§14. MODE OF JUDGING. 191 



the bugbear of undivided authority not only prevents all 

 efficiency and responsibility, but keeps up a constant clashing 

 of views, and effectually checks organisation. 



14. [Impediments of various kinds stand in the way of our 

 general progress towards taste, and these require first to be 

 removed. Museums are of the highest importance for the 

 instruction of the public ; that the manufacturer, the artisan, 

 and the working man may have easy access to objects of art. 

 For it is not by the accidental appreciation of it among some 

 individuals, that taste of any kind will flourish, or become 

 general in a country ; and the fact of the arts of produc- 

 tion being of elegant design is a far surer criterion of its being 

 spread through the community, than are the most beautiful 

 objects seen in the mansions of the rich. Ere the public can 

 appreciate works of art, they must acquire a true feeling for 

 the beautiful wherever it is found ; otherwise they may mimic 

 and echo the approbation of acknowledged critics, while their 

 judgment will be crude and uncertain. And it is to be 

 regretted that the habits of waiting for the opinion of some 

 other person, before they express (not to say form) their own, 

 is not unusual with the English. The Great Exhibition of 

 1851 had, therefore, among its many beneficial results, the 

 good effect of obliging them in some measure to judge for 

 themselves; since the variety of objects, and the want of a 

 ready councillor, made it difficult to obtain any other opinion 

 than their own. Their decision, it is true, was not generally 

 the best, or the most refined ; and some natural objects, as 

 the " Boy with the broken drum," the " Dog defending the 

 child from the serpent," veiled statues, and commonplace, 

 unelevated subjects, were their favourites. They perceived 

 in them a resemblance to what was real ; but they did not 

 understand that such subjects present no idea fit to be com- 

 memorated in a material, and with a skill, that belong pro- 

 perly to high art. Yet the effort of judging had its effect ; 



