The Anterior Arts. 
By '-ICTiNUS, 
[Concluded.] 
I have tried to show how a barbarous 
people may possess highly developed 
arts; how the influence of art is felt in a 
human work; how art may dwell in a 
cave, yet be excluded from a cathedral : 
it remains to be shown, the social condi- 
tions under which the arts are best devel- 
oped. This is a topic which does not 
directly relate to our subject; at present 
we note the general principles. 
The arts have been cultivated to ma- 
turity and have fallen into decay under 
all forms of government, under the mys- 
terious rule of the Egyptian priests; un- 
der the uncertain law of the Greeks; un- 
der the administrative government of the 
Romans: under the anarchical republics 
of Italy and under the feudal yoke of 
Medieval times. That which is known 
to us as form of government, consequent- 
ly, has no material effect on the develop- 
ment of art. Art is developed to the 
highest degree when it is associated 
with the people and is allowed to ex- 
press their sentiments; but when exclud- 
ed from the multitude, so as to form an 
institution distinct from them, then art 
declines, gradually becomes confined in 
the museums or academies and, finally, 
assumes a dialect and manner of express- 
ion no longer understood by the people. 
Then art becomes a visitor, enteitained 
only on special occasions, and almost un- 
known to the nation. Art died among 
the Greeks when their genius was sup- 
pressed by Roman bondage, '-and when 
they wished to build in Athens, monu- 
ments after the manner of those built in 
Rome." 
All primitive men were endowed with 
nearly the same power of artistic inven- 
tion; they all expressed a certain amount 
of artistic instinct. The primitive artist 
or architect was not a student but a close 
observer. He possessed himself of all 
the advantages of a social state whose 
simple mechanism was always before 
his eyes. Thus, the Egyptians, the East- 
ern and Western Greeks and the Etrus- 
cans, whose monuments are familiar to 
us, give evidence in their arts of an ob- 
servation of gesture so exquisite as to 
defy all modern effort. This peculiarity 
we again observed in theWest, during the 
Twelfth Century. The French sculptors 
and painters of that era, though they 
had not taken art lessons before the vases 
of Etruria or Greece or before the bas- 
reliefs of Memphis or Thebes, followed 
the same principles as did the artists of 
antiquity. This coincident arises from 
the fact that all these artists obtained 
their results from one true source. Ges- 
ture can be reproduced or expressed in 
art when it is the exponent of a simple 
sentiment; and sentiment is simple only 
among primitive men. A modern prac- 
titioner of art speaks of style and seeks 
for it, sometimes among a people who, 
from the nature of their existence, do 
not comprehend what style is; for our 
modern civilization is so complex and 
intricate as to make it almost impossi- 
ble CO express sentiment by gesture; our 
simplest and most powerful sentiments 
being an embodiment of confused ideas, 
of a numerous, heterogeneous people. 
Now the primitive art craftsman express- 
ed his simple sentiments by means of 
gesture, with perfect ease. We invaria- 
bly find the most strongly marked styles 
in the arts of the greatest antiquity. 
Gesture may be applied to the whole 
domain of art. A painter can produce 
as much emotion by means of his brush 
as an orator can excite by means of the 
combined eloquence of thought and ac- 
tion. The same may also be said of the 
musician and the sculptor. An archi- 
tect can erect a temple to a mythical di- 
vinitj with whose attributes he is famil- 
iar, and by employing certain architect- 
ural forms and combinations, together 
with painting and sculpture, give express- 
ion to those attributes. He can thus 
make it possible for his fellows to read 
character in stone. But to build a tem- 
ple to the true and only God is a more 
difficult task; to successfully accomplish 
it is to achieve the greatest victorj' of 
mind over matter. For how can he erect 
a structure to the honor of Him who 
presides over all; to him in whom all 
things are united? He is the beginning 
and the end of time; He is space. How 
can we build a dwelling for Him who is 
everywhere? how make it understood 
that a structure is the house of God? 
The MedifBval architects accomplisheJ 
this task with wonderful success; they 
made the Ohristion church an expoiient 
of creation, as it were; tliey expressed in 
it, as in an epic of stone, all things in the 
visible and invisible order of creation. 
in conclusion; we should not be hasty, 
but consider well before denouncing as 
barbarians, those who have preceded us 
in the arts. "VV^e live in the evening of 
the great art day. Art passed its zenith 
of perfection during the sway of other 
nations. Yet, we should not despair of 
the present while thinking regretfully of 
the past. The past cannot be i-ecalled, 
but we should study it carefully and 
earnestly; not that we may revive, but 
that we may understand and be made 
wise by it. We should not impose on 
our own age a reproduction of Antique 
or Mediaeval forms of art for they are 
the expressions or exponents of the ages 
in which they were developed. The civ- 
ilization of the Nineteenth Century is 
altogether different from that of the 
Greeks, the Romans and the people of 
the Dark Ages. As the civilizations are 
unlike, their exponents, the fine arts, are 
unlike and it would be equally as appro- 
priate to reproduce the one as to repro- 
duce the other. The fundamental 
laws which directed the arts of the past 
are true and unchaiigable for all time. 
Then we should try and submit ourselves 
anew to them. We should examine how 
our early fathers translated these laws 
by forms which were the real art expres- 
sions of their respective times; and then, 
with the best wisdom of experience and 
by the aid of precedent, let us freely 
proceed in what we may justly call "the 
path of progress" in art. 
A Natural Salmon Trap. 
The Salmon, the cousin of the Trout, 
is famous for its methods of going up 
stream; it darts at falls ten or twelve 
feet high, leaps into the air and rushes 
up the falling water in a marvelous man- 
ner. So determined are the Salmon to 
attain the high and safe waters that in 
some localities nets are placed beneath 
the falls, into which the fish tumble in 
their repeated attempts to clear the hill 
of water. Other than human hunters, 
moreover, profit by these scrambles up 
hill. Travelers report that on the banks 
of the upper St. John river, in Canada, 
there was once a rock in which a large 
circular well, or pot-hole, had been worn 
by the action of the water. At .the 
Salmon season this rock proved a favor- 
ite resort for bears and for a good reason. 
Having a special taste for Salmon, the 
bears would watch at the pot-hole and as 
the Salmon, dashing up the fall, were 
thrown by its force into the rocky basin, 
the bears would quickly scrape them out 
of the pot-hole, and the poor Salmon 
would be eaten before they had time to 
wonder at this unlooked-for reception. 
The Dominion government finally au- 
thorized a party of hunters to destroy 
the pot-hole and thus break up the bears' 
fishing-ground. — Ex. 
A Slau^ht^r of Hnniuiing Birds. 
A New Jersey paper says: "Recently 
a Humming bird's nest was found by 
some persons who had sufficient natui al 
curiosity to overcome their compa s on, 
and who captured the nest, two young 
hummers and the old one, took them 
home and had them stuffed. They are to 
be sent to a museum of natural curiosi- 
ties in London. The nest is built on a 
small twig and is scarcely the size of 
half an English walnut. Both nest and 
twig are covered with little patches of 
lichen, until it is almost inipossible to 
tell one from the other and the nest looks 
like a kind of natural excrescence on the 
twig. The nest is pliable, like a tiny cup 
of velvet, and the inside is lined with a 
white substance as rich and soft as white 
silk. The little birds are about the size 
of humble bees, very pretty, and they sit 
on a little perch just outside the nest, 
with open bills, while the old bird hovers 
over them to feed them." 
Extermination of tiie Englisli SparroTT. 
Guest, at the Midland, — "Waiter, bring 
me some Kice birds." 
Waiter,— "Yes, Sah. D'rectly, Sah." (To 
the chiefcook, some seconds later) "Live- 
ly, now. Hustle up them English Spar- 
rows." 
