The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-04-18

Looking at the progress of the American people
from an unitarian point of view, it may we'll be
doubted whether there can be found in the annals
of any nation of the old world so splendid an ex-
ample Of great results achieved by merely physical
energy and force of character. In all that apper-
tains to the economizng of manual labor, and in
all those branches of science and art which have a
practical bearing upon social comforts and conve-
niences the inventive genius of the American peo-
pie has been particularly successful. 1t was natu-
raj enough that in a new country, which was I'M
dergoing what may be termed the formative process
of settlement that the chief attention of the inhahi
tants should have been directed towards the means
of compensating for the want of an adequate sup
ply of skillful workmen by the adoption of i'm
proved machinery and by encouraging the produc-
ton, at moderate price, of articles of special
utility. In this effort of our people to establish
themselves, and to gather around them those SIM
pie accessories that were most nearly in accord
ance with their wants, the finer elements of cul-
ture were wholly disregarded. 1t mattered not
how plain looking thing was, so that it answer
ed the purpose for which it was devised But, as
wealth and population increased other and more
complex ideas Of the fitness of things began to
prevail. Log tenements were superseded by clap
boarded houses; and although the latter were
but too frequently mere oblong boxes they marked
difference in social elevation, and called for
furniture to correspond with the improved condi-
ton in life thus indicated; for better class of
engravings, or colored prints wherewth to deco
rate the walls and for many unaccustomed trifles
to ornament mantel-pece and parlor-tabe, and
"coigne of vantage" In the large cities how
ever, these evidences of progress were more rapid
ly developed, and more distinctly marked; but
in the city, as well as in the country, the education
of the eye to appreciate graceful forms and har-
monious combinations of color was very much
neglected. Wherever wealth was prominently
displayed, that display carried with it indications
of a semi-barbaric taste. There was splendor but
no refnement-no congruity. There were paint
ings on the walls, after the great masters-and
evidently long way after them, at that
Marvellous sums were expended in gliding,
and carving, and stucco work; in books that were
never read and in articles of veu whose chief merit
was that they were costly. We are only just begin
ming to understand that the great use of those pro-
auctions of human skill and genius, which address
themselves to the sentiment of taste, is to human
ize and refine, and that in their more appropriate
relations, they connect the perception of physical
beauty with that of moral excellence. Painting,
Sculpture, Architecture and Music, are all of them
arts that mark by the degree of appreciation in
which they are held, the rank which nation has
attained in Esthecal culture, and, to certain e1-
tent, in civilization. The essential use of the fine
arts begins where utility in its narrower accepta-
ton ends. KEATS tells us that
ga thing of beauty is joy forever"
and it is with things of beauty, things that are
in their essence, spiritually graceful, that the fine
arts have to do. Absorbed by grosser cares it is
only within few years past, that wealth and the
leisure that accompanies it, have become sufficiently
general to admit of the cultivation which is neces-
sary to a proper estimate of the value of art in
moulding the destnes and character of people
At the second festival of the Washington Art As
ISOLATION, which was held in that city on Thursday
evening last one of the speakers the Hon. GEORGE
Taylor, of New York, justly remarked that ''there
''should ever be an alliance between the statesman
and the artist but that on the final and sure sue
''cess of art everything depends the moral force
"and intellectual power of the people," In this
opinion we fully coincide; but we cannot so rea-
Oily go with him when he adds, that at is only
Sin our own country that art achieve its proud
lest triumphs" and that "here and here only,
twill it be displayed in its noblest array" Let us
hope that our artists will do honor to the country
that gave them birth; but surely it is not
necessary to indulge in speculations concern
ing what they are destined to accomplish,
until the fruits of their labors give us an op-
portunity of Judging of their capacity 1t is,
undoubtedly, laudable thing to extend to
native artists all the encouragement which the
genius displayed in their works may be found to
justly merit but to fatter them at the outset with
predictions of a supremely triumphant career, is
more dangerous to their success than words of
positive dispraise. Nor have we any desire TO see
built no, What of the speakers on the occasion
referred to, called IAN American school of art
All the so-termed SCHOOLS" whether of PAINTING
of sculpture, or of music, are but ''mannersms. y
Nature is the only school in which a true artist
will prosecute his studies, and the nearer he ao-
proximates to perfect expression of his original
and the more closely he conforms to those laws of
harmony which Nature in her widest
moods, never violates, the more certainly if his
genius should prove equal to his power of observ-
alton, will he be free from those peculiarties by
which the various schools of art are distinguished
But passing from a question which can only be
briefly touched upon within the limits of news
paper article to a point of much more importance
at the present tme-the growing taste for the fine
arts-it is gratifying TO know that individual pa
tronage has already done much towards fostering
native talent, and that through the influence exer-
ted upon Government by the Art Association at
Washington, new rules and regulations with re-
gard to the selection of the most appropriate per-
sons to be employed on the decorative work at the
Capitol, have either been already adopted or have
been favorably considered. These are but initial
movements; but they indicate favorable future
for those who have studied as profession, either
of the branches of the fine arts, and more gener-
al disposition on the part of our people to
acquire knowledge "of the science that treats
"of the beautiful"
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