The Irish standard., 1898-02-26
should see to it that the great mysteries
and truths of religion should be given
prominence by the brush of those whom

prominence by the brush Of those whom
they fostered and in many cases sup
ported? How many an artist in those
days would never have achieved fame
had 1t not been for the protecting care
of the church? The greatest artists were
emphatically religious men, many of
them monks, and they sought inspiration
from prayer and fasting. The blessed
Angelica, the great Dominican, is said
never to have attempted to paint the
mother of God or the Child Jesus ex-
cept on day when he had been to holy
communion; and never dared touch a
brush to picture of the crucifxion ex-
cept on his knees. Michael Angelo was
man Of rugged, sublime faith, and
Raphael's best work was done in his
youth, when the admiration of the world
had not yet stained the innocence Of his
soul by sin.
Excerpts from this lecture Of Craw-
ford's are published in the current num-
ber of Macmillan's Book Review and
from them I quote few striking
thoughts:
In those times, when the artist put
in any accessory, he asked himself,
Does it mean anything?' Whereas most
painters of today, in the same case ask
themselves: will it look well?' The
difference between the two points of
view is the difference between jesting
| and being in earnest, between an art
| that compares itself with an ideal flu,
| ture. and the art of today that measures
itself with an ideal past.
The greatest painters of those times
We're practically men of universal genius
| and were always men of vast reading
and cultivation, the equals and often
branches Of science, literature and art.
They were not only great painters, but
great men and great thinkers, and far
above doing anything solely for effect"
In the course Of this lecture he makes
the startling statement that civilization
has nothing to do with morality" and
again-''in point of civilization and
what we call cultivation, Alcibiades was
immeasurably superior to st. Paul, st.
Bernard or Abraham Lincoln, though
Alcibiades had no morality to speak of
and not much conscience"
Crawford the novelist is far superior
to Crawford the art critic and might
with advantage take lessons from Eliza
Allen Starr rather than from Ruskin,
whom he seems to follow in many ways
notably that assertion of individual
ity, which seems to say, II differ from
! other critics. but that is my badge of
superiority" Modern society is the
enemy of individuality, whether in dress,
taste or criticism, and the fear of SEEM
ing different from other people is great
er than the desire to rise higher than
other people by purely personal means,'
so says Crawford, and there is an album
| dance of truth in the statement.
Perhaps some facts of our novelists
| life may be interesting to your readers
and l give them as CLEAN them from a
recent notice in 1.-THE Bookman," also
| from Walter Lecky's interesting Down
at CaXton's.' Crawford is just a few
| months past 43 and was born in Italy Of
| American parents; his father was the
we'll known sculptor of New York. When
! twelve years of age he was sent to this
country and went to school at St. Pauls,
| Concord. In after years he studied in
England, then at Heidelberg and finally
| spent two years at the University of
| Rome and then drifted to India, where
he became editor of the Indian Herald
In 1880 he returned to America and up
| to May, 1882, he wrote causally for the
| press and magazines. About that time
his unc1e-the famous Sam Ward, of
New York, the original of Horace in
Crawford's DIR. Claudius invited him
to dinner and in the course of conversa-
tion he related many interesting recol-
| lections of a man he had met in India
When he had finished his talk his uncle
said THAT is good magazine story and
you must write it cut Immediately"
| That night he began his now famous
novel, Mr.. Isaacs," and finished it in
| less than forty days. 1t became at once
very popular and was soon followed by
"Dr. Claudius." Since then his many
ether tales have been given very rapidly
to an appreciative public. "Marzio's;
Crucitix" was written in ten days, and
"The Tales of \ Lonely Parish in
twenty y-four days, at the rate of q chap
ter Of about 5000 words day. He has
| written about thirty works since 1882
and s still apparently coed for as many
more. His works depicting American
life have not had the success of his
ether novels, and his IAN American
Politician' was judged to be the worst
novel ever produced by an American. :"
Walter Lecky says Of him. "Craw-
ford's canon is that art is interpretative,
not initiative. and, moreover he. has
story to tell and tells it for the story's
sake. lie has no affinity with that
school SO pointedly described by the
Scotch novelist, Barrie, as the one which
| tells in these volumes, how Hiram X
Wilding trod on the skirt of Alice NJ.
Sparkins without anything coming OF it,
| Lecky further says: "CraWfOrd is only