The Press. — 1858-12-04 (London, England)

GRATIS.  Stetimus tele aspera contra Contulimusque menus: experto credite, quantus In clipeum assurgat, quo turbine torqueat hasten:).  The following passage will not be new to those who have read Mr. Ruskin's " Elements of Drawing," but it conveys a lesson which cannot be too frequently repeated  :--•  The more I see of schools, the more reason I see to look with doubt upon those which produce too many showy and complete works by the pupils. A showy work will always be found, on stern examination of it, to have been done by some conventional rule,—some servile conaplisnce with directions which the student does not see the reason for; and representation of troths which he has not himself perceived : the execution of such drawings will be found monotonous and lifeless ; their light soil shade specious and formal, but false. A drawing which the pripil has learned much in doing, is nearly always full of blunders and mishaps, and it is highly necessary for the formation of a truly public or universal school of Art, that the misters should not try to conceal or anticipate such blunders, but only seek to employ the pupil's time so as to get the most precious results for his understanding and his heart, not for his hand. Mr. Ruskin, soberly enough, does not lead amateurs to suppose that they can ever attain the excellence of professional men. But they ought to learn drawing, not with the hope of doing that for which the devotion of a life is required, but in order to be good judges of Art, and thoroughly acquainted with the best examples.  So much for the moral and intellectual effect. of Art on the general student. If, now—to pass to the second point—we want to get the most out of the workman, in a commercial point of view, neither schools, nor lectures, nor mechanical inventions, nor premiums, nor painstaking, will help us. To have good art, we must enjoy art— and enjoy it so much as to be unwilling to part with it. There is a story of a Spanish bookseller, who dealt in old and rare editions, and was so unwilling to part with them, that once, when induced to do so with a favourite volume, he secretly tore out a leaf, and, on the customer's returning a day or two after to remonstrate on the deficiency, decoyed him into the back shop, and murdered him in order to regain the cherished treasure. This, we think, is something like the feeling which, according to Mr. Ruskin, we ought to have for the productions of our art—something like that, too, which induces the Arab in the story, when he has reared a horse and brought him to a town for sale, the instant the bargain is concluded, to throw it up, spring on the animal's back and ride off, rather than part with him. But this makes a serious difficulty for us as a commercial nation :  The very primary motive with which we set about the business, makes the business impossible. The first and absolute condition of the thing's ever becoming saleable is, that we shall mike it without wanting to sell it; nay, rather with a determination not to sell it st any price, if once we get hold of it. Try to make your Art popular, cheap—a fair article for your foreign market ; and the foreign market will always show something better. But make it only to please yourselves, and even be resolved that you won't let anybody else have any ; and forthwith you will find everybody elee wants it.  Here Mr. Ruskin goes off into a long tirade to the effect that ladies don't properly enjoy their silk dresses! They may like being well dressed, but they do not "feel delight in the beauty and " play of the silken folds and colours themselves " for their own gorgeousness or grace." The proof of which is, that when he was copying a certain Paul Veronese at Turin, none of the English travellers, none of the ladies, not even "any nice, sharp-looking. bright-eyed girl," who