The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-01-26


aid 10 a personal crusade. Oscar Is endowed
with some of the finest attributes OF anato-
nv. and those who have seen him IN the
great acf declare that when he twines his
left lee. which is poem in itself, around
his right lee. which Is an acknowledged
ESSAY on Beauty. and then places the upper
half of his body on delicate. obtuse angle
TO the lower half. he presents IA model which
Phidias would have been proud to engage
at almost any salary asked.
Now, there are only two things to be
considered in connection with Brother
Wilde. The first i his theory, and, sec
ond. his motive. The theory is slightly
nebulous and intangible; but il correctly
understood, It embodics the idea that the
world has grown into the habit Of thinking
with Wordsworth's Nulgarian, that
"A primrose by the rivers brim.
4 yellow primrose was 10 HIM,
And IL WAS nothing more.
This was calculated to deaden all The
finer sensibiliticS OF our nature. Not that
a primrose Is anything more than 4 prim-
rose in its individual capacity, but that the
everlasting laws OF beauty require us to
see in the primrose a reflection OF the myS-
terry that connects plants and flowers with
puritv. sweetness, God. According TO this
doctrine we are called upon to see
Books In the running brooks
Sermons In stone. and good In everything"
All nature, art, even the sordid products
of invention. must be raised into the ether
of feeling before we can dare 10 think we
have derived the benefits Of their existence.
Viewed in this light, the cOmmonest con-
Germs of living will be suddenly TRANSFORMS
ed into ministering angels OF the beautiful,
spreading their pcrfumed wings over our
heads from sunrise to sunset. and yielding
a compound interest OF Surcease from the
base, practical slavery OF common sense.
Not TO prOlOng illustrations. il viii do TO
say that when Il professional aesthetic lifts
up the coal-Scuttle to help the fire along, he
has only TO let his mind dwell in wrapt fam
CIV on the sunbeams imprisoned in the black
diamonds, and he will at once forget that
coal has gone UP a dollar Il ton. Oreyen that
his last coal bill j. unpaid. Now, ii Pm
wrong | hope 10 be corrected, but that's
about the English Of it: and it's piggish
and fOppish infringement OF the laws OF ac-
tual fact. Oscar should remember that man
Of sentiment on Il woman OF sentiment will
always be such. even under circumstances
the most adverse. Training may sharpen
theirWits and iancy-it may. perhaps, open
up yistas Of feeling and poetry not imagined
beiore-but the hope Of making sentiment
talists out of scycn-tenths OF the human
race, under any possible incentive, is vain
a. the hope of making silk purse out on
sow's ear. These bowling and plaintiye
females OF the Wilde school NAV plaster
from cellar 10 garnet with roses
ana lilies and gaflydOwndillieS. and roll
I. ~ - r eyes in mock-poetic ecstacy, and wor-
ship before old crockeryware till their hal.
turns gray. but they will eventually dis
cover that YOU can't embrOider souls on an
overSkirt or die blank verse ont OF M East
lake crate. Then the craze will die.
But what are Oscars motives: OStenSi /
bly, to lift the world out OF it, mud-bath
and teach it to rcclne on a bed OF roses
but really to make all the money he can
out of that same dcluded world. And he
will make more, mark if, than any Eng
lishman. except Dickens, who has ever
..-;tAd this country in the lecture field. /
{. hear his moti6r is riicin,j said friend |
of mine the other day to one OF Oscars
friends: "surcly he don't have to do thi- |
business for a Iiyingl" " Mother rich - |
was the response. "DOyOu suppose fellows
with rich mothers 60 about the world |
collecting gate money! No, oscar Is |
nurelv business. He has managed the !
newspaper dodge with consummate skill, !
and understands its value rs wen rs mer-
chant. That's the practical SIDE OF esthetl-
cism. His knec-buckle and lily dodge IS !
another eped;tralc Invention. We have
had manacs Of various grades coming be-
fore the public in costume-the Laplander
anu Grecnander in their furS, telling OF the
land OF aurora bOrcaliS, and giving object
lessons III Arcticliic; the Chinaman and the
.japancse, an; the missionary from Aries
sunny fountains and midas coral strand
all bewitching the audience at fifty cents
head with the manners and raiment OF
the natives. | don't know how much OF
Il success il might be ii we could only get
Eve TO lecture in her lig-leaf and diamond
brooch, but all these daring efforts al panO-
ramic display have Signally failed, till
Oscar, with a penetration that proves his
practical genius, adopted the kneo-brceches
~ his cOat-oi-arms, and screamed 10 para
lived world. In hoe SignO riRccS :" Poe
try, judged merely on its own merits,
would have placed him on the vulgar level
Of Tennyson and Lengfellow, and the gate
money would have been small-wcii, ii
would have been on par with his poetical
fame. But combination OF poetry and
knee-breeches not even the most stony
heart could resist. Hence Oscars keen
perception OF the art of grouping.
Wen, we must let Oscar have his turn at
the crank. He will give heap OF com
nonsense in his lecture, just TO show that
hes only Il theoretical fraud, and then dash
in few sunflowers and old crockery TO pre-
serve his reputation from criticism. But
whether he takes hundreds or thousands or
millions away from our shores, let there
he a stop TO the insane cry about the
gullibility OF America. The impression
has been created by ourselves that America
is the Paradise Of inspired cranks
that we would rather throw money
away on fraud than make il in some
sensible investment. This is lie. Com
pared with England in this respect We are
conservative. England is par excellence
the Paradise OF financial and aesthetic
cranks. John Bull. with all his reputation
for unmoyed business stoiidty and selfish,
mercenary traits, is the most gullible AMI
NAL on earth. During that memorable
John Law craze Englishmen lost their
heads, and lunacy spread with the speed
OF smallpox. a company OF vast proper
tons was organized with cash in hand for
the purpose Of importing iackasses from
Spain 60 improve the breed Of English
mules; and one million pounds sterling
were raised in five days to float an enter
prise which the prospectus said "would in
due time he revealed" For further par
ticulars Of the financial idiocy OF English
men read Thackeray's Newcomes. Ii is
queer sociological problem. John Bull
finds rational apology for his mania in the
unchanging laws OF compensation. His
conservatism turns suddenly into unbridlcd
license on the same principle that nervous
diseases, purely through rejection, were the