The ^Vnterior Arts. 
By "ICTiNUs."' 
[Continued,] 
III the middle ages there were seven 
liberal arts, but to-da}' some of those lib- 
eral arts are regarded as sciences. Art is 
now known to us as Music, Architecture, 
Sculpture and Painting; and they are 
placed in this order because it is conven- 
ient and rational. Men uttered sounds 
before they could build houses, built 
before carving them, and carved before 
painting them ; for only a sharp Hint was 
needed to carve sandstone, but to extract 
colors from minerals and vegetables and 
apply them where the best artistic efl"ect 
could be obtained, required a knowledge 
of chemistry as well as a cultivated artis- 
tic instinct. Poetry and Pantomime are 
closely related to Music. I'hese Jour 
arts are brothers; the first two, Music 
and Architecture are twins, for they, do 
not obtain their origin fi'om an imitation 
of natural objects. 
Man is endowed with certain artistic 
instincts, which, to be gratified express 
themselves in a maimer prompted by 
certain instincts of the soul. It soon be- 
comes apparent to him that signs and 
language alone could not exi)ress all iiis 
thoughts; then he learned to impress his 
fellows by giving his voice certain ac- 
cents, inflections a rhythm to express his 
ideas more forcibly. From the ait of 
tones to melody' the i-oad is short, and 
Music is born. 
Architecture, the second art of anti(i- 
uity was born of the same aitistic • in- 
stinct. To build a hut with the branches 
of trees is not art, but the fulfilment of a 
natural need. But to excavate a tomb in 
a sandstone hill, to divide the vaults into 
chambers of various sizes; cautiously to 
leave pillars to support its stony i-oof, to 
give a greater bearing surface to the caps 
of these pillars to jirevent the load rest- 
ing on isolated points of support ; then 
to carve the walls and pillars with signs, 
destined to preserve the memory of a 
victor}' over an enemy; this is art. 
Music and Architecture are the only 
arts in which iirimative man developed 
certain creative faculties, in his desire to 
publish his ideas, to preserve his memo- 
ry or share his hopes; by associating 
with them a sound or a form. SculpUire 
and painting are to Arciiitecture what 
Pantomime and Po tiy are to Music; 
derivatives, natural consequences. 
A man, more powerful than his neigh- 
bors, has killed a tiger. lie hangs its 
skin before the entrance to the cave in 
which he lives. The skin is decomposed 
by the elements; he carves in the stone, 
as well as he can, something which looks 
like a tiger; so that his neighbors and his 
children may retain forever, the memory 
of his courage and skill. But he wants 
this sign to be seen from afar and com- 
mand attention. He has observed that 
red is the most brilliant of all the colors; 
so he daubs his sculptured tiger with red. 
By all this is meant, that a tiger invaded 
the home of a man, who was so brave 
that he killed the tiger and thus defended 
his property at the peril of his own life. 
This, again, is art. It exists hei-e com- 
plete and nothing remains but to perfect 
the manner of execution. As the years 
roll on, our priniative hero dies; his chil- 
dren cut in the rock, a tomb, in which to 
deposit his remains, and on the outside 
they carve a man wrestling in deadly 
combat with a tiger. The figure of the 
man must be large, that of the tiger 
small ; for the family of the deceased wish 
that passers by should know that their 
father was a brave and powerful man. 
Cerli-inly a little man who kills a big ti- 
ger is more courageous than a big man 
who kills a little tiger; but this is too 
complex an idea to enter into the mind 
of the primitive artist. In all the antique 
sculptured remains of Egypt, India and 
most other countries, the conqueror is 
represented as collossal, while his eni- 
niies, whom lie defeats, are small. 
In the vestibule of St. Peter'sCathedral 
at Home, is a magnificent statue, the 
work of Bernini; it is the equestrian 
statue of (!onstantine ; a man who hung 
his father-in-law, strangled his brother- 
in-law, butchered his nephew, decapita- 
ted his oldest son and drowned his wife 
while she was taking a bath; who gave 
up to wild beasts the Frankisli chiefs 
whom he conquered on the banks of the 
Khine ; and finally ended his career by 
tleslro} iug the last remains of antique 
liome, iievi r to rise again. JSow the red 
tiger carved at the door of the barbarian, 
or tin? combat represented on bis tomb, 
is more in conformity with the true fun- 
damental pi inciiials of art than this stat- 
ue of the Emperor Constantine, set u]j in 
a Christian church. The innige of the ti- 
ger may be a shapeless thing, the statue 
ot the Emperor an excellent work; this, 
however, does not afi'ect the question, 
for mechanical execution is foreign to 
the essential jninciples of art. But when 
an intelligent people, possessing the es- 
sential principals, adds a taste for the 
beautiful and the power of expressing it 
in color and foiin, we may properly con- 
sider them an artistic people. Such a 
people once lived in Soiahern Europe, 
yet, in a political point of view, they 
may be considered as one of the most 
weak and unstable of nations; to us their 
political and religious institutions seem 
barbarous. They were treacherous; the 
people of one state were envious of those 
of another; their leaders were often cor- 
ruj)t and murderous; they were ignorant 
of the power of electricity, the power of 
steam and many other great inventions 
which have characterized the Nineteenth 
Century, an era of progress. But we 
must confess, their poets, their 
architects and their sculptors of 
Athens remain superior to all that the 
most civilized ages have been able to 
produce. The Greek's idea of anatomy 
was very incomplete as compared with 
ours. History does not inform us that 
they had any anatomical schools; and, if 
they liad they must certainly have been 
on a scale inferior to our own, Yet,Greek 
statuary is, and always has been, univer- 
sally admitted to be superior to that of 
any other age. We know more about the 
structure of the human body than did 
those people of the age of Pericles. Yet 
we cannot carve as they carved. The 
administrative power of our civilization 
is undoubtedly more adequate to our 
needs, and better organized for our pur- 
poses, than that which directed the gov- 
ernmental affairs of the immature civili- 
zation of the Greek states. Yet the 
writings of Ilei-iod and Homer excel any 
of the best authors of our age, and the 
•Parthenon remains "the most perfect 
building." Thus it cannot be conceded 
that there is any vital relation between 
art and civilization. 
If it is the nature and not the degree 
of civilization that produces works of 
art, we must conclude no longer to con- 
found the advance of civilization or the 
industrial arts with the advance of the 
fine arts; we must judge of the latter 
without regard to the social state of the 
people among whom they may be devel- 
oped; and shoidd not infer, that because 
one nation is lower in the social scale 
than another, its arts are inferior to 
those of the othe.v nation, AVe should 
not be blinded by narrow prejudices in 
judging the arts of any anterior period, 
but remember that those arts, however 
obscure, may in all respects be more ex- 
pressive than those which we are accus- 
tomed to regard with true adoration. 
One who devotes himself to the study 
of the arts of any period of social barbar- 
ism is no more open to censure for cher- 
ishing a desire to retrograde towards 
such barbarism, than one who seeks for in- 
struction among the arts of any other 
anterior period, for no one will contend 
that our civilization is not better than 
the civilizations of antiquitj", of the 
ISIiddle Ages, or of the last three centu- 
ries. 
It would seem that the arts either ac- 
company the material progress of civili- 
zation, and that they have, therefore, 
reached the moment of their greatest 
perfection, as our civilization is superior 
to all of the past and we must consider 
as relatively barbarous all anterior arts; 
or, the arts are entirely independent ot 
the moral and material state of civiliza- 
tion, and, that the onl}' guide to prefer, 
euce of one expression of art over anoth- 
er is each man's personal taste or caprice. 
But botli*conclusions are false. To ac- 
quire a correct idea of the relative value 
of the anterior arts, we must judge them 
from certain laws; laws peculiar to those 
arts and wholly independent of the social 
state in the midst of which they have 
been developed. 
A hen is conscientious — her chief object 
in life is to fill the hiU.—Ex. 
