Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-11-02
Gitp ann County SnteIIigente.

There was a very respectable audience at Me-
chanics' Hall last evening, to listen to the fifth
lecture of the "Independent Course" by DR..
J. G. Holland. The gentleman's theme was
Art and Life-Art as the expression of Life
Life as the end of Art DIR. Holland advanced
strenuously the idea that true art is faithful ad-
herence to nature. and nature has its end in
life /; that there is no such thing as beauty for
beauty's sake, and that art has a mission to
life, and can never be useful except when true
to life through a well developed purpose True
art criticism, he said, must be based on the
question of ultimate purpose. And the pur-
pose must be good. He administered some
sharp rebukes TO the )seif-appointed art critics
who measure. all by the "rules of art, and
who hed!sseeSin art from life, and frown on
thes'attempt to convey lessons of life by art.
But they are not the arbiters. The great hun
CRY world is the grand board of final judg-
ment; and the lecturer sustained himself by
quoting Michael Angeles answer to question
concerning a work just finished, "the street
light will confess its value" The remarkable
ecstacy which is occasionally manifested in
raptures over the scientific trills, aud other
astonishing developments of a new soprano
or pianist, was not appreciated by DIR. Holland;
he said the people were the true judges, and
no artist has won, or will win reputation
worth having, who does not win it from them.
But proceeding from the Suburbs of Arr"
as the lecturer styled those attributes of art
sound, form and color, he took us into the me-
tropolis. Said Dr. Holland, words only live;
of them is constructed the Temple Of Arts.
By words man makes his his nearest approach
to God; we pronounce the word, and straight
the imagination finds in it its brightest revela-
tons. The pencil and chisel are but clumsy
instruments by the side of the pen. 1t is
through words that lite flows freely into life.
God works in the field of Art for Life wit
ness the Bible where his high truths are EN-.
bodied in the most sublime forms of imagery.
Shakspeare's material with which he wrought
was life, always life. The Pilgrims Progress,
that remarkable work, originated i'll benef-
cent intent.
The people are the true judges of art, and
the popular demand points to the mission and
duty of the artist. The universal, clamorous
demand for life is seen in the greedy grasping
after the newspapers, the personalities mar
riages, and deaths of which were generally
sooner read than the didactic leader; in the
novel reading in anything Astounding in the
life of to-day. The lecturer seemed to think
that life of any kind, even of dubious char
acter, better than no life, and that the cry of
the people for the wealth of other life, was
properly satisfied by books, which could only
meet the desperate demand. He censured
the slayish worship of the Cart of the an.
clients, and concluded that we here have the
means and materials to illustrate that true Art
of which the past had no conception.
Of beauty, he said, it never is and never can
be more than the mere shell of vital art beau.
ty in art and nature is subordinate to the fit
ness of things. Yet the slavery of art to beau
ty is universal it has thus far been cheated of
its sinews and its soul by toying with beauty
we have stunted art and well nigh killed it.
The schools, presidents, authorities, and
the arbitrary standard of the connoisseur, were
all thrust out into the cold by DR.. Holland,
who insisted there could be no general stand
ard in artcriticism having relation to form, the
life of that form determining the whole mat
ter. He advanced other theories at variance
with those of the art "dawders and ollie
tante." You and l, and every one else, said
he, are competent judges Of art in the meas
ure that we are competentJ Judges of anything.
He closed with an expression of his firm
faith in the judgment of the world, and that
brighter day was at hand, when we shall cut
loose from the old, and think for ourselves
when the patronage of art shall pass from the
church and the wealthy to the people, who
will make a high art possible, which shall
transcend all preceding ages; when her high
mission shall be fulfilled, and artists inscrbe
| their names on the scroll of fame.
| DIR. Holland is an attractive speaker. and the
audience was highly interested