Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-04-18
LECTURE Al NEW-CENTuRY CLUB.


fess ignorance of the distinction be.
tween right and wrong or claim TO bo
exempt from responsibility 10 it. To
make such claim would place us on
the level OF the lower animAls or below
that OF the dog horse, or an especially
gifted cat, who have by long contact
with man gained some ability to judge
between right and wrong, Art in its
different forms of muaic, sculpture,
drama and literature plays an important
part In our lives. We are affected by
the pictures we lcuk at, the plays we
see, the books we read These make
our moral climate our physical nature
is not moro affected by tbs mir we
breathe than is our intellectual and
spiritual development aiie tod by what
art provides for US. How does the
moral law apply tn art? DO we agree
that the end Of art is the imparting Of
pleasure? IL has distinctive, definite
end of its own. Human life ia full Of
distinct departments. There is that of
agriculture; nothing is god in It that
Goes not increase the fertility OF the
suil and produce larger harvests. Gem
lnerce is another del artmeut in which
nothing is good that d as not tend to
the. equitable distribution of the
products Of labor. The department OF
at IS the difus on of pleasure;
nothing is good Rrtistically that dofs
not heautity and humani2e life.
man may be an excellent teacher with
out being 10 any sense a word artist.
The man who wtote Thirty days hath
September, SC. - was good teacher to
whom We all have reason TO be grateful,
but he was not a master OF poetry. One
h0 an aWnalfapf ltDf ..l
good man beyond reyroach like Dr.
Isaac Watts who contributed "How
0oIb the little busy hee," vet not he a
pce'. He may write books that sell By
the hundred Thousand yet not be a
great writer; or he may produce art
Use Rogers statusties, that need not
oe considered except as awful warn
lnRs. Art has rules OF its own that
US. be obeyed, and within t-at
domain it has right to exist. Pleasure
has legitimate right 10 human life;
the sscetic conception Of life that shuts
out all Pleasures 10 an impossible con-
cepiion. There are those who over
Indulge themselves at the table while
rigidly coudemning the pleasures of art
and congratulate themselves on never
indulging themselves in pictures or
drama. My father persuaded an old
Scotch woman to read Pilgrim q
Progress" and 'Tha Vicar Of Wake.
field " She said the first twas vera
weel, but the other was Pack OF lees ~
Like many others she had a miscon-
ceEtion of art. When the painter puts
tree on the canvas he does not seek
TO persuade you that it. is real tree
that you can chop down, but intends
that ii shall suggest 10 you the original
in its symmetry and beauty. When an
actor plays Othello it ia net with the
object of perEuading you that he is
Othello, but to portray what such
character really means in life. These
things are not falsehoods but truths
novels are often as accurate as history
In what way does the moral Law,
apply to artY Many young men and
women hold that art should be Judged
by no other standard than the artistic,
that its only end is to give pleasure to
| the beholder. Oscar Wilde said "art
has no allegiance to the moral law, any
Implied reference to standard Of good
and evil is a mark Of incompleteness
OF vision in art " Then Homer, Dante,
Shakespeare and Milton would he
charged with an incompleteness of
vision which is granted in full to
| such men as DE Musset, DE Maupas.
SAINT and Oscar Wilde. The exemption
OF art from the moral law does not hold
iu any other art then let US have done
with the narrow, emasoulate cry of
art for arts sake.'' The domain of
art is distinct sphere but lies within
the circle of moral law and the artist,
is under the same obligation to
morality as Other men. There is no
excuse in art for his beating his own
wife or running away with that of
another man. In the artist as an artist
is there any reason why he should not
recognize the moral law How can
man depict human nature without be
has reverence sincerity. A man should
write after looking into his own heart
not into the sale OF other books tn see
which things sell best. Envy, malice,
avarice, greed, all tho petty narrow
views do not make an artist. Great
artists have always been good men
do not mean to say that all great
artists have been 10 q strict sense good
men, but when their lives have been
stained by vice the disregard of moral
law has not helped but hindered their
art, has dimmed tho eyes and be-
nunlbed the hand. The great English
!andsoapist, Turner, when sober, painted
good pictures, but his later paintings
whose elongated vistas make them
difficult to understand, were thus be-
cause OF the disease of his eyes, due to
the exeesses OF his life. in American
literature was the work of tho highly
gifted Edgar Allen Poe bolped by his
weakness of will that brought him
stained and defiled to the gutter, and
left but handful of verses instead of
the better work that might have
been his. f}
An artist has no business to make
| didactic art, 70 sugar coat a pill; not
that true art has no moral purpose, but
this purpose should be ditiused throu Oh
mis- art like the SAD of tree, The
artist sees more clearly than other mon
the solemnity OF the great mountains,
the glory Of sunsets, the delicate poise
and symmetry Of flowers He gives MS
nature Illuminated and passed through
the alembic of man. He serves as a
preacher and lifts up and snnobles the
common life OF man. Compare Miilet's
"Angelus'' and "Sheepfold' with the
COARSE, vulgar, cynical work of later
peasant painters. The artist who works
in his spirit cannot be indifferent 10
the standard of good and evil. If he
applies his vision to life as it is he
will not be the ners versemaker, but
poet. Bad counsel is none the better
for being III fine language. in the
much discussed play of 'Snpho, " it
was claimed there was moral lesson.
/ 10 q 10 ii ..T k.s.. Al. 81.