Morning journal and courier., 1893-08-24
ART AND INDUSTRY.
An Address Delivered Recently
 GIadwfnna

 cultural Hall In Ellington the other eve ming to distribute the. prizes gained at the nationsl workmen's exhibition end deliv- cred long speech on art and industry, In the ocurse of which he said:
 When We speak of fine art we speak pi;ncIpe1y of what is dissocisted from dt- Ic 3t and immediate utility. do not mean that painting, sculpture, music. for exam pie, have not utility belonging to them. But 1t is utility standing In a different IL Ia Ion to the work of art from that utility which charaoterizss the objects which are exhibited in this building. But let me i'm press this. I think it Is "A principle of broad application and great importance. Every industrial art, almost without ex- ception, If not altogether, can be brought fo partake of the character of fine art. Now this Is Q principle of vast conse- Quence snd one which rcquirss 10 be in culcsted, because when you labor upon ob- jects, which have palpabls, direct and obvious utility, the element of beauty which ought t9 attsch 10 all psoeu in general is apt to be underyAlued and | placed altogether out Of view. l should | not like to mention any country In the \ world which has been distinguished by | ugliness in it's indust.:d productions. 1t \ would be a very indIvidious offics 10 un- dertake. But undoubtedly there are coun- | tries which are less distinguished for uni | ting beauty with convenience than other | countries, both present and in former times But who are the great teachers in this respecti If you want to define them | you must go back long way. You may learn much from modern countries; you may learn much from the countric3 in the | western Mediterranean of the period of the later middle age.
 If you want to go to the fountain head you must go to that small peninsula which
 was inhabited by the Greeks; you mus. go to & small part of that peninsuls-to the email city of Athens. Ii is from her ar tists that in the year 1893, and n the coming ycars you will have 10 learn all the
 most profound, sll the most important,
 lessons which are to be learned by those
 who desire to elevate industry into the re
 gicns of art by uniting together beauty
 and convenience. It may soucd to be 8
 strange thing, an obsolste idea. But If
 you choose to leave 1t obsolete and forgot.
 ten, zee nothing elss for it. But what
 mean is that for those who desire to see
 useful things made beautiful, the mesns
 of reviVing that old discipline are still al hand, and If you want to see what it did ? | but to go into institutions or exhibitions
 containing utensils wh'ch have been re covered, perhaps from the bowels of the } earth. Then, not accidentally, not iu , particular cases, but as 6 general rule, in order to IT Ike tt'ug useful, the Greeks !, never fourd 1t necessary to make 1t ugly To great extent In modern times we sup
 pose ourselves to be very free from super
 stition, and often on occasions when VI
 are not bit more free from superstition ~ than those who have gone before us VI
 should find that we have only changed tn
 form of 1t.
 But there are many who believe that il
 the case of industrial productions 1t is
 loss of time and pains to think abon
 giving to them & character of beauty.
 is this falsehood which we ought If we ca
 to tear up by the roots. Lst us reply t
 those who tell us so that, on the contrary
 the whole history of Greek art is ds
 monstration of the truth of that impol
 tant and essential principle. Now what
 very curious is this-that In Greece tt
 effect, or at all events 8 contemporar
 phenomenon of that sacred wedding-if
 may so call it-bstween industry and bea,
 ty is that the idea Is more fruitful an
 more abundant than In any other countr
 in the world. 4 most remarkable instant
 of this has occurred quite recently.
 the streets of Athens there were sold
 some casual street boys figures, about ts
 inches or foot in height, of the huns ], frame made of burnt clay which attract, 2 the attention of some men of practice
 eye, who recognized that they were of c m quisite beauty. They began to purchs rr them. More figures appeared, more bu M CTS appeared, and at last the collectors f France, in England and in other places h | arp ta Ina tn Gau if among their ars objects. The figures we ,a found in the tombs of Tsnagra, a secon ,d rate city in 6 second-rate province q. Greece, in BAotis. which was known .a the most stupid, I would rather say t .J least clever and distinguished, of all t ts provinces of Greece. Think what mr hs have been the abundance of the sense a baauty and the power of producing bea 'I ty in visible form among a people whi ,v could afford to throw into the tombs of -, second-rate people, of & second. rate eli ha In 6 second rate state, those objects whi -s people are now glad to abstract from ths as and exhibit in the choice cases of the Lc ss vre or tine British museum. I have ss ferred to the model of glass coffin. B be If ever, in the course of the future, ist should be extracted from the bowels of t i, earth. and opened to see what 1t contain ha I am afraid 1t will not be found to conts sh l images III teErh-COLIA or lu burnt clay Si 1- liar to those which were found in Gree, nd There is one wonderful art, gentlems n- which will mention-ths beautiful art ,v book binding. It Is one which has be 1s scarcely noticed. Books are wonderi cd things, wonderful, above all, with reap he to what may call the soul of the boa sd the words that 1t contains and the Id, no which the words convey. But there of also, supporting there were no soul,
 manufacture of the book historically corded-the production of the book O,
 sidered as a marketable material objs
 That the production of the manuscript .,s. early times, before the invention of pri tn ing, the beautiful and wonderful oharae of the early printing, and sometimes e'
 now, in this degenerate century, in Is
 printing, the mere impression of the
 ters on the page, may be carried iowa sn, the character of high art and fine cKs Is thing which people do not gener,
 dream of.
 nd pass from 1t to the case of arohi