The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-04-22

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happiness. The sea was calm and peaceful,
while everything-the boat, its occupants, the
surrounding coast-line, the waters beneath and
the sky above-all shone with a more than
snowy brightness. My friend told me that she
and those whs accompanied her to see the pic.
ture thought il TOO white as she expressed ii 10
be natural. But she added that the critics and
others who knew anything of art pronounced 1t
fine production, and she wanted to know how
it was that she could not 80 appreciate it. l
gave this inter pretation Of it. The picture was
intended to present the idea of perfect happiness
sunrise, the beginning of new day. And how
appropriate, for when we enter fhsrred life, is it
not like the beginning OF a new day? But why
on the waters Because do you not see that the
gliding of the boat the surface of that Ca NJ
beautiful sea so perfectly expresses the lmper-
ceptible manner in which their lives glide over
the happy hours. And the whiteness over all !!
Could anything express 80 appropriately their
pure and uusullied love for each other as white,
the beautiful emblem of purity? AS whole
can you conceive of anything that could have
expressed in a more fitting and subtle manner
the purpose of lie artist. And when interpreted
how at once it strikes the mind Only the i'm.
aginative soul could have conceived the for m.
And now here l wish to call attention TO the
definite artistic purpose of this work. This de-
sign, this fitting form was not matter of choice
We see in it that the a-tst had definite artistic
L
desire to become artis poets, painters or sculp
tors, that you cannot achieve success unless you
work with a we'll defined artistic aim. You
may paint beautir face, you may draw a
pen picture of some being you love or admire,
but unless you thereby deyel'p thought. unless
your work is to bring out sn idea, it Cr1 never
be more thp1 commonplace.
Now another characteristic of the II lie work of
art before shall be prepared to show you the
position which poetry occupies. Every true
work OF art must be constructed with reference
to the laws of unity. / will illustrate. Here is
a painting in which there is perfect rock. a per-
feet tree, a perfect dog ana a perfect house
Each object is drawn with great accuracy, and
colored and shaded tastefully. But each object
bears no relation to the others, to any central
| or leading object This cannot be work Of
art. The idea of unity is wanting. On the
other hand let US take the picture OF Mr. Moser,
OF Atlanta, completed some months ago for
est receding in cool vsias; brook coming ..om
the shady depths into the light, winding, eddy
ing falling over rocky lodges N lovely cascades :;
in the foreground child-a lovely boy-lean-
ing against rock in happy, dreamful mood.
Now do you not perceive the unity of the pic
ture? Do you not see how every other object
contributes TO the appearance and assists in de-
| scribing the condition OF the boy9 The brook
coming from the shady depths 'lto the light, how
it helps to express the entrance of that boy into
life! The cool recedlng vistas of the forest how
tney suggest the temptations mat tnWarI tnP
ambitious purposes Of youth by aluring to lite
OF ease And the winding eddying, laughing
| play Of the brook, how it calls up the careless,
laughing days of boy-lfe! What perfect unity !
How ideal and poetic in conception
| Now as TO the position of poet. in the arts.
| Ii true work of art must conform To the cOhdi-
tions have named, the position OF poetry in
the arts must be easily determined Compare
| the power OF the poet with the wonderful mate
rlals for EXPIRE ssion that 'he vocabulary of Ian
| guage gives him with that of any other of the
| arts and see what advantage he posSesSrs The
painter is restricted to his canvas, 10 color, 10
| folm. The poets range is as limitc>s as imagi
| nation itself and is restricted only by his com
| mand of words In each work the painter is
confined to single place, the poet may shift his
| scene and transport his characters from continent
| to continent and yet preserve the unity Of his
work. The poet can rcvel in the music of the
| drawing-room, or shout amid the din of battle;
| he can repOse in the quiet sunset. grow
| static in The lightning and war of the tempest
And thus l might continue to draw comparison
| after compa. son, and each would but show how
| high a position pOetiJ takes in the ar-s. But
| having shown you what are the essentials of
work of art and how poet. } may and does con
form to all these laws. you must be prepared to
agree with Victor Cousin, the great French Cit
c, that poetry is the art par excellence.
That poetry should take a leading position in
art is but to have it thorou3 lilly studied and un-
derstood. l know it to be true that the world
| looks upon painting as the leading art Indeed we
find the term art school applied to those schools
only where drawing and painting are taught
But ii is nevertheless true that pOei is an art
and the highest art 1t is common to look upon
pOeu as department of literature only. 1t is
department of literature, but the literary part
of poetry is the leas significant part only the We
hice of expression, what the body is to the soul
There was time IN the histOiy of our language
when poetry was merely litera. :. The poetry
of Pope and Addison and Dr. johnson, is hardly
more than literature There is scarcely trace of
art, except the ar. displayed in the disposition
and arrangement of 'tnmical feet which is
merely tee rcal.
The purpose of all art is to clOthe truth in
manner TO make it most pleasing for as Virgil
long said, we are so constituted that truth is
| always more acceptable when it comes to us in a
pleasing garb. If this be admitted then that art
| must be the highest which has the power and
means for the great, variety and breadth Of ex
preston of that which is true, beautiful and
good. From what have said you will under
stand that repudiae the realistic theo,y J of art,
having treated my subject wholly from the ideal
lists standpoint. While | am not prepared to
say that am transcendentalist in philosophy
and morals, according to the teachings of Emer-
son, am most decidedly trancendentalist in
art
The realistic literary school is nothing more
than materialism and agnosticsm carried into
we have no types higher than those furnished by
nature and therefore the highest art is transcript
OF nature. And they 60 step .lrther, they say
that we must present nature in all its phases,
just rs it is; that rs the scentest takes up an
object however ugly and studies it presenting
certain phenomena of nature, so the artist must
depict human passions in their worst mani
testations in order that he may present natr~e
under all conditions that as the mental and
moral philosopher considers the evil as well as
the good in human motive and conduct in order
TO comprehend all human nature, so we as ar
lists should depict all that is low and ugly as
well as all that is high and pure in order to be
true to nature. They claim that we can know
nothing higher than the material hence we
can expect no instruction beyond that which our
environment teaches. The two most noted ex-
amples of this school are Zola, the French nov
elist, and Walt Whitman, the American poet
Now Just a short antithetic statement of the
doctrine and moral tendency of the two schools.
The reaist says portray the low and unholy in
human nature in order that men and women
shall be warned against it, that we must elevate
man the higher and nObler types only, that man
requires an ideal to litt his aspirations heaven
ward
Extend the idea Of the realist and it amounts
to this, that you must place il the hands of
the youth of the count. quantity Of the worst
yellow-back literature and so disgust him with
the characters of the heroes and heroines of that
class of fiction. But we know that the effect OF
this would be not to disgust but to corrupt the
youth of our land
Now this may seem DEPRESSION, but II really
is not For from the reast's standpoint all that
I have said. all of my reasoning is false and val