Daily American telegraph., 1852-02-14
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.
From tn, 1Donthly Religious Magazine, April, lS49
THE FINE ARTS.


THE FINE ARTS.
At a large public dinner Of Americans, in
Rome, the,Rev, CHARLES Books of Boston, be-
ing called up, made the following remarks:
MIR. CHAIRMAN: Living year at Rome,
and visiting almost daily the studios of our
artists, one insensibly gets to imagine himself
Sculptor, Painter, and even Poet Such is
one OF the magic influences of these artistic
environments. Who can live here and not feel
himself controlled by the transcendent powers
OF human genius which surround him. This
captivity of the soul is one of the beautiful
tributes to the power of the fine arts. How
great, therefore, may their agency become, as
formative principles of national character !
While painting and sculpture embody the
sublmest ideas and the profoundest emotions
Of human nature, they may be used to lift pub
lic sentiment up into the domain of beauty
truth, and virtue. They speak of history and
herolsm they whisper of futurity and fame
these works are poems in stone, and philosophy
on canvass Their very silence has persga-
sion that verbal cloquence cannot reach. He
who stands before them, and studies them, finds
his soul gathering up the inspiration they
breathe
Now q taste for the fine arts cannot exist
and flourish without wide amount of nation
al culture. The prevalence of superior art in
antiquity proves the extent of an enlightened
public love Of it's creations. "A peasant of the
humblest rank, in ancient Athens would not
have dreamed of defacing statue or paint
ing or public ediice. Art had around it a
religious atmosphere Whatever improvement
the fine arts attain in any country is sign of
general progress, progress tho opposite of
vulgar taste and bestiaI aims. The homage
we pay to true art, is the generous suffrage of
our higher faculties.
Now, it is just this mighty and humanizing
power of the arts, as handmaids to a higher
civilization, that ] wish to see introduced as
part of national system of education 1t is
time that this new agent was introduced among
the formative principles of our republican
character.
But, the question comes-Do we need it {?
To ask, if the United States need the softenine
and elevating agency of the fine arts, is to
answer the question. WHAT'S the great educa-
tional idea in our Union? Is it not the idea of
UTILITY? Certainly it is, Everything from
the magnetic telegraph to the spinning jenny,
is for utility | like utility as we'll as any
man but do not like that utility should turn
all the rest of the family out of doors Ones
ears are stunned with the cry for utility: as If
rotton-cloth, upholstery, gold, steam-engines,
and railroads constituted the highest objects
OF human attainment In Massachusetts
would walk five miles in tough storm to see
anything that was not useful am tired of
being answered. Sir, it will be of no use !
or, 1T will bring no dividend | affirm that
utility as noac understood, is not the agent that
can. form an elevated national character It
will make nation creep in the dust. 1t can
not soften the manners purify the taste, exalt
the sentiments, or dignity the affections Above
all it cannot pour the breath Of spiritual life
into our souls, or bring out the divinity which
is wrapped up within us. Ii has no inherent
power adequate to these high results There
must be loftier agents; and these agents are
taste, truth, beauty, virtue patriotism Such
agents call for literature religion poetry sculp-
ture, painting, and the like would that
these had their place among the formative for
ces of American society, to keep in check our
headlong rush for mere MiiitY Has God given
us food for the growth and beauty of our bod
les, and given us science to entertain our minds
Sithal, and yet made no provision for the
ghest of our faculties? Certainly he has
not been thus partial or unjust but has made
plritual provisions rs much richer than the
material, rs soul is richer than body. If there
ore, as country, we are ever to attain the
highest civilization, we must call in the agents
that are competent to the work. We must
cease looking only at the earth, but must look
sometimes also at the heavens We must
count more than we have upon the moral taste
of the community; and speak of sculpture,
painting, architecture music and poetry, as
positive powers in the soul. They are positive
powers; and therefore painted picture or q
marble group may be as useful as n steamboat.
1t is not enough that our country becomes rich
and powerful it must become enlightened and
polished in order to fulfil its destiny
We need this extended culture for freedoms
sake and for freedoms sake. not only among
ourselves, but among the young Republics Of
South America. AS the Oldest Republic of the
western world, we have set an example of in
dependence and self.government, which the
States of South America have followed They
caught the grand keynote of Hberty which we
had so loudly struck, and now their mingled
chorus is heard from sea to sea. They look
to us for further light, and we cannot es-
cape the moral responsibility of our prominent
position We are bound to teach them how to
secure and adorn what they have gained We
must educate them and must we not therefore
be whatever we wish them to become For
this matter Of the fine arts, | truly hope that
we may one day have schools of art. which will
draw their young men of genius, as Rome and
Florence now draw the world. We need an
American art, which shall be translation of
our national character.
| have said, that as q nation, we need the
culture which the fine arts give for freedoms
sake: | add that we need them yet more for
civilizations sake; but, most of all for religions
sake. They are prostituted when they minis
ter to ignoble passion, traditional deformities.
or pagan cruelty They can body forth, as
nothing else can, our great ideal in the express
sion of the highest character. Who can study
Thorwaldsen's group of :" st John preaching
in the wilderness" or his Christ and twelve