302 The Evolution of Art. 



the outset that in architects, sculptors, painters, poets, and 

 musicians the centuries already closed stand pre-eminently 

 above the present epoch. 



What greater names have we to-day than "Wren in archi- 

 tecture, Mozart in music, Shakespeare in poetry, and Rem- 

 brandt in painting? This is not to say that the artistic 

 sense is not to-day far more widely spread than in any pre- 

 vious age. Rather it is to say that when we speak of the 

 evolution of art we are recognizing that the knowledge of 

 art has grown, that its borders have increased, that its area 

 of influence has widened. It is not to say that by any known 

 processes of nature or of human conduct the great artist 

 has been brought forth as a clearly discerned effect from an 

 all-sufficient cause ; for nothing in science, religion, or evo- 

 lution has ever been able to uproot the old Roman aphorism 

 as to the birth of poets. 



The true theory undoubtedly is that the exceptional man 

 of any age has set the ideal not only for his contemporaries, 

 but many times for the centuries to come. It is the art- 

 lovers who are increasing even though the colossal artists 

 are becoming less frequent. And this limitation must be 

 kept in mind in considering for a moment the relation of 

 art to civilization. 



Civilization must be measured in the last analysis by the 

 extent of its influence upon the largest number of human 

 beings. The civilization which is of value to mankind at 

 large is not that which carries a select few nearest heaven, 

 but that which lifts the ignorant mass farthest from earth. 

 The true relation of civilization to art, then, has been to 

 increase its admirers, to extend its audience, to make pos- 

 sible new but not greater masters by bringing to its pro- 

 moters larger accessions of people. The advantages of the 

 last two centuries have manifestly been not to overtop the 

 great artists of the past, but to greatly multiply their dis- 

 ciples and admirers and thereby elevate and dignify the 

 esthetic quality in humanity. 



Take an illustration from our own country. In 1790 

 Franklin presented the first petition to Congress to abolish 

 slavery. In 1792 "Whitney invented the cotton-gin. Then 

 began a contest between a principle of human rights and a 

 product of human art. The art thrived, the right was over- 

 come. The nation, bent on keeping alive, approved the one 

 and ignored the other, but the seed of right, long dormant, 

 blossomed into war and fruited in victory. The money- 



