Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-07-05
with effect. but will say with salts

superstitious, Unsuitable and beatifi
perception OF her splendors." AS w
grow older this natural fondness 70
: nature grows weaker, and our sens
J ibility to its charms becomes dulled
: because we fail to cultivate then
: and because human ties and seltisl
: interests take their place. By cul
, tivation these sensibili,ies can b
quickened and kept alive. We cal
enjoy her beauties continually, anC
the landscape will be lovely whethe
: we are looking forward in youth o
backward upon it in age.
From physical we ascend to intel
!. lectual beauty, which comprehend:
everything commonly attributable
to intellectual effort and included
J among the arts. The arts are ir
turn divided into two classes, those
addressed to hearing-music and
poetry, and those addressed to sight
painting, engraving, sculpture,
architecture and, by some, land
scape gardening is included. These
are called the fine arts, as contra
distinguished from the useful, be-
cause they produce the disinterested
emotion of beauty without regard
to utility.
The sole object of art is the beau
tiful, and the art of poesy is but the
language of that finer sensibility
which recognizes the beautiful. 1t
is difficult to classify music. As it
is of sound it would seem to be
physical; but as true music is but
the expression Of sentiment it is in
tellectual. AS the end of art is the
expression of moral beauty by the
the aid of physical beauty, music
would seem to be the best exponent
of art. 1t is in the expression of
grief and sympathy music attains
| It's highest power, touches the ten
derest chords of the human heart.
Natures sweetest music is the mise
rere of the pines, or the low moan
ing of the night wind as it comes
from the wrecks of the sea. What
is comparable to the requiem of
Mozart, or the miserere of Allegri +!
1t is only in the deep pathos OF such
songs as the Three Fishers Of Kings
ley that poetry and music, sweet
sisters of sorrow, thrill the human
soul with divinest melody;
For men must work and women must weep,
And the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep,
And goodbye to the bar and its moaning.
AS often as you have heard this
song, and as old as it is, did you
ever think of its deep, deep truth
For men must work and women must weep,
and its sad, sad wall of humanity
And the sooner it's over the sooner to sleep.
ssThe sweetest songs are those that
tell of saddest truth" 1t is an east
ern saying that the nightingales of
sweetest song are those whose nests !
are found nearest the tomb of Or
pheus.
From intellectual we ascend to
moral beauty, the glory and the
grace and the light of the soul. 1t |
embraces justice, charity, truth and |
love. From beautiful things we
rise to beautiful thoughts, and
thence still higher to beautiful ac-
tions. Sculpture has sometimes
been called frozen music; a beauti-
ful action Is the scuiptured figure of
a beautiful thought; it is the frozen
music of a sweet soul it leads to |
the Infinite; it links man with God, |
the infinite type, the boundless ex-
preston of moral beauty. The doer |
of good action is the greatest of |
artists, because without painters |
brush or scuIptor's chisel he or she |
expresses the highest type of the
beautiful. In the cultivation of |
moral beauty we put in active eX-
ercise all the best forms of social |
and political ethics. We beautify |
the home and do charity abroad, |
pour oil upon the troubled spirits |
and bring balm to the bruised heart,
and as we bind society together in
the bonds of charity and love we
strengthen the state. 1t Is the
healthful exercise of that within us
which is immortal, and it is the |
effect of outward beauty upon this
inner sensibility, of the finite upon
the infinite, that gives us the high
est appreciation of the beautiful. 1t
is the suggestion of the infinite to
the immortal that makes distance
lend enchantment to the view, and
makes the sunset and the hush Of |
darkening evening twilight sink so
deep into the soul, and creates with
in us that infinite longing, that
'sut3yell pein"-sWeet pain-Which
is the highest effect of beauty. Its
not the hush of evening nor the
sinking of twilight into shade that
produces this. Says some one, at
matters little whether the bright
cloud be single or manifold, whether
the mountain line be subdued or
majestic. i is not by the nohler
FORM ii Ia not nv fha p0SifiVonaSc Of
hue, it is not by the intensity of
light that this strange distant space
possesses its attractive power. But
there is one thing that it has, or
suggests, which no other object or
sight suggests, and that Is '4s,gEHtty.'
Ii was a kind Providence that,
having planted within us an i'm
mortal spirit, gave us the sky, an
infinite eXpanse, in which to gaze
and dream and crafty the love of
the infinite. 1t is the playground
of the soul. Artists soon learned
this and saw the necessity Of giving
some glimpse of the beyond to each
picture-sonle suggestion of the in,
finite, IF a scene within doors,
thea, an open window or balcony;
If landscape, however dense the
shade, little rift through which
the open sky and infinite space may
be seen; and modern art, even to
photography, prefers its subjects so
that beside or beyond them may be
a glimpse of sky or ocean.
But the higher purposes of this
address, and its practical application
to which we referred In the begin
ming, were to insist that woman Is
the highest type of the beautiful,
and the cultivation of woman the
highest aim of humanity.
In all the various modes by which
man expresses his idea of the beau
tiful, whether in poetry or song, in
painting or sculpture, the highest
attainment and most perfect execu-
tion has been in giving shape and
form and character to lovely woman.
The highest attainment 0f artistic
beauty was In Greek art, and then
not until Greek artists took woman
as their model and the very highest
type of the beautiful, AS in archi-
lecture the first half Of the GrecIan
age embodied strength and solidity,
and the second half elegance and
delicacy, so in sculpture and paint
ing the first half illustrated the
placid majesty Of the gods, while