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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIX. 



aim of all art — to awaken in the beholder emotion kindred to 

 the artist's own — 



" For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love 

 First when we see them painted, things we have passed 

 Perhaps a hundred times , nor cared to see ; 

 And so they are better, painted — better to us, 

 Which is the same thing. Art was given for that." 



We must not, however, think that these peculiarities of style 

 in early art are deliberate ; they are just the natural result of 

 the artist's attempt to picture things as he sees them. We 

 may gather from such art, and from the art of Mediaeval Eu- 

 rope, a notion of the Aryan workman's childlike seriousness 

 and simplicity that cannot fail to touch us. On the other hand, 

 we find in Mongolian, especially in Japanese, art what appears 

 fco be an original and spontaneous impressionism tending rather 

 to superficiality than seriousness. The Aryan or Semitic 

 artist drew what he knew or imagined, the Mongolian drew 

 what he saw. 



Things are otherwise amongst the civilized, sophisticated 

 nations of modern times, where the artist is surrounded by 

 examples of every sort of "style," and there can be no one 

 national style appealing equally to all men ; nor is it possible that 

 the realistic, or impressionist styles which most directly repre- 

 sent the tendencies of modern life in its mechanical and super- 

 ficial aspects, can have the seriousness and calm to be found 

 in the less conscious and often also less technically perfect art 

 of earlier periods, when the social structure was not in a state 

 of rapid evolution, but remained for long periods relatively 

 stable. The modern artist then has to choose his methods 

 with the deliberate intention of expressing himself in the par- 

 ticular way desired, and must use his mind and brain in deli- 

 berately avoiding what is unsuitable to his purpose or to the 

 kind of work in hand. All this the primitive artist does uncon- 

 sciously. Now that the Kandyan artist is no more, it is well to 

 lay some stress on the survival, in eighteenth century work at 

 least, of this absence of self consciousness, and the presence 



