The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-10
THE ARTISAN AND THE ARTIST.

WHERE THE AMERICAN MECHANIC Is DEFICIENT.
| from an address before the Massachusetts,
Charitable Mechanics Association, by William
| Ralph Emerson.1
| 1t need be no disparagement to the Ameri-
can mechanic to be told that though ne can
| equip an army of hundred thousand men
with clothing, shoes, tents, guns and powder,
and put them on remote battle grounds, and
warrant long tally Of victories, in quicker
time by quicker steam, brains and electricity,
than any other nation under heaven, yet in
manufacturing articles of taste even the South
Sea Islander can beat him, with his coarse
fabrics of skin or grass and few simple
stains that the poor Italian monk can beat
him, who, in his lonely cell, with few tools,
cuts his very soul into his rosary or crucifix.
The S Eiss herdsman can beat the Yankee
whittier on his own ground for though the
Yankees may sail out of Jail through the soft
hearts of the Governor and Council, on
frigate built by his jack-knife, with crew of
over grown piratical monsters SO ugly that it
should have whitfield him further in than out,
yet the power to give his work the least touch
of beauty is wanting; while, in a few hours,
the peasant, watching his flock on the Alpine
slope, will cut the light-footed chamois from
block halt-inch high, with the very poise
and grace of nature in its delicate limbs,
marvel of beauty and although the American
mechanic may boast of his famous continuous
wool spinner that will do more and better work
with ne-half the spindle, at less than one
half the expense, and in less than one-q quarter
the space of the most improved process of
Europe, yet the Hindoo weaver can beat even
that.
With his primitive loom hung to tree, he
weaves cotton SO fine that a ten yard length
of it, one yard wide, weighs but three ounces;
with delicate touch and fine sense Of beauty
and infinite patience, he spins muslin so fine
that it is Z" running WATER" a "web of woven
air." it is "dew of night" Now the reason
why the productions of these deft workmen
are so beautiful and so attractive is that they
have been done by hand; they are the out
growth of thought and feeling; there is in
them the love of the thing itself and the very
labor of doing it the human soul has been
concerned in it; it is unique in itself there
is not another like it and never can be. These,
then, being the distinctive eXcellences of
every work of art, it follows that machine
made work, which does not express these
states of the mind and heart, cannot be called
fine art work.
Let me not even seem to imply that for the
present low state of the ornamental arts, the
American mechanic is any more castaway
than the people whose demand it is his bust
ness 10 supply. lue supply LAS oeen III al
respects as good and praiseworthy as the
demand. Give him good elementary train
ing in the arts Of drawing and designing.
Give him museums where he shall see only
the best of beautiful things. Let him copy
honestly and faithfully the simple forms of
natural objects. Let him not trust to his own
instincts as his guide until he can give rea-
son for the faith that is in him. Let him not
set up in the market places the work of his
hands unless it is good, end he can tell why
it is beautiful. When such opportunities are
given him, then he may with reason be held
responsible for the public taste he shall help
to create and for the progress of it that he
shall in part direct.