New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-04-12

ard serle IF the l-te pre- Raphselites Az the re-
cant GeImsn AID FreDch art, q, well as the En-
glisb, does hot succeed in attracting Jingle word
+ prase from him; while the general spicit and
Dim Of modern society is condemned as quite god
less ard e1' cradle. How much Mr.. Ruskn knows
Of it may be inferred from the fact that he regards
Sit Waiter Scott as its chief e4pOnent-a man who
possessed scarcely particle OF sympathy with aoy
peculiar modern movement We could name 3
dozen Epglisbmen that would have served tae pur-
pose better, not TO mention any German. Tue
Truth u however, tina. the pTeseu! age is one so
graz and complex in its activities, 50 sub lie and
yet 50 material, so minu'e and Yet 30 universal, SO
critical and yet so phosophic so practical sad yet
go poetic that i. would be scarcely possible tor any
one man to reflect all its manifold and nitric tie
tendencies. Goethe expressed the earlier part OF
this cen ury, but even Goethe, prOdig Gus as be
was, was not complete type. He failed in that
point precisely in which Dir. Ruskn mistakiDgly
thinks the age itself deficieDt-a deep and earnest
religious faith. We say mis.akDgly, because We
believe that in no previous age of the wvrld has
religious truth exercised so profound sway over
40 many minds as in this age. The fierce charges
of Mr Ruskin against our "faithlessuess arc the
worst Cant Of the cOnventices Our missionary
societies alone might put to the blush the entire
calendar OF aicent marty rdOnis and santhoods.
But our religion shows itself in different way
from the ancient religions. Ii does not utter it
self in bloody crusades, or in stately ceremonies
snd procession or IN monastic asceticism, or tor
tDrines of the fesh, but in practical everyday
uses j ferrets out and tries to set right the
wrCDgs Of pOwer-the crimes of priests and kings
and the injusrices Of society Itself to any Of its
injured classes Simple acts OF goodness seem to
it infinitely better, though less imposing than grand
amod, fts or vast pilgrimage
Nor csn we sgree with Mr. Ruskin in his I'M
qualified cOLtsmpt Of modern art. IL is true that
we have not had in this nineteenth century such an
exhibition OF Sculpture as illustrated the age Of
Perclts, nor such outburSt Of pictorial glory as
marked the transition period at the close Of the
Middle Ages Neither had the Greeks Shake
speare nor the Medievals a Beethoven. These
great eras depend upon great historical causes,
and are part Of grand Providential scheme Of
human development, the reasons Of which we may
not vet be able to see. But we moderus are not
deficient in art, and in art of high and splendid
order. We do not refer low to poetic and musical
art-the most r, fined and powerful in their effects
of all the ars-but to plastic and pictorial art in
which We are said to have done nothing Such
names as Thor waldsen, Houdou, Powers, Pradler,
Gibson, ard others in Sculpture, AID such names as
REYNOLDS, Kaulbach Cornelius, Couture, Delar6che,
Als.on and others, it were gross impertinence to
despse nice criticism may easily show taat none
Of these men are equal to Phidas Angelo, Raphael,
or Titan; but no sound criticism can show that they
are on that account bupglers. Burns Wordsworth,
Tennyson, Bryant, are none of them equal to
Shakespeare; yet each, in his way is great poet.
Carlyle and Emerson are not equal to Bacon, yet
they are both great thinkers. No recent musical
genius can compare with Mozart; and yet Men
delssobn, Mey erbeer, Ros'ini, Wagner, are con-
siderable genuses. 1t is only once in a millennium
that Homer or Dante is born; but the interven-
ing ages in which no Homer or Dante appear, are
not wholly destitute of the Divine influx or given
over to utter poverty or meanness.