Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1852-12-22
THE LOST ARTS
y ,urNnrII purIIIps. ESQ, on BOSTON.

THE LOST ARTS
BY WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.,, OF BOSTON.
The seventh of the course of lectures at the
Tabernacle was delivered on "Wednesday eve
ming by Wendell Phillips, ESQ.,, of Boston, be-
fore a very large auditory. Before introducing
the lecturer of the evening the Chairman an
nouuced that Mr. John Thompson of POUCH
keepsie would deliver the next lecture of the
course, on Wednesday evening next, upon the
life and Genius of Milton. Mr. Phillips was
then introduced to the audience, and proceeded
70 speak as follows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Perhaps the most
prominent feature in the character of our coun-
trymen is selfconcet. You recollect that
great many years ago we voted ourselves the
most enlightened nation on the face of the
plobe-and there still remains the impression
that we are the model Republic, and that the
rest of the world has great deal to do before
they will get abreast of US. Indeed, think
that we are so fearful that this valuable quality
should die out for want of culture, that we set
apart two or three days in the year to encourage
it--as for instance, the 22d of December, the
Fourth Of JULY and the 18th of June--occa-
sions when every American seems to consider it
his duty, like
I" Little Jack Horner,
To sit in the Corner,
And eat his Christmas pie"
But this popularity does not belong exclu-
sively to us--it is prevailing characteristic of
the age. We seem to think that if wisdom will.
not die with us, at least it was born with US
and it requires great deal to convince the man
of the nineteenth Century,that they knew much
before he was born Laughter. | shall not,
therefore, wholly waste the hour that you lend
me tonight, if | endeavor to broaden your view
alttle--to take your eyes off of yourselves and
fix them for moment on other ages and other
lands,--if | even endeavor to persuade you
that. "Tbat which is, has been, that that
which has been, is, and there is nothing new un-
der the sum-"
NV lecture is upon Aries Perdita: or The
lost Arts, and allow me to preface by saying that
there is no great department Of literature In
which we are but second-rate that we sit con-
tendedly at the feet of earlier ages--that the
ancients reaped the heaviest harvests, because it
was the first. So in poetry and sculpture the
present age can but initiate artists OF earlier
times The artist Of our day can receive no high
er praise than to have his pictures spoken of as
like those of Raphael In all these arts, there
fore, perfection may be considered a lost art
And this admission is very broad. 1t goes down
to the commonest jest-to the most familiar
novel. This army of novels which so invades
the public are mostly taken or composed from
different arrangements of three hundred stories
of historic fiction. 1t is said that all the modern
fctions of Europe may be reduced to three hun
dred roots; and that these are not European, but
borrowed from the East Shakespeare, you know
never stopped to invent the skeletons OF his i'm
mortal dramas, but borrowed them from second
hands. And this is true not only of Shakespeare,
and Pelham, but it is true of the commonest jest.
Our very newspaper jokes have most respect
able antiquity. And SO with the story Of that
son Of the Emerald Isle,who said, 81 was hand
some boy once, but they changed me in the era
de-" Laughter.1 Even this joke was taken
of the imagination. And even so with these in
undations of fashion that come from Paris twice
year, turning half the world crazy. We sup
pose them original with the Parisians. But the
French schools of design, instead of trusting en-
trely to the native genius of their scholars, place
before them patterns Of past ages; and from
these they combine such an infinite variety that
it is almost impossible to initiate them. 1t is
not however, to this class Of objects to which
wish to direct your attention tonight, but rath-
er to those useful arts Of which the present age
is so peculiarly proud, and which administer to
the delight and comfort of life And in speak
ing Of the Useful Arts, must confine what
have to say upon very large subject to few
brief moments. will speak of Glass, of Metals,
and of the Mechanic Arts. And here allow me
to say that many have an idea that we are not
to trust to information derived from authors of
the olden times. So that Herodotus, from hav-
ing been called the Father of History, came at
one time to be called the Father of Lies" But
these criticisms upon old writings are not much
regarded.
And first, am to speak of Glass-this beau
tiful material that administers so much to our
delight and comfort. Did the ancients know of
it? This article is of itself one of the most
amazing instances Of the self-conceit of which
before spoke. Even at the time when some
skeptics were disputing upon this very question
the peasants broke into house among the ru-
ms of Pompei, which was filled with it, Instead
ofnot knowing of glass, the ancents knew more
than we did about it. In the first place. they
understood the process of transfusing the color
through the glass. Sir George Wilkinson bro't
from Egypta small piece of glass, in which there
was figure ofa duckprotected by another glass
and then covered over again; and all this with
out destroying its beauty.
But | pass to the inquiry, whether they used
glass for microscopes and telescopes! If you