300 



Di.s(:ovi:i<Y 



with Opic at Leicester Fields, he passed into tlit- heart 

 of artistic London. By 1782 a public had come 

 together that wiis willing to patronise art — or at all 

 events to talk about it. The Academy, aided by a few 

 honest pushes from George IIL, had become fashion- 

 able. Twelve years before this date Horace Walpole 

 had noted with some dismay that prices were on the 

 rise. " One West." he says, " gets £300 for a piece 

 not too large to hang over a chimney." The Royal 

 Academy, with Reynolds as its presiding genius, was 

 now in its fourteenth year. Gainsborough, though in 

 the last years of his life, was still in the height of his 

 reputation. Reynolds had not yet ceased producing, 

 and was attracting numerous imitators. West, the 

 chief recipient of the King's bounty, had seen the 

 absurdity of representing modem English gentlemen in 

 Grecian costume. Art was breaking fresh ground in 

 every direction. Nor were younger men wanting to 

 carry on the flame. George Morland was now on the 

 threshold of his career. Caricature had just re- 

 awakened at the touch of Gillray. Rowlandson, who 

 could rival Morland in his own line, turned his atten- 

 tion to it some two years later. A flock of foreigners — 

 " the exotic R.A.'s," Wolcot called them — had come 

 over to England, attracted by the opportunities 

 afforded by the Royal Academy, and some had been 

 received into the body of that institution. 



In the general glamour that hung over this varied 

 mass of excellence, it was not easy for the average man 

 to distinguish the light of polished mirrors from the 

 unique and primitive flame. One could hardly go 

 wrong in praising Reynolds, but on the hundred and one 

 other men of varying merit the general public was 

 incapable of passing any intelligent verdict. The 

 artists themselves had set up a certain standard, but 

 the talk of studios is not what the world understands 

 by criticism. The business of painters is to paint, and 

 though an artist may lay aside his tools foi a moment 

 and deUver dicta, criticism must ultimately come from 

 outside. Of this independent judgment the public 

 had practically nothing. In 1781, a creature who 

 called himself " The Earwig " 1 had made some abortive 

 remarks in prose on that year's Exhibition. His 

 pamphlet is neither witty, nor instructive, nor enter- 

 taining. A strong fearless critic is always welcomed ; 

 Wolcot was the one man competent to step forward 

 and take the office. In the Critical Review for July 

 1782, amongst the long, uninteresting lists of minor 

 pubhcations that the magazines of the late eighteenth 

 century'^ were wont to print in their " Monthly Cata- 

 logues," appears the notice of a pamphlet entitled 

 " Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians, by Peter Pindar, 



' The Earwig, or an Old Woman's remarks on the Present 

 Exhibition of pictures of the Koyal Academy, etc., etc. Dedi- 

 cated to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Printed by G. Kcarslcy, 1781. 



a distant Relation to thcPoet of Thebes." The size was 

 quarto, the publishei one " Egerton," and the price a 

 modest sixpence. The reviewers at once separated it 

 from the throng, and bestowed on it nearly a page of 

 quotation and comment. They little knew that they 

 weie cncoiuraging an author whose pamphlets would 

 besiege their pages for over thirty years, until expecta- 

 tion lost its thrill, and criticism itself was tired out. 

 {To be continued) 



At the British 

 Association's Meeting 



Me.Mheks heard with regret that the proposal uf last 

 year to fit out a British oceanographical expedition, 

 like the Challenger expedition of the seventies, is 

 postponed indefinitely, because the time is unsuitable 

 for an appeal to the Government or the public for the 

 large sum of money necessary. 



The prevaihng note of most speeches was a cheery 

 optimism. Science was indicating on every hand that 

 she would do great things for man if only he would 

 take himself in hand so that he might use her fruits 

 aright. Several speakers pointed out how important 

 such subjects as Organic Chemistry', Anthropology, 

 Geography, and Physiology had become of late, and 

 how necessary to mankind was the knowledge they 

 furnished. It followed that increased facilities for 

 teaching, and carrying out research in them should be 

 granted to colleges and schools. Dr. M. O. Forster, in 

 the Chemistry Section, after giving a highly technical 

 survey of recent work on the vegetable alkaloids, the 

 nucleic acids, chloroph}"!], and the pigments of blossoms 

 and fruits, pressed for more teaching on organic 

 chemistry. He pointed out that, with the exception of 

 air and water, the important things in life were organic 

 —shelter, clothes, food (" baby's milk and grandpapa's 

 Glaxo "). Yet many grew to manhood without " the 

 slightest real understanding of their bodily processes 

 and composition, of the wizardry by which living things 

 contribute to their nourishment and to their sesthetic 

 enjoj'ment of life." Sir Richard Temple in opening 

 a discussion on the need for an Imperial School of 

 Anthropology pointed out that officials, missionaries, 

 and others intending to take up work among people 

 in the East needed, besides an acquaintance of the 

 language, a knowledge of the racial characteristics of 

 the people whom they sought to serve. The need of 

 the races of Europe for a proper understanding of non- 

 European races could best be met in the British 

 Empire by the establishment in London of a central 

 body to organise a sj-stcm of training, which could be 



