Esthetically and Ethically Considered. 



327 



to our higher sympathies, such an adaptation may be tolerated. Thus 

 I see nothing incongruous or inartistic in the adoption of the anchor 

 for the monument of a seafaring man, on account of its religious sym- 

 bolism, but I have some doubt about the artistic propriety of adding 

 the cable and capstan, which simply designate the man's business in 

 life. In fact, anything commemorating the commercial occupation 

 of the tenant of the grave can serve no purpose save to indicate that 

 the old business is still carried on at the old stand by the sorrowing 

 survivors. For example, on the monument of an expressman at Mt. 

 Auburn, bas-reliefs depicting the modus operandi of the express busi- 

 ness, such as a horse and wagon at full speed, and a big dog guarding 

 a safe, do not raise devout emotions in the spectator. I once saw at 

 the grave of a sea-captain, in Springfield, Mass., a dismasted ship on 

 her beam ends in the grass, carved out of stone. Whether this was 

 intended also to signify that the deceased had been lost at sea, I do 

 not know, but it seems hardly artistic, as the representation of a ship 

 cast away in the grass calls up no sensation of terror or sympathy in 

 the beholder. In myself it excited quit« a different sensation. It 

 made me think of the story of the canal boatman, who was narrating 

 the circumstance of a wreck on the raging canal," in which the no- 

 ble vessel went down, and every soul on board perished save himself. 

 "But how did you escape?" was the inquiry. " Well," said he, " I 

 see how things was goin', and so I took my boots and stepped ashore." 

 Now a monument that can suggest such an undignified reminiscence 

 can hardly be artistically right. It is possible that such representa- 

 tions in the form of bas-reliefs on the surface of the monument may 

 be permissible, but when they are made to assume an independent at- 

 tractiveness, they lose their place. The famous *Miay-stack" monu- 

 ment, at Williamstown, Mass., is an example of the mingling of good 

 and bad taste in this particular. This monument is built to com- 

 memorate the origin of the American Foreign Missionary system, on 

 the spot where it was devised. The tradition runs that the projectors 

 were in the habit of sitting under a hay-stack on this spot, and coun- 

 selling together. So we have a hay-stack chiselled in relief on the 

 side of the shaft. It might be taken for a projectile for a rifled canon, 

 or for a Dutch cheese. What pertinency it has, unless to suggest 

 that all flesh is grass, I cannot imagine. On the top of the shaft is a 

 massive globe, designed to represent the world, with continents and 

 islands faintly outlined on it. This is not so bad, but it would be bet- 

 ter if the litera,lism of the outlines had been omitted. It is a wonder 

 that the designer did not paint the heathen parts of the world in black. 

 But let us be thankful that the hay-stack was not put on top instead 



