The Portland daily press., 1879-04-10
The Modern Art'Caut.
From the Londonspectator.l

Within the last ten years, public interest has
been excited to degree quite unparalleled in
England about artistic matters; we may almost
talk about an English renaissance, which, her,
aided BY Ruskin's eaflier works. was carried
forward BY the preraphaelite movement, and
the school of poetry headed by Swinburne.
Morris and Rossett, till 1t took its present
shape, and became visiable in Queen Anne
furniture, decorative needle work. jrridescent
glass, Doulton pottery, and many other minor
symptoms of awkward interest and CONNER
cial enterprise.
From taking no interest 10 art whatever, the
nation-at all events, the fashionable portion
of it-has suddenly discovered its incapacity for
performing the commonest actions Of daily life
without aesthetic assistance, and from the
capes of its footmen to the covers of its prayer
book, society expresses its longing for the sweet
simplicity Of art. Happy society, to have dis
covered a fresh subject TO arouse its laDguid at
tention! Happy art, to find itself condecend-
ingly protected By peers and plutocrstsi But
still drawbacks exist 10 most human move
ments, be they never 80 progressive, and
II we carefully examine our renaissance, we
find that IL, too, Is not quite go perfect as II
seems,-thst we have to pay a price, and no
small one, for our artistic whistle, To men of
SOBER mind. and especially to those who are
too slow, too bigoted, or too old fashioned to
move with the fierce current, how intensely
annoying, as well as astonishing, must IL be to
live 10 the midst of jsrgon which has grown
up suddenly, with rapdity unheard Of ont
side the story of Jack and the Beanstalk"
Fancy respectable father of family being re-
garded as q "Philistne" by his more enlightend
children, or imagine what his feelings must
be as he finds his house gradually undergrow-
ing artistic reformation; see bit by bit his
old fashioned, comfortable furniture disappear,
till at last he sits in wilderness Of spindle-
legged chairs and grimcrack tables, with Q
brass fireplace which will not warm him In
front, bare. stained boards beneath bis
feet, and distorted image of himself reflect
Ing from convex mirror, as q sarcastic COM
mentary upon his improved condition.
Still, there are many other consequences of
our renaissance OF greater importance than the
somewhat ludicrous discomfOrJ to which many
respectable rich persons have reduced their
houses Father and mother will grow used, in
lime, to tiles and dados, to coal-scuttles, from
which the coal cannot be extracted, and plates,
whose position has changed from the dinner
table to the dra Ting-room, to stained floors,
which chill them 10 winter and stick to their
feet in summer; to- portieres, which con-
cesl the doorway but let In the drsught, and to
the many minor inc0nveniences Of aesthetic do
mestlc life. But what use can accustom, or
what advantage recompense, the parents whose
children have been infected with that most
dangerous and generally fatal disease called
"the Higher Criticism?" Think little Of the
feelings or mother who takes her child to q
picture-gallery, in the fond hope that she may
like to see the pictures," and then hear her
whisper, in an awe-struck voice of "the secret
of LEONARDO, 'Or the sweet sensuous existance Of
living harmonles OF tone 10 the masterly music
of Burne Jones's work We know, or can
guess, what would have happened to such Q
child mad she lived 80 years since. But now,
what is to be done We cannot logically pun
ish our children for talking nonsense, for
strange as it may seem, there are many men
aud women grown, still at large In society,
who talk and think, II their mental operations
can be called thinking, 10 9 manner similar to
that above quoted. IL Is not only the men
who have made money and reputati-n BY writ
ing In this style who are responsible for the
spread Of this irredeemable bosh; it is due, in
no small measure, to the cultivated ignorance
of a certain set Of fashionable people who seek
TO disguise the vspidity Of their thoughts be-
meath an affected enthusiasm and wordy OBJ
scurty.
1t is not worth while to give any long de-
scrption Of the origin Of the "Hgher Criti-
cism," though its ancestors are clearly deter
minable. Like many other quasi. intellectual,
quasi-emotional movements it first took definite
shape at Oxford.-indeed, it's scholastic ances-
try is still clearly evident. Partly the, result
not of Ruskin's manner of teaching, bat Of
Rnskin's word-painting, partly the result of
general culture applied to the discrimination
of art theories, without any previous acquain-
taDce with art practice. and above all, the re-
suit of that school of thinkers, who proceed on
purely deductive method, scorning all facts,
save such as can be evolved from their inner
cOrsciousness-to such various influences WAS
the new style of criticism que In its first incep
ton. 1t is amusing to think what must have
been the Slade professors indignation aud dis
gust, as he had to watch. day by day at Oxford,
the growth Of school, whose main tenets
could hardly be better described than rs being
the direct opposites of everything he was en-
deavoring to teach.
He had endeavored to show that art really
meant the intelligent delight in, and reproduc-
tion OF, Goods work.. But the coming race
of critics and art-tasters shouted as their watch
word, "Art for arts sake!" He had said over
and over again that only by long-continued
labor and patient investigation of nature could
any knowledge of, or proficiency 10, art be
reached. But his young opponents asked in
what the real merit of work of art consisted?
and answered themselves--that it twas 10 the
effect which it produced upon them;" clearly,
therefore they had only to investigate their COO
sclousness to discern its merit,-and to do them
justice, thev adhered to this tenet with touching
fidelity. Investigate nature!" they cried; We
would scorn to degrade ourselves to such
and so they did. And thus, to quote words
used by Ruskin on another subject, they cut
themselves off from all possible sources of
healthy knowledge or natural delight; they
wlfuly sealed mp and pat aside the entire vol
umo VI tuo WOfius nuu udQ uobuluS 70 I6dds
nothing to dwell upon but the Imagination Of
the thoughts of their hearts, Of which we are
told that 'it is only evil continually
They lie bound In the dungeon of their own
corruption, encompassed only BY doleful phan-
toms, or by spectral vacancy"
1t may be thought that this Is perhaps q
somewhat overdrawn description of that
schools doctrines, but 1t is not so; it is not
even sufficiently strong one, for we have
passed over without notice the most repulsive
part Of their doctrines, the utter divorce Of art
from morality, and the exaltatiou of seusuous-
ness above intellectual or spiritual meaning.
We beg our readers to keep in mind these
three qualities Of tae Higher Criticism-frst,
its main doctrine that pure art is pure sensu-
BUSINESS, and as q consequences of this, that any
admixture of moral, spiritual, or intellectual
meaning signifies lower form; secondly, that
this pure sensuousness is admirable and desie-
able IN itself, apart fiom any use We may put
it to; and thirdly, that culture Of the imsgina-
ton and intellect does the best 1t can for us
when it leaves our souls like the leaves of the
sensitive pant, ready to q7iver and droop at
every passing breath Of emotion.