Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-11

high responsibilities imposed on him by the
wealth which came to crown his financial
sagacity, and to reward his financial honor,
he early determined to convert those high
responsibilities into the privileges Of a
generous and noble public spirit. He early
decided that at least one-half of his
the welfare of men. and he kept this self
imposed obligation SO literally that he
often allowed his sense of privilege to out
strip his sense of obligation. And so 1t
came to pass. as one of his biographers has
recorded. that his charities. private and
public, exceeded the amount of FIVE millions
OF dollars, and that "he left no aspect Of
human life untouched by his beneficence."
Reaching out the hand Of an ever-helpful
sympathy. and working the moral and intel
lectual forces embodied in the church, in
the university, in the school Of science in
the elegant home provided for gentlewomen,
ne showed at once the refinement and the
comprehensiveness of his beneficence by not
emitting to make a most bountiful provis-
Ion for that form Of culture which sheds
It's selectest fragrance along the walks of
social life. l know full well that there are
those who look upon the fine arts as de-
serving TO be called 1.-The bright consum-
mate flower" Of human culture only be-
cause they mark the eliminating points at
which high civilization bursts into bios
som because II Is on the eve of running to
seed and falling into decay. 1t will be
found that this reflection holds true in the
history and In the philosophy Of art only
so far as 1t holds true In the history and In
the philosophy of all that Is most splendid
In creative epochs. AS students of the world q
culture and as heirs of all the ages, we can
as little AFFORD to sneer at the epochs which
went to seed In high art as at the epochs
which went to seed In high literature or
In other high achievements 1.-The dead but
sceptered sovereigns who still rule our spir-
It's from their urns' are alike our "sover-
eigns. whether 1t was the chisel, the pencil
or tho pen which they welded for their
SceDterS. Creation ha oil Uyox Vrnd
side by side with creation in letters or in
other high forms of social evolution We
cannot think of Plato or Thucydides with
out remembering Ictinus, who reared the
Parthenon. and Phidias, who adorned M
pediments with his immortal sculpture. We
cannot think of Zeno lecturing In the fires.
coed portico Of Athens without remember
ing the great artists who painted the fres-
Goes. We cannot think Of Dante and Boo.
caccio without remembering the reverent
homage they paid to Giotto, their great
co-rfval. We cannot think Of the high lit
erature which fourished in the times OF
queen Elizabeth without remembering the
high art which f1ourished In the times al
Lorenzo de Medici and Leo X. II in Eng
land the renaissance came to its literary
efhorescence In the drama of Shakespeare
and Ben jonson, II is in painting and in
sculpture. in Raphael and Michael An
gelo. that We must look for its effiorescenc &c
In Italy. Just as 1t is in maritime adyen-
ture and In art, In Columbus and De Soto,
for Its eff1orescence In SPAIN
Such. indeed is the kinship between the
ideal in literature and the ideal in art thai
all great literature. all literature which has
power In 1t Ito use the phrase Of De
Quincey), Is destined to come to perennial
TRANSPORTATION in the plastic and the graph
ic art of succeeding ages When Polyg-
notus portrayed the sacrifice of a daughter
Of Priam at the tomb of Achilles he was
said by the critics of his day to have put
In her eyelids the whole story of the Trojan
war A few years ago as sat In the studio
OF Sir Frederick Leighton, in London, he
took down his Homer and read the passage
which had inspired a picture sketched on
his canvas, a picture Of Andromache in her
captivity. Dante and Ariosto, Shakespeare
ana Milton come to perpetual revival In the
art which they inspire. and which they will
continue to inspire so long as literature and
art shall have their yotaries