On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tiong , without education , —that the science of mind had never been unlocked to them . They were not taught to reason . While physical sciences were scattered around them in profusion , their mental faculties were left an uncultivated waste ; all that did not in some shape bear upon the arts they practised was neglected ,
and much that did . They knew nothing beyond their own sphere ;—the history , the manners , the customs of other countries , and other men , were blanks to them , with few exceptions ; and thence arose many of the anachronisms which are still to be seen in their works , often causing their beauty to be lost sight of in the ridicule attaching to them . In whatever their actual
knowledge reached , they were scarcely to be surpassed ; but , out of their sphere , they suffered the usual fate of the presumptuous . But worse than this was the penalty attaching to their ignorance ; envy , hatred , and malice , and all uncharitableness , were
engendered , by which each wasted half of his existence in practising against his neighbour ' s quiet , or seeking to rob him of his fame ; and while the imagination is lost in admiration of the skill of these famed beings , in their capacity of artists , the judgment unwillingly ranks them low in the scale of men .
Poets , sculptors , painters , architects , play-writers , novel-writers , and actors , to obtain high eminence , must possess nearly the same qualities the one as the other ; the actor , perhaps , the most universally , and he must unite the qualifications of the orator to the others . Still more , to develop their faculties perfectly , the professors of these arts should be lifted above the
necessity of exertion for their daily bread . The sordid exertions of mere interest destroy all enthusiasm ; and , alas ! how few of the children of genius unite to their other qualities the habits of frugality , and the talent for calculation ! The reason for this , which held good in the middle ages , holds good now : there is scarcely any mental training amongst them . They are not educated for their professions , but come to them by accident ,
—fighting upwards , under the influence of poverty , against the sparselyscattered judgment of an uneducated public . Education is still but little understood generally , and is supposed to begin with books and to conclude with books . There is much more in it ; but , until that more shall be generally diffused , there is but little hope of much amelioration in the lot of the professors of the arts . It is a common remark , that the largest amount of human envy is to be found amongst the ranks of the artists . Painters are
conspicuous for their hatred of each other , which is only exceeded by their vanity , in many instances disgusting , and generally in the inverse proportion of their merit . There is a story related by Mrs . Barbauld , which they would do well to reflect on . A young artist , by the display of high and ennobling feeling , in addition to excellence in his profession , was the means of causing a prise of virtue as well as of art to be established ia the academy
Untitled Article
6 On the State of the Fine Arts in England .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 6, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/6/
-