Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1867-06-25
THE LOST ART.


anu IOuud eCuscIcu Win me Inch
because the tombs wherein they have
lain for centuries are covered with
caricatures of beasts, birds and fishes
because uncouth and and ungainlv
ornaments ofgold are found deposited
in such tombs-divers persons wander
off into extravagant praises of the lost
arts, of the subtle and ingenious ar
tisans who lived thousands Of years
ago, ignoring tle wonders of to>day
and the skill of their own countrymen.
If the mummies be an evidence of
the tastes of the ancients, the less said
the better. Ugly in their lives, em~
balmed they are notimproyed and the
ScarabeHS or beetle with which persons
OF high rank were ornamented is sug-
gestive of another moro unpleasant
insect quite familiar to housekeepers.
Even the pyramids from which these
rusty relics of the past are exhumed
might have been built in half the time
by modern artifcers, with brown
stone fronts, if desirable, and slated
with alternate rows Of purple and
green tiles. What waste Of Egyp-
tian time and money.
So with that sphinx which glowers
at Ethiopia from its scat in the sand,
as if suffering from the recollection Of
some overpowerlng wrong. fit be
lost art to construct such h;deons
monstrosities as these, let us congrat-
ulate ourselves that tha world has
| grow wiser and better with the lapse
of centuries.
Herculaneum and Pompeii, unearth.
ed from the ashes of Vesuvius. show
little or no trace of the arts which
have been lost. A few bronze lamps
of uncouth shape, some pottery re
markablc for its curious decoration,
some tiles and frescoes ofunquestion-
able tendency-thesc are some relics
OF the state of the arts among that
people AT the time they were ovor>
whelmed
In Morocco and Spain ruins tum-
| bling into decay, courts wherein foun-
tains tin1led through the night at
mosphere heavy with the scents of or
ange groves, tressellated pavements,
and columns fretted with intricate de-
sighs, are the only signs, the only ev-
idence to build on, that the arts ever
existed. Arts-not in the sense of
gingerbread fnory and gliding, but
arts by which whole villages earned
bread for their families in the sweat
Of their faces.
In Egypt at this day-land of the
pyramids. of the ruined cities, of the
crypts-thc wretched native cracks
his wheat in q morter, or worse, in
rag bruised between two stones. In
Italy and in Imperial Rome-famous
in centuries long since transpired, for
all that wealth could procure-the
beggars chatter approximately at ev-
cry step, and the fields are as barren
and infortile as they were hundreds
of years ago.
1t is not on. the wide Campagna there
that the modern reaper or yankee
mower gets an opportunity to exhibit
its qualities. 1t is not on the slopes
at the foot of the Alps that the soil is
turned up to the sun by cultivators
and corn plows. MOI mechanicism is
tabooedl The arts have no chance,
and the way of centuries is the way.
Though an existence of oil lakes
was known to the ancients, no use was
made of them. Fish oil gave forth it's
feeble glimmer in their lamps for y RS
and the radiance of kerosene was
strange to domestic circles. In like
manner the want Of knowledge of
natural products, of the infinite cons
binations they are capable of, of the
uses they may put them to, were al
most unknown to the ancients-ut~
terly SO compared with the knowledge
of the present day.
There was, indeed, no lack Of SEN
suous decoration for palaces, there
was no want of stimulent, no absence
of anything that appeared to the
grosser nature of man in those an
cent days, but the artisans were
familiar with only the rudest mochan
zeal contrivances.
No hundred thousand spindles
whirrcd in cotton factories from
morning till night; no engines NOV
ed swiftly and noiselessly; no rail-
roads clasped the land in the embrace.
The earth bore in its bosom then,
as now, copper and iron, but for
artisans, for want of the skill and
cunning to work it, little benefit ac-
crued to the possessors thereof.
Brass could be put to no better use
than making a huge image to strad-
die the strait of Rhodes
In the ancient days lived Praxite-
les, Phidias and Apelles, sculptors of
rare talent who cut from the silent
marble statues that seemed instinct
with life; but these, however they
may have appealed to the taste of
men at that time, never helped the
poor to decent living, put no gar
ments on the naked, nor built up
| towns and cities as does the machin-
cry fEto day.
For all that cultjvates society, for
all that tends to make mankind refin-
ed, intellectual, and human, VIC have
the fullest respect and appreciation
but we despise that affectation which
accords to barbarians, or nations
| semi civilized, more culture. more
genius, and more mechanical skill
than we possess at the present time.
The world moves forward, not
backward, and the generations of
to-day arc wiser than those which
are not or ever were. The arts, in
a general sense, are not those delicate
refnements of painting and music,
by which white-handed and gifted
sons OF genius get a living, but they
are those stern, hard realities in life,
which by the practice of them trrn
the miracle bic iron stone into ductile
metal, which level the forces, which
turn the wilderness into cities, which
open up lands unknown to the pent
up thousands of Old countries. These
are the arts and this is til, oriod in
which they flourish.