Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-04-22

lancaster flltelltgencer.
SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL AZ, 1881.
Oscar Wilde and the New Estheticism.
There are generally two sides to every
question. A true and good cause is often
injured rather than benefited by a weak
presentation and advocacy of it on the
part of its friends. These remarks lind
illustration in the visit Of Oscar Wilde
to our country, and the course he has
pursued while here. The new craze of
astheticism has evidently produced some
stir in certain circles in England. As
represented it appears very much as a
mere caricature of the truth and reality
OF aesthetics. but the real substance of
what underlies it should not, therefore,
lie set aside and ignored. The science
Of aesthetics, il it may claim to be
a science, is without doubt worthy Of
earnest consideration. The study of the
beautiful is quite as legitimate and
proper as the study of the true and the
good. 1t may not he as easy to compre-
hend it within the limits Of science.
The old saying, de gustibus non di.pu-
tandum est has, perhaps, some truth in it.
The pursuit and profession of art have
seemed to rest more on special talent and
genius than do the pursuits of science.
1t appears to he governed by no fixed
laws. And yet art has always constitut-
ed a realm Of human life, and the love
Of the beautiful is innate in the minds of
all men.
As a department of philosophic study,
aesthetics is coming to claim a more de-
finite place in our liberal education. 1t
has been treated more profoundly by
German than by English writers. Since
the time of Schelling, who advanced
many new and interesting thoughts on
this subject in his Nature Philosophy, it
has occupied prominent. place in phil
osophic study in the higher German
schools. English writers treat it more
specifically, and in American colleges
generally it is confined to . few lectures
on taste, or on the fine arts.
But II is rather on the practical side
that the subject is possessed of interest
for people generally. 1t appeals to their
enjoyment especially in the fine arts,
and while the pursuit of these must be
left to the gifted few, yet their works
are for the qualification of all. Shut out
the fine arts from the sphere of humah
life, and one hemisphere of its enjoyment
would be gone. What would the world
be without a Homer, a Shakespeare, a
Milton ,Tennyson and LongfellOw! With
out the sweet strains of music that come
to sooth and satisfy the spirit! Or the
master productions in painting, sculp-
ture and architecture
But even this realm of tie beautiful
does not exhaust its rich treasures.
There is a more common, everyday side
OF our life to which it ministers pleas
ure, in our admiration of the beauties of
nature, and in the items and articles of
taste by which we are surrounded in our
homes. These are within the reach of
all. Many who never have the opportu
nifty of hearing grand opera, or pos
sessing fine paintings, may yet cultivate
and satisfy their love of the beautiful in
humber ways. OF course the sublimity
and grandeur of nature, as we'll as its
more ordinary beauties, are open to the
admiration of all, the poor as we'll as the
rich, the unlearned rs well as the learn
ed. Ifpeople generally We're to cultivate
this love of nature beauty land it GER
tainly is susceptible of cultivation) what
rich sources of the truest and most ele-
waited enjoyment might lie within the
reach of all
And the cultivation of this taste would
lead to such improvements in the ar
rangements and decorations of our homes
as would add greatly to our happiness.
This is one of the ideas especially that
the Oscar Wilde school aims to dissem-
mate, SO far as We have been able to
understand his purpose. 1t must
be admitted that it is a worthy
purpose. The tendency in our
country especially is to value every.
thing by the standard of utility, and
by utility is usually understood dollars
and cents, eating and drinking. 1t is
forgotten that it is of the very highest
utility to cultivate love of the beautiful,
that such love is very closely related to
all that is good and true, and that it en-
ters deeply into our best enjoyment of
life. Our homes are centres of the dear
est relations of life. To make them, not
only comfortable, but pleasant and in
viting, to arrange them with taste and
place in and around them what will win
and attract our sense of the BEAUTIFUL
this certainly is of no minor Importance
or even utility, in its highest and best
sense. If this were done the business
man, worn and jaded by the cares of the
day, would find refreshment, the laborer
rest and recreation, the young place of
enjoyment in the evening, in their homes
and with their families, to larger ex.
tent than is now the case.
But we have no idea that good
cause, such as this is, will he advanced
by the eccentric advocacy of it by Oscar
Wilde. The populace have taken more
to the caricature than the reality. What
with his sunflowers and e-breeches,
his long hair and effeminate speech and