The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-04-24
Education.

/ When a boy was very fond of music
and / am so now; and it is so happened
that had the opportunity of hearing
| much good music. Among other things
| / had abundant opportunities of hearing
that great old master, Sebastian Bach.
remember perfectly ell-though | knew
nothing about music then, and, may
add, know nothing whatever about It
now--the Intense satisfaction and delight
which | had in listening by the hour to-
gether to Bach's fugues. 1t is a pleasure
which remains with me, / am glad to
think, but of late years | have tried to
find out the why and and wherefore, and
it has often occurred to me that the plea
sure in musical compositions of this kind
is essentially of the same nature as that
which is derived from pursuits which are
commonly regarded as purely intellectual.
| mean that The source of pleasure is ex-
aetly the same as in most of my problems
in morphology- that you have the theme
in one of the old masters works followed
out in all its endless variations, always
appearing and always reminding yen of
unity in variety. So in painting; what is
called truth to nature is the intellectual
element coming in, and truth TO nature
depends entirely upon the intellectual Gull
ture of the person to whom art is address
ed. Ii you are in Australia, you may
get credit for being good artist mean
among the natives if you can draw a
kangaroo after a fashion. But among
men of higher civilization the intellectual
knowledge we possess brings its criticism
into our appreciation of works of art.
and We are obliged TO satisfy it as we'll as
the mere sense of beauty in color and in
outline And so the higher the culture
and f1r of hon art I'D
dressed, the more exact and precise must
be what we cali its truth to nature" II
We turn TO literature the same thing is
true, and you find works of literature
which may be said to be pure
art A little song of Shakespeare of
Goethe is pure art, although its intellect
ual content may be nothing. A s.ries of
pictures is made to pass before your
minds by the meaning of words, and the
effect is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless
the great mass of the literature we esteem
is valued not merely because of its INTEL
ectual content, and the value is the high
er the more precise, distinct and true is
that intellectual content. And if you
will let me for a moment speak of the
very highest forms of literature, do we
not regard them as highest, simply because
the more we know the truer they seem.
ana the more competent we are 10 dppfe-
ciate beauty the more beautiful they are?
No man ever understands Shakespeare
until he is old, thoagh the youngest may
admire him: the reason being that he sat
isles the artistic instinct of the youngest
and harmonizes with the ripest and rich
est experience Of the oldest | have
said this much TO draw your attention to
what, to my mind lies at the root of all
this matter. and at tue understanding of
one another by the men of science on the
one hand and the men of literature and
and history aud art on the other. 1t is
not question whether one order of study
should predominant or that another should.
1t is question of what topics of educat
ion you shall select which will comb inc
all the needful elements in such due pro-
portion as to give the greatest amount of
food and support. and encouragement to
those faculties which enable us to appre-
ciate truth, and TO profit by those sources
of innocent happiness which are open to
us, and al the same time to avoid that
which is bad and course and ugly, and to
keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls
and dangers which beset those who break
through the natural or moral laws. -
Prof. Huxleys Address before the Liver
pool Institute.