in manufacturing districts. Some of the manu- 
factures themselves, all manufactures which involve design or 
colour, or either design or colour taken separately,—and all the 
trades in which either beauty or good taste is of any consequence 
whatever, may be helped most directly by a knowledge of art ; 
and besides this, the very destruction of natural beauty which 
industrial establishments cause, is of itself quite a sufficient 
reason for seeking that compensation which the fine arts, and they 
alone, can give. Only imagine a great city, shut out from the 
sight of all that is refreshing in the natural world, and at the 
same time including within its own borders nothing more 
beautiful than factories and rows of cottages! Such a place 
would be simply uninhabitable by properly constituted human 
beings. Having now occupied enough of your time I will con- 
clude with a few very brief observations on what ought to be 
done. Hvery town the size of Burnley ought to have an Arts 
Club, having for its special purpose the advancement of what 
may be called the artistic interests of the place. ‘I'he Arts Club 
would naturally be composed of men rather superior to the 
majority of their fellow townsmen either in wealth, or culture, or 
both, and their opinion, deliberately expressed, would generally 
be listened to. One of their objects would be the formation and 
preservation of a local art museum for the pleasure and instruction 
of the town. I do not think that a museum such as I recommend 
ought to lay out its limited funds in pictures, because too much 
money would go at once for a small result, but of course it ought 
to accept gifts of good pictures, and there is not the least doubt 
that if such a museum existed there would soon be gifts and 
bequests which would gradually enrich it even in the department 
of painting. Such a museum ought to be open every night till 
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