Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-17

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occupation to the mind which
enlarges the sympathies and refnes the per-
ceptions, and tends to keep them aloof from
what is gross. The arts are essentially gen.
tie; they have nothing of the brutalities Of
sport, the egotisms Of science; the fierce
cruelties of physiological experiment are
wholly alien to it; it lives by light, by
peace. by sympathy, by loveliness.
If all the world were penetrated with the
charm of art, war would have little place on
earth; to the man who is sensible of the har-
monies of architecture the warfare which
would burn Notre Dame like straw stack
and she'll Lincoln Cathedral as indiferently
as barrel must ever seem the most barbar-
Gus of the follies Of humanity; and that the
Louvre and the Vatican, the Pinacothek
and the Hermitage should be exposed to the
perils of dynamite must ever appear as in
famous, as deplorable. to those by whom the
smile of Gioconda and the Faun has been
felt and the beauty of the Belvidere gods
merciful and kindly; the heatmosphere OF itmay
be sometimes cold as the moonlight is cold;
but, like the moonlight, it is accompanied
by dews bsnefcent and refreshing to the
world.
ARTS INFLUENCE IN DAILY LIFE
There is a pure pleasure in beautiful
lines and shapes which carries with it into
daily life a sense of joy and of well-being.
A milk jug shaped gracefully lends its own
grace, like a flower, to the nomeliest board
on which it stands. To use a well-made
and symmetrical object is to the cultured
sense simple but absolute form of enioy.
ment. The introduction of beautiful lines
into common objects has become usual in
the present day, though cot vet universal
as it was in Etruria and Greece; but it is
still weighted with many deformities, and
unhappily most of the usages and customs
of modern life are such as 10 make beauty in
them impossible All the artistic effort in
the world could not make an umbrella beau
tlful, or fork, or a boat, or an omnibus, or
a railway station, or factory chimney; If
Phidias himself returned to earth he could
do nothing with any of these.
Before the necessity to disfgure the face
of all countries with wire lines such as are
demanded by telegraph and telephone COM
panies the soul OF an artist must faint with
that the appalling ugliness of the new forms
of modern invention will fatally affect the
minds and the creations of coming genera
tions if in its development it does not correct
its hideousness. As yet there does not seem
much hope that il will do so; and the rivers
turned into choking streams of grease as of
Chicago, and the whole round of human ex-
istence buried under an immovable dark
ness of coal dust and coal smoke, as in Shelf
EoTl Il 81
rible conditions with which invention as op-
posed to art accompanies her diabolic gifts
to man. II the influences OF art were in
one-hundredth degree as widespread as they
are benign the human race would refuse.
such conditions and would consider the ma
terial benefits of invention far too dearly
purchased by the pollution of atmosphere,
the elimination of daylight and the obliter-
alton of landscape.
THE EFFECT OF COSTUME.
AS the great excellence of Greek sculpture
was to be traced to the daily spectacle of the
nude human figure, seen everywhere, in the
baths, in the games, in the gardens, excel
lent in its strength, beautiful in its freedom,
glorious in its supple and elastic forces, so
the painting of the Middle Ages owed its
greatness to the beauty of color, of costume,
of street life, of warlike bravery, of arehi-
lecture and of atmosphere which everywhere
surrounded and saturated the daily lives Of
the painters. There is kinship among
the arts which brings them all upon the thres-
hold of the home in which one has been in
stalled as divinity.
Who can feel the architectural glories Of
Chartres or Lens, of Cologne or Canterbury,
and not be touched by the roll of the organ
and the voices of the choir? Who can ven
crate the figures of.the Might and the
gfno noxy1f oud ho oopSib1a 60 III L. -
the Sistine? The sight of the Tour de st.
Jacques rising from its greenery against the
springtide sky is worth more to the soul Of
the passerby in Paris than the cheap fares
of the tramway or the machine made trous-
ers in the out6tter's shop. But then the
passerby must have the eyes that can see ST.
Jacques. Is not that education the highest
and most truly useful which bestows such
eyesight? All that tends to develop the in
susceptibilities and make them
stronger than the physical appetite is gain
to mankind so long as the physical side Of
existence is not repressed in an unnatural
as it is repressed by anchorites Of
Ill persuasions, whether religious or philo-
sophie. Art does not repress it but refnes
it and keeps it in subordination to the de-
sires and aspirations of the mind.
SYMPATHY WITH INANIMATE THINGS.
A great love of art creates a great com.
panionship in inaninate things, a great in
dependence of human sympathies, and o
sense OF serenity such as merely physical
pleasures cannot give. 1t is difficult to care
warmly and intelligently for anyone of the
arts and remain wholly insensible to the
others. Not idly were the muses. symbolized
Is sisters and pictured as hand finland en-
,ircling man. The arts have lost much of
heir elevating influence in modern times
because they have been too closely asso-
,iated to trades. Their temples have beens
allowed too often to become mere workshops.
Yet, still the softening and ennobling effect
of them upon the human mind is great and
heir soothing charm can never be resisted
oy those on whom it has once cast its spell.
The lovers of art may spend more upon il
han they conld afford, but it is better spent
here than thrown away on low or frivolous
pleasures.
To purchase gobelin tapestries for your
bedroom is better than to gamble or to be
ruined By dissipation. The motive may be
pure sel-indulgence in the one as in the
,ther. but the Iormer egotism has certain
elevation in it, tends to refine and spiritu-
,lize the mind and has beneficial influences
lpon others, while the latter egotism is
jeadening, and has effects
which are Dernicous and lasting upon the
,gotist himself and upon all around him.
1t. cannot be too repeatedly insisted on
hat the arts soften, tighten and ennobls
life. The mere pursuit of gain is base; the
,xcitements of speculation and OF COM
nerca are ionoble the whole tendenc;a. ~