The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1851-10-09

very likely consider it necessary to have a
number of such "opinions'' to make one
opinion as is an opinion" I must con-
fess that cannot see material difference
between the plan on which the pictures are
distributed by this Institution and that Of
any other lottery, in a moral point of view.
tmay be on account Of the lack of sufici-
emily nice sense of discrimination in my
not being able to distinguish the line OF
demarkation which divides the morality of
a lottery in which the ticket-holders hope
to draw a five hundred dollar picture from
that in which they desire to draw five
hundred dollar purse. 1t was saying of
one William Shakespeare that " rose by
any other name would smell as sweet y
Now, however true this may have been in
the day in which William lived, the man
who should attempt to palm such an idea
on himself in this enlightened age of the
world would be very apt to find himself
egregiously mistaken for, in the eyes of
many people, and in the eyes of that law
of New York State which attempts to
suppress gambling, there is very material
difference between the " distribution of the
prizes of the Art Union," and the drawing
of an ordinary prize lottery, notwithstand-
ing the mOdus operandi of doing the two
things is precisely the same. But the one
is, prcfcssedly, for the purpose of encourag-
ing the fine arts-mauger the painters are
beaten down to near starvation point in
the prices of their pictures, while the In
stitution which patronises" them is grow
ing rich on the proceeds oftheir labor, whilst
the other holds out to its victims no other
bait than that of gain, which, by the way,
is the most attractive one they could use,
if it only be called by some other name,
as there can be little doubt but the hope
of getting much more than the worth Of
their money is the real inducement to the
subscribers to the Art Union. There may
be a very few-perhaps one in a hundred
who desire to encourage the artist. Bu
men are men-albeit, some have rather
long ears-and as long as they are guidec
by human nature, gain will be the mos
potent enticement which can be held out
when it is desired to entrap them but
probably it is only the long-eared ones who
are victimiscd, unless it be called by some
other name thereby proving that lottery
drawing by its real name does not sound as
well.
There is another instance in which l
must confess my inability to apprehend the
difference in the degrees Of morality be-
tween the two cases where some people
profess to discover material dissimilarity ;
but to me it looks like distinction without
difference. [ refer to the theaters as
compared with the American Museum,
Niblo's Garden, and other places where
they have theatrical performances, and,
indeed, play precisely the same pieces with
the identical actors that perform in these
pieces in the theaters, and their motives
are precisely the same-namely, to make
money. I am no friend to theaters, but
to me it seems
Strange such difference there should be
'Twixt twcedlcdum and tweededcc.
But | have gone off in tangent from my
starting point, and [ may as well return
and say few words about the Fair As
yet the display of machinery and speci-
mems of manufacture, &c., is not what one
would expect to see in what claims to be
an exhibition of national enterprise in these
departments; but there will probably be
additions to this part oft the exhibition during
the present week, and there is handsome
display in the floral department. 1t is a
pity that in an exhibition designed to pre-
sent an cpitome of the national skill in the
arts and sciences, the merest trash should