The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-09
DAVID PAUL BROWNS LECTURE.

David Paul Brown, Esq, of Philadelphia, delV-
cred last evening the third lecture of the course be-
fore the Library Association Of the Charles Street
Methodist Episcopal Church-taking for his subject
"The Fine Arts" He commenced by stating that
before no audience assembled on this Continent was
he so much gratifed to appear as before one COM
posed Of the citizens of Baltimore, city proven
bal for its intelligence and warm-hearted hospi-
tality.
lie desired to enter an earnest plea in behalf of
the Fine Arts. He wished to see them literally
couragcd. Those who ,despised small beginnings
shall never attain great ends. 1t is by the encou-
ragement of the Fine Arts that nations become
famous in history. Science is knowledge. Art,
power, or skill is the use of that knowledge The
arts OF design were especially deserving of encou-
ragement and reward How nobly artists were re-
warded in ancient times. Alexander the Great
resigned Campaspe to Apelles Michael Angelo and
Raphael were patronzed by the Medci; modern
artists were for the most part objects of neglect.
They spent therliyes in obscuriy and want Poetry,
Painting and Soul pture sister The poet led
the captive soul to wilderness of sweets. The
painter renders the canvass instinct with lite re-
calls the images of dear friends, and brings bye
gone days before us in all their summer glory. The
pencil, chise and graver are to artists what the
pen is to the poet The lecturer here described the
progress of Painting, from its first rude outline to
the Polychrome pictures of Apeles and Zeuxls-
lie referred to Its influence upon the state ana upon
the characters of men. He asked what mattered 1T
when it was introduced? 1t is enough to know that
it had existed from time immemorial. Those peri
ods had been most illustrious in history in which
the arts have most fourished A love for the Fine
Arts exats the moral and intellectual standard of
community. The character of may be
learned from the books he reads His taste from his
encouragement of Painting and the liberal arts.
Every picture, however, is not painting; there Is
all the difference between painting and common
daub, that there is between a Cremona in the hands
of Pagann and a corn-stalk fiddle played by Juba.
He described collection ofdaubS. There hangs said
he, a portrait plucked from a sign-post;
the eyes like those of Banquo's ghost
"have speculation in them" Yonder
is ship in green meadow, the tufted waves like
cabbages. Here is a cottage in blue field. That
horse resembles a goat-that goat a COW. He re-
GREETED that bad pictures were not amenable to
law. They certainly misdemeanors against
good taste. The cultivation of the Arts and Scien-
ces forms the basis of the grandeur of a nation
the fame of Rome is sustained by her works of art
He quoted Byron's apostrophe to the "Niobe of
Nations" alluded to the art treasures of Pompeii
and Hercuaneum and the glOries of ancient Greece.
England excelled by all other nations in the
arts of Design. She has never properly appre-
caed the value of artists. Forty shillings square
yard was paid to Sir George Thornhill for painting
the interior of the dome of st. Pauls yet England
in rewardng genius, is to us Hyperion to a Satyr.
He closed by an earnest appeal to the American
people to encourage the cultivation of the Fine