4 THE PRESIDENTIAL I'ADDRESS. 



plicated times. But before doing so, let me say yet one or two words 

 about the older forms. 



We have a profound feeling for any example of an old craft, and for 

 very good reasons. Among them I do not include the sentimental regret 

 that, in some cases, a past time skill seems to have disappeared. We 

 may be sorry, but after all it is but a receipt that has been lost and may be 

 found again any day, if proper search is made for it. Modern knowledge 

 and methods of analysis are at least good for that much. Nor is the 

 collector's pride of rarity the worthiest feeling that the old specimen 

 inspires. 



Our affection for it, and the reverential care with which we handle it are 

 due to the fact that it represents to us the labour of a people, labour into 

 which knowledge, imagination, love of beauty, technical skill have all 

 entered. The most of what was once used in every-day life has long 

 disappeared ; even such more durable things as houses and ships, roads and 

 cultivations may have ceased to be. The few objects that survive must be 

 taken as examples of what has been lost. And on the showing of the 

 student a spirit will emerge from an old vessel as great as that which 

 issued when the fisherman of the Arabian Nights unsealed the pot that 

 had long been lying at the bottom of the river. It is the spirit of the 

 bygone people that takes shape before us. 



The Greek gave exquisite form to his vase and decorated its surface 

 with equal art. He copied from the growing things of Nature the adjust- 

 ment of lines and surfaces which give the sense of fitness for a purpose. 

 The outlines of his vases are so perfectly adjusted that their representation 

 in a drawing will not bear alteration by the width of a line. That the 

 Greek should with so much skill take lessons from what his perception 

 made clear to him, and should with so much care choose his materials and 

 mould them to his purpose is what we should expect from a nation that 

 shows also in its literature a passion for justice and harmony. The fine 

 accuracy of his line is in agreement with his delicate sense of differences 

 in thought and words. 



The Roman developed the principle of the arch, and enough remains 

 of what he built to show the daring and the power of his work. The 

 great arches that spanned his public buildings seem to stand for the. 

 Roman rule and law under which the whole world might find shelter and 

 be at peace. 



The sword of the Indian workman was gradually brought to its temper 

 by an infinite series of local applications of heat alternating with the few 



