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Untitled Article
English society—and power ever was , and ever will be , the source of consideration ; though the race of prefeent rulers have not taken it into their thoughts , how much more desirable it is to rule over men ' s minds than it is over their bodies . But in Greece , where the governments were mostly popular , the only road to power was intellect- —and intellect of that kind generally held in esteem , because it was comprehensible by all capacities . Thus , oratory , poetry , painting , and sculpture , took the lead of all other arts , because every one could comprehend them ; and , probably , the easy supply of the most urgent wants , left ample leisure for their enjoyment and cultivation . In countries possessing a fine climate , people live much in the open air ; and hence many of
the minor arts , which modern civilization has invented for indoor pleasures in bleak regions , are unknown where the sun shines
ever brightly . Who , with an unclouded atmosphere , glowing in genial warmth , would exchange the trellised shelter of the mantling vine , or the scented orange-grove , or the shade of the olive or fig-tree , of the marble colonnade , or porch decked with flowers , for all that art can do , in the tricking forth of a modern drawingroom or boudoir ? Assuredly no native of the sunny south . Let Italy , let Spain , let southern France speak , and the gardens of
the East put all the dwelling-builders to shame . In communities like that of ancient Greece , ordinary selfishness could not thrive . People could but eat of the food their country produced , as there tvas no commerce , and there was most likely more than enough for all—and , consequently , no necessity for hoarding . Their garments were also of a simple kind , with very little distinction in their quality , and none in their fashion . So that , to rise above the
herd , it was necessary to become an orator , a poet , a painter , or a sculptor . In time of war , it is true , a man of talent might also become a general ; but the simple operations and weapons of those days , rendered fighting more a matter of personal strength and dexterity than of calculation . Homer describes all his chiefs as being clever slaughterers of their fellows . A modern general seldom plucks his cold iron from the scabbard : —
* For ornament , not use , these arms are warn . The Greeks had na club-houses like our modern Greeks , and their books were too expensive for each individual to maintain a private library ; consequently , instruction was , for the most part ,
imparted verbally . Large open spaces were required for this , and thence arose the groves of Academus . Private individuals could not purchase paintings or statues ; they had no means of accumulating the needful funds ; no steam-engines wrought for them , and no legions of workmen afforded them a profit upon the labour of their hands . The communities were small , end most of the members were politically enlightened , so far as the knowledge of the day Treat c therefore , those who applied themselves to the
Untitled Article
ft On the State of the Fine Arts in England .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/2/
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