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Untitled Article
afforded evidence of the increasing attractiveness of works of art on those who are too poor to enjoy them in a more convenient mode . Crowds , gentle and simple , at the windows of caricature shops there have always been . That is quite a different matter ; and is to be accounted for on no principle that affects the poor particularly , but on that which makes the clergy support the ' John Buir newspaper , and the Age / and the fancy folks , high and low , take in ' Life in London / These are the vulgar , whatever their rank or station . Not those who gaze on Wilkie or Martin through a shop window , whispering that admiration of
pictorial truth and sublimity , which is the germ of gentle and of noble feeling . Wicked , indeed , were it , for this good seed not to be cherished . We heartily hope that the National Gallery will not disappoint our author ' s wishes . There ought to be far more ample provision for the desire which he describes , than can be furnished by that institution . A glorious * picture fuddle ' ought to be within reach of everv man , woman and child , who
can enjoy it , every Saint Monday , all the year round ; or as parliaments were held of old , * oftener if need be . ' Some effort would be worth while , if merely to keep under , and eventually to destroy , the mischievous English propensity to deface all accessible works of art . This would be best checked by an extending aDnreciation of their beautv amongst the noorer clasps . Rut
much more might be done than this incidental and negative good . A common enjoyment of the productions of the painter , the engraver , the statuary , and the architect , would be a mighty blessing to the nation . It would be a creation of sense and soul , under the ribs , not of death , but of animality . It would do far more towards purifying the habits and manners , than a bill ngainst beer shops , or a tax upon gin . A club of * picture
fuddlers ' is the best of all Temperance Societies . Other innocent modes of honouring Saint Monday are then glanced at , the solitary fisher , and the solitary student , and the * bending artisan of aspect pale , ' strollrng to the suburbs , ' White his jyan wife her little toddlers leading , In loud array comes straggling on behind , And the whole seem to drink with parchy gust the wind I * Who would not wish a fine day for them ? A fine day , that common bounty of the common parent , such a day as this : —
4 Above the highest hill of heav'n , now The sun has risen , and his rays are streaming In summer ' s splendid and triumphant show , And all around with bounding life is beaming . Oh , glorious sun ! while lofty man , indignant And proudly from his brother turns his head , Thou visitest with smiles and love benignant , The humblest hovel , and the lowliest shed , And all of earthly life is l > y thy bounty fed .
Untitled Article
Saint Monday . 833
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1833, page 833, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2628/page/29/
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