The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1871-05-10
The Lost Arts.
A LECTURE.
BY WENDELL PHILLIPS


;ceit, which is this There is ono
large department of intellectual life
in regard to which it does not fairly
lie--I mean all that we call the fne
arts, with little broader meaning
even than common. Take poetry,
painting, sculpture, fiction, the drama,
the novel everything that relates to
beauty, either in thought or in form
in reg,rd to that whole department
of intellectual life, think there is Il
perfect readiness to acknowledge that
VIC are sOcond-rate, that We arc only
cleaners in field where heavy har.
Vest has boen reapod. We sit down
oontentedly at the feet Of the earlier
ages. You see the confession Of this
inferiority in the very phrases we use.
For instance, the painter goes to TIA
9y. What for Z To study the mas.
ters but the masters have been in
thci. graves three hundred years.
toll poet, "My dear sir, that line
ofyours rcmiuds me of Ilomer," aud
he is crazy. | remsu'bcr once s,anG.
ing in trout Of bit Of marble carved
BY Powers, our Vermont sculptor, anc
bald to un italian, with me, Tha'
strikes me as per ect" "Pcrfect -
said he, with contcnp,uou
shrug, "why, that reminds ou.
uf Pnidias :" as if to remind you
of tho old Greek wore not
all infinitely greater complimcnt than
to be perfect Now, the very phrase
is an acknowledgement of ihfcrlority
and you see the same tAc,t admission
in the amount we borrow. Shakespeare
has left US some thirty plays. In re.
gard to more than two birds Of them
Shakspeare does not stop to Invent the
stories upon which they arc founded.
These stories came ready.made to
his hand from the Italian uovelistd,
who had borrowed them from the
Fast. Cinderella and her slipper is
Older than all history nobody knows
whore that story begun. Bulwer has
borrowed the finest incidents of his
first successful novel from the Ronlans
thousand years old: Indeed, Dan.
Top, who has written The history of
novels, ends his book with tlis state.
ment: "In all the litcratures of
Western Europe there arc only thteo
hundred disting uishable stories, and
of these three hundred nearly two
hundred and fifty are older than
Christianity, and may be traced to
Asia"
Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, if
this we're my sal ject, (Which is not),
I could stop bit and tell you that
even our newspaper jokes are enjoy
Ing very respectable old ago.
Take as oommon book as Maria
Edgeworth's on Irish bulls, and the
laughablc mistakes attti6uted to Irish
p.asant,. 1t is stated; IN an is wri.
tin, letter in public house. He
ends it thus: only dear friend, [
would write you more confldeiItially;
but thore is an impudcut fellow look
ing over my shoulder and reading
every word l write" "You lie 1
haven't read word you have writ
ten," was the comment Of the detected
SPY. This is put down as an Irish
bull. 1t is only two hundred and fifty
years older than the New Tcstiment.
There is another, that Horace Wal
pole considered better still, Of tho
trishman who said, 81 was 4 very
handsome baby, and I should have
been very handsome man, but they
changed me in tht cradle" Well,
that is borrowed from, Quixote, the
great Spanish novel Of Cervantes;
who took it from the Greek, who stole
it from m Asiato Writer away back
Of him. Why; all these Irish bulls
arc Greek. Take, the Irishman who
carried around brick, as specimen
of tho house he had to sell. Take
the Irishman who shuts hrs eyes be-
fore glass, to see Now he would
look when he was dead or the Irish
man who bought a crow, becauSe he
had heard that crows lived two hun.
dred years, and he meant to test it
or the Irilhman that mot friend, and
said, why, hoard you were dead u
swell, | suppose y9u see pm not,"
said the friend. W don't ktiow, -
said he, s'I would believe the uiian who
told NO quicker than would you u
fLaughtor.] Well, alf these ato
Greek, every one of them traceablt
to Athens. There is ono story, Which
George Washing ton Is said once t.
have told, Of man who went into ar
inn aod called for glass Of drink
The landlord pushed forward a very
small wine.glass, aud as he proceeded
TO fiji it, remarked "That glass il
forty years old" "W ell" said tht
aisconten,ei purchaser. as he glanced
at it, "it is the smallest thing Of it
age that I think I ever saw" Tha
story was told Of woman, in the
streets Of Athens, three hundred ant
seventy years before Christ was born
fit were at all worth whiio, thinl
codld show you to might that Moth
or Goose's 1 elodies, aud Joe Miller
jest book, instead Of being three huu