Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-12

&c Of
lupidity
and forget
II understand
the evidences OF
of the lapse back
new cabin schoolhouse,
cent dwelling erected is
our decline but Of our per-
advancing civilization. The
zone by when sim plicity, ignorance
lscomfort were regarded "a evidences
purity and piety. Much is said and
written about extravsgsnt expenditure
upon christian churches. But thoughtful
men are of the opinion that ii anything
merits all the magnifcence that wealth and
; art can give it is christianity. Must pagan
; ism and Mornlonism menopolize
The princely dome, the column and the arch.
] The sculptured marble, and the breathing gold,
while the only true religion on earth dweIls
in unsubstantial edi6ces, totally devoid OF
taste and convenience? Our modes Of living,
of thought and of religious worship shocks,
with horror the fossils who regard luxury or
even comfort as the sins of wicked and
perverse age. But the truth is a people who
| count their gains by millions now are not
more extravagant in their manner of lie
Proportionstely than were the wealthy CAPT
talists Of other days. Wealth always pur-
chases the luxuries which the times furnish.
Rare works recently recovered from the
ruins of Pompeii show mosaics in marble as
rare as art ever fashioned, and paint
ings, every tint Of which is as per-
feet as when the silence came and the dark
ness, eighteen hundred years ago. 1t is true
wealth is often accompanied by sensual
and voluptuoIs pleasures, but they
are the invsriable accompaniment of
poverty, idleness and ignorance. Fine school
houses, churches and dwellings are better ev-
licences of civilization than tents and huts.
The talk Of the demagogue who seeks to
array the poor against the rich is as silly as
it is hypocritical. The more wealth the |
more prosperous the poor. Fine houses filed |
with works OF art are good things, because to |
produce such things innumerable branches of |
mechanics and the arts have to be patronized, |
wealth has to be distributed, and taste for |
higher civilization educated. Fine struc- |
lures also give country respect. The pyra-
mIds give never-failing reverence to Egypt, |
and men admire even while the thought is
prominent in their minds that those stony
monuments were conceived in pride and
erected through such suffering as the modern
world would not permit. We like to see
men, when able, erect splendid mansions and
hll them with beautiful things. If with the
stately house soma broad and generous acres
are attached, and a child grows up
there, as a rule, that child when at
tanning manhood can always be counted
upon a defender when his country is in
danger, because love for country is but an en-
larged love of home, and a child so reared is
bound to carry out with him into the world
a mighty love for home. The accommodating
wealth in the United States has created a
taste for the fine arts; a demand for
statuary and painting, and new sculptures
and new painters are springing up
all over the country. They have made their
appearance here in Memphis, and their
works do credit to themselves and the
age in which we live. In few years there
will be regular schools of art in all the
States of the Union. In France, away back
in the time of Charlenagne, almost eleven
hundred years ago, art schools we're founded
for the children of France. Drawing was
taught as n specially. At the same time the
eyes of the pupils were taught by the per-
ect structures and beautiful pictures !
If the old masters. Those schools have been
ever since. The result is that the -.
most thorough artisans of the world are in
France, and native pride has been Guilt
Tated until French artisan makes d work ,
# art in making shoe. And despite the
competition Of other nations France has a
OF certain kinds Of manufactured =,
GODS, and the whole earth pays tribute 10
Ter. This is the secret of her mighty wealth;
his shows why France, little spot of earth =,
ut a triae larger than California, is able to >;
Import prosperously thirty-fve millions of :
eople, and though she has been devastated :,
y mighty wars, though her workiDgmen :,
ave been killed by millions, and her ex- o
enses have been terrible, she is to-day, next :;
} Great Britain, the richest of all nations, :
lille her people are infinitely the happiest :,
alton of the earth. England in the last ::
Iirty years has established schools on the
-inciple OF the French schools, and a few
ave been opened in three or four of our r
astern States. Judging from the number =
artisans here in Memphis, and the -
ccess of their labors a school e
art will be organized in this city at no ::
slant day. If once established, it would
an attraction which would perpetually -,
crease, as a taste for the refined arts is
ntagious and a passion. The only differ -
&c between man ard the brute is that one ~
5 mind which can plan, execute and in n
ut, the other has not. At birth the human
ng is the most helpless creature on earth, r..
in few years he is able to subdue all -
ing creatures. In thirty-three years
m the time Alexander was born he ~
conquered the world. The young swal- h
makes precisely such nest the old Yo
!, and both make exactly such nests as a -
II Proseni'ois uiu VIM Ouii' III INC nicnes aga
'nS tower Oh Daoei OF unuer 'he caves OIL tina
HOIueu TOOL OI DuI cor
n knows nothing that he does not learn. ,os
his first attempts are mistakes. The he
I'D is his school, and before his lessons are ,ho
learned the twilight comes and the t;cl
hit, and he disappears. He goes back 400
} forgetfulness, and the air, the earth and =.
water take each their part from his NO,
y, and nothing is left. Only the soul, ont,
ch we are not discussing, and the i'm bor
IS which his mind while he lives makes I'm,
IN the earth are saved from the annihlla- 40,
! which attends upon that change which the
call death. 1t is plain, then, that as rigl
n was given his hands and his brain with The
ch to subdue the earth and to make him nor
and others happy, he should strive to are
7ate aud make life beautiful. This can sol,
lone by building churches, schoolhouses, hoo
residences, and ornamenting them with nr;,
uary and paintings. These are the evil aos
ces of civilization The Africans have ono
Taste for either, and hence they are igBo- how
t harbarians. tire
it a
MORE RINGS AND RAsCALITI- ,b
he whole heart is sick and the whole
d is faint az revelation after revelation