The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-01-13

i the lecture in the New York papers, and
,ontess to ashare, at least, in the young
ady's helpless incapacity to gasp The ex.
.ct meaning Of the new Apostle Of the
The new apostle found 1t necessary, ii |
jeems, in order to illustrate in concrete
way his idea Of the beautiful, to get himself
up in a very odd style for his lecture.
Here Is the way, for instance, in which he
was dressed:
"a black swallow.tailed coat; white
low cut and double buttoned;
black knee-breeches, black silk stockings,
lOw.countered shoes, with buckles; turn
down collar and white silk tie with flowing
ends; IN bis expanse Of linen bosom, In the
exact center, cleaned diamond stud. So
that, with his long hair parted In the mid
die and peculiar features, no was pictur.
esque as to his upper and lower parts, and
his middle section mathematical and COM
monplace."
In extenuation Of this get up It may be
stated that the young man Is only 20 years
old, and has been pampered and petted by
his rich and aristoCratiC mamma" US he
calls her.
He processes to be the advocate II not
the leader OF a new school in England
called "the English Renaissance" Hereto.
fore we have heard the expression "Renais-
sance." It expressed the revival or new
birth Of a peculiar style Of architecture and
ornamentation, founded on the antique,
that took place in Italy during the If
tecnth century, and that was much cult.
waited in France. The same term was also
applied to the revival Of classical literature
that took place about the same time.
Now we have this English renaissance,
which processes to have for its mission a
revival Of the study Of the beautiful in art
jim other words, the spreading abroad of
an era Of estheticism. The play OF Pa
thence" recently witnessed at tho Wheeling
Opera House, is u take off on this move
ment. 1tpresents it to the public in its
ludicrous aspect, which is the subordina-
ton Of common sense in life to that which
is affected and finical.
"Estheticism," as it Is called, is no new
craze in the world. TWAS a matter OF the
most exhaustive speculation in ancient
times-as far back as Plato. There were
even then various schools Of the esthetics,
all claiming to have the true idea Of the
Beautiful. They could not agree, and
there has been no accepted formulation Of
estheticism down to this time. Plato held
that beauty is not discoverable 'as an at
tribute" in IN other thing, whether
a living being, earth or heaven; for these
said he, "are only beautiful things, not the
Beautiful ITSELF" The reader will notice
the fine-spun delicacY OF this definition
We only quote it to show how very esthetit
and volatile is this thing of estheticism
In the PhGdrtS he speaks Of "the soul.
intuition Of the self-beautiful as a reminis
cence Of its prenatal state, Undecided by
union with the body" This definition
sublimatss the beautiful out Of the reach o.
most Of US, We fear-even of Oscar Wilde
There was another ancient philosopher
Aristotle, who had a more practical view Of
the beautiful. He ignored all conception.
Of an absolute beauty. And yet he made
fine-spun distictions between the beautiful
and the good; between the beautiful and
the fit. and between it and the useful and
necessary. But he separated the beautiful
from the sensual. He saws in his Rhetoric
that an essential characteristic Of the beau.
tiful is the absence Of everything in
the nature Of lust. Two univer-
sale clements Of beauty he defines to be
symmetry and determinateness." He ar.
CUES that poetry, music, painting and
sculpture are a media that reveal to us
much OF the beautiful. They Crystalize
Imagination and transmit it. Mr.. Oscar
Wilde takes the red rose and lily OF Eng.
land as crystalizations Of two types OF the
beautiful in nature, both richly endowed
with power to excite the purest phases Of
Imagination.
Coming down to this so-called English
renaissance, Mr.. Wilde holds with those
ancients who taught that beauty had its
logical procession. First it took form in
imagination; then in poetry, and then in
music, painting, sculpture, &c. He illus
trated his meaning by saying that the
achievements Of Greek art were forshadow-
ed by Homer, and those Of Italian art by
Dante, and lit is in Keats that we discern
the beginning Of the artistic renaissance of
England"
This is as much space as we can devote
to the subject OF esthetics, ancient aud mod
ern, in one issue, and if the readers of the
INrELEIGESCER understand the subject
more intelligently than they did at the out
set we shall be happy. The study Of
esthetics is not to be despised. 1t is not
all Of life, as Mr.. Wilde would have his
followers believe, but it is an important
part OF it. We judge that the man who
defined esthetics to be tue study OF that
which is beautiful, the cultivation OF that
which is true, and the practice Of that
which is good, had a clearer conception Of
the subject than the English Apostle just
arrived.
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DIED.
Entered interest on tho morning Of January 70,
lSS9, CAMILLA LIVINGSTON only child OF EtiWafd i.