The New York herald., 1879-11-24


artist ii only he happens to have the seal of the
Holy yehn which presides aesthetic circles.
Art and astheticism of course go hand in hand and
She show their appreciation of the former
by making their houses like the back rooms
OF shops in Wardour street. The home
OF one of the presiding geniuses of
aesthetic circle is truly curious place. The
chairs and tables of Chippendale
Sheraton, the walls covered with plates and here
and there is green picture by some painter of
whom you have never heard. but who is. neverthe-
less you assured great genius. There is
variety Of china about which is regarded a sort of
fetish and Il it, like the rest of the room would be
all the better for good wash. why must suppose
that dirt is venerable and put up with it.
EsTHETIc PERsoNAGEs.
So much for the home and now for the inhabitants
Ind place danes. Let glance first at aesthetic
Soung women. The girl OF the period who goes in
.or art and aesthetics is often Iearuly and wonder
July made. She is tall and angular, she has fulvous
red hair and she dresses in garments Of green
pcacockblue cut in strange and outandish fashion.
To quote modern verse writer such maiden
She DER Rosettian lyric,
a l,eHcaant for swinb1rne she owns.
She mold; &c. every cry painter inter e,npiric, plarn,
scarce understood what the cnanse meant;
But lol the result 3 TO be
M She IS an astounding "arrangemen,n
In subtle sage green
1t is just possible, Of course. that she may be good
looking and then there something very quaint and
attractive about the old fashioned attire. But when
women such as Mr. Sandys has drawn. and
Mr.. Burne-Jones and others of his school have
painted. with prognathous skulls and jaws that
seem trying to run round the corner. enveloped in
green wrappers. the shudder is rrepressible.
There is not much danger to the most susceptible
man from these sirens of pstheticsm. Even
IT, like Herr Teufelsdroch, he feels that
ali women are holy and heavenly. and
the outskirts of aesthetic tea, he will probably
be shocked and scandalized at their views or life.
their favore authors and painters and the exalta-
tion of sensual love which prevails among the high
priests OF the school that he will turn rather to
those examples of pure English girlhood, who il
not artistic. at least less likely to have
learned the lessons of "Our Lady of Pain
however. that the young man who processes to be
aesthetic is more Objectionable than the young
woman.
FEMININE MAscULIsEs.
He Is epicene individual who seems always
masculine humanity might be glad to be quit Of
him. He wears his hair long, is OF strange and
atrabilious complexion and is TOO evidently
familiar with the morning tub. He has most prob
ably been Oxford. where he idolzed Mr. Pater; he
perpetrates sonnets for society paper and ho has
been heard to say that he would like to be on the
grass the feet OF Mrs Langtry both being in tho
costume of Adam and Eve before the fall and pet her
with roses. He belongs the Save Club. an insti-
tuition at which there is certainly uncommonly
''pain living" but very little "high thinking,
less indeed though is to be considered "higi like
game when it is into crably STALE Sometimes one of
these young gentlemen goes on the stage and is
hughly admired by his petticoated comrades in the
stalls while ribald young men nudge one another
and make bets as to his being man or woman.
Attempting the stage is, however rather dangerous
experiment as the British public is. on the whole.
to see the stage peopled with histrions
Is apt to express its opinion by vehement hisses
OF course aesthetic society is cultivated to very
high pitch, but at the same time you Will find
out that the reading of these superior beings lies
avery narrow groove and thA the gods OF their
scorn old fashionei poets such as shakespeare BY
and Scott, The two latter being considered bar
barians. and they adore swinburne and Rossett and
some of the feeble imitaiors or those poets their
weakness being tor what Mr.. Robert Buchanan fe-
Mcitousiy called .'The Flesnly school, Of poetry.
LrTERaTURE.
The painters who accepted Messrs Burne
Jones' Whistler and Rossetti, with some gentle toll
Grafton of MIR. Holman Hunt and great delight in
small daubers who initiate the ultra pre- aphaeites.
But the thing about esthetc society is
the discovery you make your first introduction
to it that there are great many more geniuses in
the world than you expected. True. you have not
OF the existence OF these great men and womcn but
still that is easily remedcd. You hear of artists
who could put the whole Royal & academy
corrupt body refuses to exhibit their works. so tho
Raphael OF Fulham and the Carracci OF Chelsea
have to content themselves with their own ac-
miration and that OF their friends. Then. fgain.
there are great masters of prose who would extin-
Puish forever the memories OF Addison, OF Gibbon
and of Macaulay ii only they could be induced to
put to paper. But the majority OF them are Tar
world and they content themselves with conversa-
ton, giving their disciples. like bogus Coleridses. a
"coniused. unintelgible flood OF utterance. which
is listened to with reveroutia silence. Occasionally
ono of these Reniuses is induced to take up tho
and then the pages of the New Quarterly Md0ds'ne
are enriched with discourse, ray ON 'ldealisin in
Chromatic Art" which, strange to say. makes no
sensation. but is received with good deal of un.
ssst.rtic circles and they even more phenom-
enai than the genuses who think in prose or the u-
exhibited artists 1t must be added that they are
lished. and they of thom averse from
letting you judge of their productions If you mako
ADVANCES To them IN proper spirit.
FOLLOWERS or swIsBURSE.
These are all founded more or less upon Swim
and accentuated. They are full of sweet blood"
bitten lips. salt kisses" "bit,or ioam.' burn
ing tears aud the rest OF the cacophonous twaddlc
Of tine adjcctval Agcrnon. Oge versiiier of this
school wrote lovely thing in poems. in which he
described a woman as avanpire. "behaving as sich"
10 her husband III hlghly edifying man
ner. Another still more aspiring bard has
published n book which is called 'Elowers Of
PASSION" the principal poem in whicll-this is no
exaggeration, but simple iact-dcas with the inces
tuous love of u brother and sister. and was Justly
stigmatizcd by an indignant critic Flowers of
Fifth" The great delight. however, OF these gentle
men Of what may be called HE cSwinburne-anddirty-
water school IL to get hold OF some obscure French
man whose life standing testimony to the
necessity of future state Of punishment. IL
of rewards. aud whose faithfully re-
hected the gutter lie called hs mind. Having found
such man. and 1t is unhappily not difficult.
all possible fidelity. so that none of the nastiness
shall escape. and them indeed, you have crowned
the edihce,' and are free Of the sacred circles OF
asthetcism forever. Moreover, as 10 happens that
some fathers are foolish enough not TO let their
daughters read such books It is good plan to lee
ture upon one Of these Frenchmen-say upon Bau-
deaire or Viilon--as was positively done in London
recently. before an audience in which there were
many ladies', the lecturer being by no means
sparing IN his allusons 10 subjects which must
have made their checks tinge. supposing them
remarkable. also. Is that these painters and poets
have their tame critics who herald each piece
with this sort of stun. Hero is description OF a