The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-16
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A most scholarly treatment of The
Beginnings of Art" is added to the
Acknowledged Series by DR.. Ernst
Crosse, a professor in the University OF
Freiburg, in Baden.
Mr.. Crosse has confined himself in
his critical treatment of the subject to
one side of the work of the science OF
art. which he designates as the soclo-
logical side. In the lowest stage Of cul-
ture art appears simply to him as
social phenomenon; he has confined
himself therefore to the Investigations
of its social conditions and influences,
not because he does not recognize any
other, but because, under the circum-
stances. he considers we cOnnot distin-
guish any other. To find beginnings,
DR.. Crosse confines his attention to
the few most primitive peoples now i1V-
ing instead of following the method
of drawing illustrations of beginnings
from primitive peoples Of the past, ma
terial which is Elusive and uncertain at
the best. DR.. Crosse applies new
method to the subject and claims for
his work the privileges of pioneer
effort. He says: THE value of this
book lies less in the answers it gives
than in the questions it raises. me
breadth ard eXaCt1eSs OF DR.. Crosses
scholarship is apparent throughout the
work: his arguments are persuasive
and his style dignified and graceful. HIS
conclusions we should like to quote
entire, but we must content ourselves
with important extracts. strange ana
inartistic as the primitive forms OF art
sometimes appear at the first sight, as
soon as we examine them more closely
we find that they are formed accord
ing to the same laws as govern the
highest creations of art. And not only
are the great fundamental principles OF
eurhythm, symmetry, contrast, climax
and harmony practiced by the Aus
traIians and the Eskimo as they were
by the Athenians and the Florentines,
but we have repeatedly determined
especially in regard to the adornment
of the body-that even those details
which are commonly considered sports
of arbitrary caprice, belong to the COM
mon aesthetic stock of the peoples most
remote from civilization. This fact is
certainly not without significance in
aesthetics. Our investigation has prov
ed what aesthetics has hitherto only as
serted: that there are, for the human
race at least, generally effective condi-
tionS for aesthetic pleasure, and conse-
quentIy generally valid laws of artistic
creation. AS against this fundamental
agreement the differences between
primitive and higher art forms appear
to be more of cumulative than a
qualitative sort. The emotions repre-
scented in primitive art are narrow and
rude, it's materials are scanty, it's forms
are poor and coarse, but in it's essential
motives, means and aims the art of
the earliest times is at one with the
art of all times"
C'The Beginnings of Art" by Ernst
. Crosse PHI. D. d. Appleton & Co.. New
York $1.50. For sale by the st. Paul Book
and Stationery company
That the college professor who said
that about a dozen of George William
Curtis Easy Chair" essays so nearly
cover the more vital questions Of hy-
giene, courtesy and morality that they
might be gathered into a volume en-
titled AIRS Recte Vivendi," was right
in his judgment and happy in his sug-
geStiOn, no one who reads the group
of essays published under this name
VIII think of disputing.
The selection is we'll made, and, al
though there are many more of the
( Easy Chair essays that would seem
to demand place in the little volume,
the ones chosen quite cover the ground
Of right living. Extravaganza at col