PREFACE TO LECTURE ON ANCIENT 

 PAINTING.* 



The old and the new! Words that sum up all there is of 

 human achievement in the world. The old are the memorials of 

 the grand struggle of man's development. The new are the 

 achieved results of all past efforts. 



It has always seemed to me that the works and discoveries which 

 have marked the stages of the world's progress ought to be sub- 

 jects of interest to every one. But mine is not the universal 

 conclusion. There are many who look upon the accomplish- 

 ments of the past as vain and wasted efforts, because they do not 

 equal the splendid results of the present. The world of observers 

 is clearly divided between those who take interest in the old and 

 the antiquated, and those who care for none of these things. 



In the latter category is perhaps the majority of the enlight- 

 ened classes of our own country. In America our growth and 

 wealth are mainly of the present generation. A man's family 

 dates no further back than his father and mother, and his 

 fortune scarcely ever as far back as that. Every thing in our 

 habits and culture leads us to value only what runs with the cur- 

 rent of our immediate and absorbing pursuits. Those of our 

 people who travel abroad, where there is only the old to show, 

 are quite often discontented and disappointed tourists. They 

 have the restless longing to put life into the lifeless, and novelty 

 into the antiquated. If they could have their way, they would 

 u mighty soon clear out the old rubbish, and slick up things gener- 

 ally." One may hear, almost any day, in presence of some 



*A Lecture written in 1878, and delivered before the Rochester Art Society, 

 and on various other occasions. 



