New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-24
LECTURES.
MIR. James,s Lecture on Art,

the Hall of the Stuyvesant Institute was deliv
cred on Tuesday evening by HENRY JAMES, Esq
before highly intelligent and attentive audience
The subject of the Lecture, which was treated
with the rare logical acuteness and fertility o.
illustration for which the public discourses of Mr.
James are distinguished was the Universally o
Art Mr. James said that he did not intend to
discuss the principles Of any specific art, or the
methods of excellence which it offers to its vota
ries, but to consider the nature Of Art universally
and to show what it is which makes Art the SOW
ereign glory of Humanity-what it is which makes
the poet, the musician, the sculptor and so forth,
an Artist, and thus commends him to universal
homage.
The sphere Of Art is the sphere of mans spon-
taneous activity, distinguished from his natural
activity or that which is imposed by his physical
necessities, and his moral activity, or that which
is imposed by his obligations to his fellowmen.
/ We do not call the shoemaker an Artist because
we know that he is not inspired by any internal
attraction, any irresistible love of making shoes,
but is prompted simply by the desire of making a
living AS his activity does not spring from any
inward delight in his calling we do not apply to
him the name Of Artist, but of artisan or workman.
The man who invents shoes may indeed be
called an Artist because invention fulfls all the
conditions of spontaneous or aesthetic action. A
work of Art is complete in itself, presenting per-
feet unity of ends and means, or of object and sub
iect This is the case in questionable invention
of shoes. But whatever work OF man does not
come under this definition falls without the sphere
of Art. 1t may be work OF surprising clever
ness; it may very greatly excel the work OF every
other man in the same line; but at best 1t is only
n fair copy of Na.ure-it is no work Of Art
Zeuxis NAV paint natural effects better than
Turner He may so embathe bis foliage with the
tender freshness of the dawn that you would
swear he knew the very heart OF Nature, and
could utter all her secrets at will. Yet all this
does not make Zeuxis an artist. Take away a
certain effect from Nature and you take away his
DOVER He has been a faithful coPyist. watching
her more wistfully than the spider watches the
Hy In the voluminous notebook Of his memory
he has recorded all her shifting phantasmagorla,
and is quite sure that he will one day seize her
with q grasp which all men shall deem immortal.
But the Artist avoids all this fdget. He has no
sinister design in his admiration Of Nature. He
enters the chambers of the morning for present
refreshment, and with no view to the scraps he
NAV carry home in bis wallet. He watches the
lingering glance OF the god OF day because 1t
evokes a mystic rapture in his SOUL but without
ton in the newspapers.
The Artist knows no shibboleth, is destitute Of
all exclusiveness is in fact modesty ITSELF feeling
himself to be mere minister OF that holy and
universal spirit, which knows no SIN but sell con-
ceit To give outward form to inward substance ;
to give natural body to spiritual conceptions; to
oive finite or visible expression To infinite or III
Visible IDEAS; such is the life OF Art Who can
enter upon it without feeling his soul purified OF
all personal rivalries and ambitions, OF all mer
As.,skx nvU-
edges any outward object, acknowledges no OBJ
ect but the fullest possible expression OF his
soul Riches and fame he leaves to the artisan,
more than content himself to serve only God.
This is the exact distinction between work and
mercenary labor, and Art, that the artisan hnds
his inspiration out oil himself, IN the necesstles
of bis physical and moral life, while the Artist
finds his inspiration within him or in God. The
artisan works for physic and social subsistence,
hence from compulsion, and hence poorly. The
Artist works only to satisfy his souls promptings,
hence from attraction, and hence dlvlnely.
We see from this why work conters so little
dignity upon man, when compared with aesthetic
action Work is servie and initiative Action
is free and original 1t springs not from Necessary
or duty but purely from taste or delight. 1t has
an exclusively inward genius. 1t proceeds In
varably from within to without 1t is IN every
cese the embodiment of an idea. and therefore
complete r
Mr. James continued his remarks in strain OF
impressive eloquence, butof so firm and compact a
texture, that nothing but a strictly verbatim re-
port could do it justice.
After speaking OF the persons IN whom theprn-
c;ple of Art has received its highest manifesto
tons. Mr.. j. proceeded, at the close of his lecture,
TO remark: These men do not fulfill the divine
image In humanity. They have indeed carried
the world onward to them human history has
been indebted for all its vivacity and sweetness
thew have preserved our life from Incidence, stag
nation and putrdity they may, therefore, be
called truly Providential men, men to whom dod
has accommodated his stature In the past. they
are not the exact divine man, but accommod atoms
of him adapted to the imperfect evolution OF
human destiny. They are harbingers OF the al,
vine man. the nearest approximation permitted
bv the infrmties of our nascent life but they are
not the perfect man himself. They bear indeed
precisely the same relation 10 the perfect man that
the present path ofthe ecliptc does to the equator
n relation of decided obliquity. Astronomers tell
us that when the earth shall have attained her
true magnetic poise upon her axis, the path OF
the ecliptic will be coincdent with the equator,
and the rigors of Winter and the tervor oil sam
mer consequently will alike give place to new
and perpetual Spring, which shall Dathe the
whole earth with gadness. SO, when humanity
shall have attained true poise upon her moral
axis. these men who have hitherto been her
ecliptic. who have marked the place of the divine
footsteps, who have sig nalized the onward course
of Providence on earth, will give place to the
equatorial or perfect man, who shall completely
reconcile the now warning elements OF good ana
evil in new individuality, which shall carry the
very dew and fragrance OF God into every com
mo5est walk Of our daily life, and absorb alike
the parched aridity Of the Saint, and the rank
fecundity of the Sinner, in the unity OF integral
Man.
New Elements Of Geometry-LectHre OF seba