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diff --git a/42371-0.txt b/42371-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d8fcaa --- /dev/null +++ b/42371-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1492 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42371 *** + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + + + + +The Augustan Reprint Society + +JOHN ROBERT SCOTT + +DISSERTATION ON THE PROGRESS OF THE FINE ARTS + +With an Introduction by Roy Harvey Pearce + + + + + + + +Publication Number 45 + +Los Angeles +William Andrews Clark Memorial Library +University of California +1954 + + * * * * * + +GENERAL EDITORS + +RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ +RALPH COHEN, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +VINTON A. DEARING, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + +ASSISTANT EDITOR + +W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ + + +ADVISORY EDITORS + +EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ +BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_ +LOUIS BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ +JOHN BUTT, _King's College, University of Durham_ +JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ +ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ +EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ +LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_ +SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ +ERNEST C. MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ +JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_ +H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ + + +CORRESPONDING SECRETARY + +EDNA C. DAVIS, _Clark Memorial Library_ + + * * * * * + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Scott's "Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine Arts" embodies what we +can now see as a final development in his century's deep concern to +understand why what it so often admitted was the greatest art had +somehow not been forthcoming in what it as often claimed was the +greatest century. The "Dissertation" is in no way an original work; +rather--and this is its primary value for us--its author takes a belief +which his culture has given him and, like others before him, tries to +clarify one of its implications. The belief is in the idea of a +universal progress marred, if it in the end can be said to be marred, +only by an esthetic primitivism; the implication is that that esthetic +primitivism can be not only comprehended but surmounted. Scott accepts +the century's commonplace that art of power and significance has been +necessarily produced only in societies markedly simpler than his own; +and he accepts too the fact (for such it was when men believed in it and +judged according to the principles generated by it) that in all forms of +culture excepting art, his own richly complex society has produced +something far surpassing anything produced in the "simpler" society of +classical Greece or of the Italian Renaissance. Scott's uniqueness is +that, unlike those of his predecessors who had worked with the same +belief, he does not try to establish an historical rationale for this +_status quo_. He goes so far as to envisage--perhaps it would be truer +to his state of mind to say posit--an enlightened modern society which +will at once remain what it is and yet so change itself as to make +possible the production of major art. + +The main interest for us in the "Dissertation," then, lies in Scott's +notions of the kind of society needed to produce major art, and beyond +that, in what is entailed in holding fast to that notion, developing it +into a doctrine, and even hoping to make it a reality in his own time. +He outlines the doctrine in great detail, simply by describing what he +takes to be the sociocultural situation of the classical Greek artist +(and incidentally, that of the artist of the Italian Renaissance). He +chooses to write almost entirely of the fine arts (for him in this case, +sculpture), although he conceives, as the student of his age would +expect him to, that what holds for the fine arts will also hold for +poetry. In the immediacy of appeal of sculpture, he finds a quality +which, when its working and expression are analysed, will let him see +just how the artist and his work have been ideally related to the +society in which they have flourished. + +Scott's description of the artist and his place in Greek society is one +which, in general, is familiar to students of eighteenth-century +critical theory. Equally familiar is his concern to establish the fact +that, as he puts it, "the connate temper of the times" made possible the +production of great art. He sees Greek art as being authentically marked +by the "rich raciness of the native soil." And he sees Greek society as +in all departments making the work of the artist possible. In small, +free, uncentralized states; in states where art has a public, memorial +function; in states where, because so many games and rituals are +performed naked, the artist is always directly and overwhelmingly aware +of the possibility of beauty in the human body--in such states, owing to +such "natural causes," art must necessarily flourish. Above all, art is +of the people and their artists as they form a vital community; it is +not borrowed; it is fresh and original. Finally, such a cultural +situation, and therefore such an art, is found obviously to be lacking +in his own time. + +Now this argument, carried up to this point, had been more or less +held to by many critics and literary theorists before Scott.[1] True +enough, they had mainly concerned themselves with poetry; yet they +found the source of major poetry to be ultimately in a nakedness +of language--made possible by what was taken to be the simplicity, +spontaneity, and cohesion of Greek life--comparable to Scott's notion of +nakedness of body. They differ from Scott in this: that almost +uniformly, so far as my reading goes, all had been willing to admit that +there was absolutely no hope for comparable artistic achievement in +their own time; that such art could be produced only in simpler, earlier +societies than their own; that, indeed, a characteristic of a mature +society was that it had grown up beyond the young, crude, exuberant +stage in which conditions were ideal for the cultivation of the esthetic +sensibilities. The ideal time for the production of major art, they +tended to conclude, was at that point in the history of a society when +it was moving from the savage into the civilized. They were thus not +absolute esthetic primitivists; but they were concerned nonetheless to +tie art to its primitive origins, as for the most part they were +concerned equally to celebrate their triumph over the limitations of +such origins. So, to take one example, Thomas Blackwell, meditating +Homer's achievement in his _Enquiry_, had written in 1735 that it does +not "seem to be given to one and the same Kingdom, to be thoroughly +civilized, and afford proper Subjects for Poetry"; and in the same work +he later declared that he hoped "_That we may never be a proper Subject +of an Heroic Poem_." Only by being a "Subject" for a heroic poem could +the poet write one; for only then would he have available to him the +living language--and thus the techniques--adequately to express that +"Subject." This was to be a dominant refrain--matched, to be sure, by a +counter-refrain, treatment of which is not immediately relevant +here[2]--through the century. A significant number of critics and +literary theorists would be willing to resign themselves to having a +lesser art, if such resignation would mean that they could adequately +celebrate the enlightened achievements of their own century. They +worked out a method of historical analysis whereby they might construct +"conjectural histories" of civilization which would allow them to place +poetry and the fine arts in the long line of the evolution of culture +toward their own time and to demonstrate, moreover, that even as the +arts had come early, so philosophy, proper religion, the sciences, and +all the highest forms of civilization had come late. Thus they could +announce triumphantly that if they had lost something, they had gained +much more. + +But still the greatness of the art which they did not have moved and +attracted them. Their work is perhaps a measure of their attempts to +rationalize out of existence a longing for the art which they felt their +time was not giving them. Perhaps that is why Scott, in the 1790's--his +mind, so it seems to us, not only informed but made by the critical +formulae of his time--tried to face squarely up to the fact that somehow +greet art had to be made possible for even his enlightened century. Yet +his mind was so simple and simplifying that he thought that merely by +denying his predecessors carefully worked out conjecture of the +necessary connection between an "early" society and great art, he could +prove that such was possible in his time. For the artist envisaged in +the "Dissertation" is still, in spite of his obvious attempts to have it +otherwise, the artist as conceived of by Blackwell and the rest of +Scott's predecessors. Scott glories in the civilized achievements of his +own age, yet somehow hopes that the same "liberal public encouragement" +that obtained in Greece will come again and make for such labor, pains, +and study as will create in England art as great as Greece's. Such a +condition, he feels, is not impossible; yet he says nothing of the kind +of social structure and character which he has already shown to be +requisite to the development of "liberal public encouragement." The +argument, such as it is, is left hanging. That is to say, there is no +evidence in the essay that Scott could really think through to the +possibility of the major artist's being immediately present in an +eighteenth-century society re-made, so far as its artistic life was +concerned, in a primitivistic pattern. He remains purely a theoretical +possibility in Scott's scheme of things, as does the society in which he +might flourish. + +Likewise, in the other essays[3] which Scott collected and published +along with the "Dissertation," there is no evidence that he really +understood what was involved in taking the stand he did. In the most +interesting of these pieces, "An Essay on the Influence of Taste on +Morals," he denies the existence of a Hutchesonian moral sense, +absolutely separates esthetic taste from morals, holds that art will +have an influence toward immorality unless it is kept in check with a +moral system properly inculcated by revealed religion. What he is +entirely unaware of is the possible radical implications of such a +separation of art and morality. As in the "Dissertation," he accepts a +conventional notion and is satisfied to push it as far as he can, never +exploring its possible ambiguities. + +The ambiguities are those, of course, which led to that transformation +of critical theory and artistic practice which we associate with the +romantic movement. In this light, it is interesting to note that just +fourteen years after the first publication of the "Dissertation" William +Hazlitt could take a stand almost identical in gross characteristics +with that of Scott and the others--this in his "Why the Arts are Not +Progressive."[4] For Hazlitt, because "the arts unlike the sciences and +the forms of high civilization in general hold immediate communication +with nature," they develop best soon after their "birth" and thrive "in +a state of society which [is], in other respects, comparatively +barbarous." He goes so far as to instance Homer, Chaucer, Spenser, +Shakespeare, Dante, Ariosto, Raphael, Titian, Michaelangelo, Correggio, +Cervantes, and Boccaccio. In all its extremity, in its inclusive +view of what constitutes a barbarous society and its peculiar cultural +virtues, this is but the conventional doctrine of Scott and all those +who came before him. But it is, in Hazlitt, transformed into a +statement, not, as in Scott's predecessors, of a rationale for the +weakness of art in their time, nor, as in Scott himself, of a dimly +espoused hope of art in his time. It becomes a frank, "sympathetic" +statement of a fact of life which, when granted, will enable men to +enjoy and comprehend great art of all ages. The doctrine is focussed on +the work of art, not on the culture which lacks it; it has been +crucially transformed from a historical into a heuristic principle. +Scott's "Dissertation" embodies the doctrine just before its +transformation--a neoclassical strain, we can say, just before it had +became a romantic strain. Scott almost takes his stand with Hazlitt; but +he is not quite there. And not being quite there, he is a whole world +away. + + Roy Harvey Pearce + Ohio State University + + + + + NOTES + + +[Footnote 1: Among the works that I have seen which specifically develop +this argument are: Thomas Blackwell, _An Enquiry into the Life and +Writings of Homer_ (1735); Richard Hurd, _The Third [Elizabethan] +Dialogue_ (1759) and _Letters on Chivalry and Romance_ (1762); John +Ogilvie, "An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients," in _Poems on +Several Subjects_ (1762); John Brown, _A Dissertation of the Rise, +Union, and Power, the Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions of +Poetry and Music_ (1763) and a shorter version of the _Dissertation, The +History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry_ (1764); Hugh Blair, _A +Critical Dissertation on the Poems_ of Ossian (1763); William Duff, _An +Essay on Original Genius_ (1767); Robert Wood, _An Essay on the Original +Genius and Writings of Homer_ (1767, enlarged version 1769); Thomas +Pownall, _A Treatise on the Study of Antiquities_ (1782). Such a list, +however, if it were to indicate the scope and ramifications of the +argument would have to be expanded to include more general +eighteenth-century studies of the evolution of cultural forms; for the +argument on the nature of art and its relation to "primitive" societies +is part of a larger one centering on the whole idea of progress. +Treatment of the whole subject has never been fully integrated into a +study of the nature (or natures) of eighteenth-century criticism and +critical theory--although a start has been made on study of it in and of +itself. The basic treatment remains Lois Whitney's _Primitivism and the +Idea of Progress_ (Baltimore, 1934) and her two essays "English +Primitivistic Theories of Epic Origins," _MP_, XXI (1924), 337-378 and +"Thomas Blackwell, a Disciple of Shaftesbury," _PQ_, _V_ (1926), +196-211. These are to be considerably qualified in their general, +sociological orientation by Gladys Bryson's _Man and Society: The +Scottish Inquiry of the Eighteenth Century_ (Princeton, 1945). They are +further to be qualified in their literary-critical orientation by my +"The Eighteenth-Century Scottish Primitivists: Some Reconsiderations," +_ELH_, XII (1945), 203-220, which is in turn somewhat expanded upon and +generalized in the appendix to Ernest Tuveson's _Millenium and Utopia: +A Study in the Background of the Idea of Progress_ (Berkeley, 1949).] + +[Footnote 2: See, for example, Donald Foerster, "Scottish Primitivism +and the Historical Approach," _PQ_, XXIX (1950), 307-323.] + +[Footnote 3: The essay was republished in 1804 as part of Scott's +_Dissertations, Essays, and Parallels_. These pieces range from college +premium compositions of the 1770's to the "Dissertation" of 1800.] + +[Footnote 4: The essay is handily available in W. J. Bate's anthology, +_Criticism: The Major Texts_ (New York, 1952), pp. 292-295.] + + + + + DISSERTATIONS, + Essays, + AND + PARALLELS. + + BY + _JOHN ROBERT SCOTT, D. D._ + + + LONDON: + _Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court_, + + AND SOLD BY J. JOHNSON, 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD; + AND MESS. C. & R. BALDWIN, NEW BRIDGE STREET, + BLACKFRIARS. + + 1804. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + A Dissertation on the Influence of Religion + on Civil Society 1 + + A Dissertation on the Expulsion of the Moors + from Spain, and the Protestants from + France and the Low Countries 33 + + A Dissertation on the first Peopling of America 75 + + A Dissertation on the Progress of the Fine Arts 125 + + A Dissertation on National Population 181 + + An Essay on Writing History 219 + + An Essay on the Question, Was Eloquence + beneficial to Athens? 245 + + An Essay on the Influence of Taste on Morals 269 + + Comparison between William III, of England + and Henry IV, of France 303 + + Comparison of Cardinal Ximenes and Cardinal + Richelieu 323 + + Comparison between Augustus Cæsar and Lewis XIV 343 + + Comparison of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, + and William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 361 + + + + + PREFACE. + + +Most of the following compositions were written several years ago, when +the Author was a student in the distinguished University of Dublin; +whose acknowledged excellence in classical literature, and in every +branch of scientific learning, needs not the celebration of his feeble +praise: and by it the first and second Dissertations, and one of the +Essays, were honoured with the first literary rewards in the power of +that learned body to bestow. Written at first with an honest desire of +acquiring fair reputation by praise-worthy exertions, they are now +submitted to the public eye from a wish to contribute to the liberal +amusement, and perhaps to the improvement, of the minds of his +fellow-creatures; with all the natural anxieties of an author +addressing a public, to whom he is little known; but without any +unmanly dread or humiliating deprecation of just and candid criticism. +Should they drop still-born from the press, as it may be has been the +fate of as meritorious compositions, the author (as becomes him) will +submit without murmuring to the general verdict. Should they, on the +contrary, be graced with a favourable reception, he shall deem himself +honoured by such notice; and will endeavour to render some larger works +of his, shortly to be submitted to the same respectable tribunal, as +worthy as his abilities will permit of its approving judgment. + + Gloucester Street, + Queen Square, 1804. + + + + + DISSERTATION + ON THE + _PROGRESS OF THE FINE ARTS_. + + (Published in 1800.) + + + + + TO + BENJAMIN WEST, ESQ. + PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY, + + WHOSE TALENTS DIGNIFY, + AND WHOSE MANNERS ORNAMENT + HIS ELEVATED SITUATION AS HEAD OF + THAT HONOURABLE AND USEFUL + INSTITUTION, + + THE + FOLLOWING DISSERTATION + ON + + THE PROGRESS OF THE FINE ARTS + + IS DEDICATED, + WITH SINCERE RESPECT AND ALL DUE DEFERENCE, + BY HIS OBLIGED + AND FAITHFUL HUMBLE SERVANT, + + _JOHN ROBERT SCOTT_. + + 28, Gloucester Street, + Queen Square, April, 1800. + + + + + A DISSERTATION, &c. + + +The natural feelings of man, when he enters into society with his +fellow-creatures, first induce him to improve by the means thence +acquired the arts necessary to his existence and well-being: whose want +he every day felt in his separate and detached state, and for whose +melioration he has just reason to hope from the union of combined force, +and from the co-operation of confederated talents. Presst incessantly by +the demands for the sustenance of animal life, to supply them +plentifully is not only his first care, but also that of the community +with which he has associated, if it is even one degree removed from the +savage state: and hence, in this early period of growing civilization, +the tending of flocks and the tilling of fields, Pasturage and +Agriculture, are deemed not only necessary but honourable occupations; +the simplicity of untutored man ever leading him to estimate that to be +most laudable which he finds to be most useful. These being advanced to +a certain degree of excellence, which, though far inferior to what they +are obviously capable of attaining, is yet sufficient not only for the +comfortable but for the indulgent enjoyment of life, new desires arise, +new wants spring up; and their gratification is pursued with an +eagerness correspondent to the novelty of their origin, and the untried +force of their impression. The cravings of our animal nature being amply +provided for by the ingenuity of the inhabitants, by the fertility of +the soil, or by the conjoint operation of both, the imagination begins +in the luxuriance of abundance to picture to itself new sources of +delight, and spurning, not without some contempt, the mere provision for +existence, to fancy ideal pleasures, and to search out with anxious care +and laboured pains those objects which may gratify them. And man, +finding himself possessed of more than a sufficiency to supply all his +wants, is willingly inclined to impart some share of that redundance to +those who will contribute to his convenience and satisfaction; to those +who will render his comforts at all times more comfortable, who will +relieve the languors of his lassitude, and fill up the vacuities of his +leisure with amusement. As there always were some to whom labour had no +charms, other more agreeable means of acquiring support were quickly +sought out, and the inventive powers of the mind were stretched to form +those imagined pleasures whose want was felt, and whose reward was +ready. + +Hence Architecture, Painting, and Statuary, (with strict propriety +denominated the fine arts) primarily arose; hence they derived their +most assiduous cultivation, and hence the utmost perfection to which +they have yet attained. Unsatisfied with the hut that merely protected +from the inclemencies of the elements, and, in the moments of repose, +from the unwarned attacks of the savages of the forest, man soon sought +out for more permanent, more pleasing habitations: to which experience +first joined increased conveniences, and then his inventive faculties, +sometimes aided by fortunate chance, sometimes led on by correct fancy, +added those ornaments that have stood the test of ages, and fixed those +proportions that have uniformly approved themselves to all the judicious +through the revolving course of various centuries. The ingenuity of love +taught the fair nymph to portray the shadow of that favoured youth whose +merits had won her heart, that even in his absence she might feast her +mind with beholding some similitude of his form: and hence the +imagination, impregnated by the nascent thought, conceived those +possibilities of excellence in painting, and that source of intellectual +enjoyment thence arising, which Zeuxis and Parrhasius exhibited to the +admiring eyes of Greece, and which Raphael and Michael Angelo have +displayed to the enraptured contemplation of the modern world. +Poetry, it is true, early indeed enabled mankind, by the fascinating +power of its melodious sounds and its persuasive numbers, to "raise +monuments[e] more durable than brass," and to consecrate to immortality +those illustrious persons who had entitled themselves to lasting fame by +their deserts. But, even long antecedent to that period, the desire of +having some representative form of reverenced or beloved individuals had +taught men to make some likenesses of them in rude sculptures of stone +or ivory: though destitute of the advantage of colouring, yet more +impressively striking to the senses than the productions of painting, +had they then existed (which may be doubted), and, from the nature of +their materials, less liable to the injuries of the weather. These, we +acknowledge, were cold, inanimate, and destitute of all appearance of +motion; till Dædalus contrived to give expression to the countenance and +action to the limbs; on which succeeding artists improving, each +rivalling and then surpassing his predecessor, at length produced those +"works to wonder at," the exquisite, the unmatched, the divine dignity +of the Apollo Belvedere, the energy, the athletic force of the Borghese +combatant, the agonized expression of the Laocoon, and the tearful +sorrows of the Niobe. + +[Footnote e: Exegi monumentum ære perennius. Horatii Carmi. Lib. iii. +Ode 30.] + +The expectations formed of the enjoyments to be derived from the +masterly productions of these Arts have in no one instance been +disappointed; but, we may assert without fear of contradiction, have in +every case been greatly exceeded: for though the emanations of the arts, +with the single exception of the Apollo Belvedere, may have fallen short +of that ideal excellence which forms their standard in each duly +cultivated mind, as, in the department of literature, the great Roman +orator states to have been the case with his own admirable compositions, +they have yet confessedly arrived at a degree of beauty, a splendor of +effect, and a power of impression, hardly to be hoped, and not easily +to be conceived. + +Should it then be demanded, what causes produced this transcendent +beauty, this unrivalled grace, this combination of pleasing form and +perfect utility? They will be found, not in any fortuitous concurrence +of accidents, not in any benign aspect of the planets, not in any genial +influence of the atmosphere, as has been weakly imagined and absurdly +asserted by certain self-denominated Philosophers of the continent; but +to have been the effects of much labour and much pains, of much study +and much industry, of great national encouragement, and of the peculiar +situation of that fortunate land wherein they were advanced from their +salient principle to their matured perfection. + +To confine ourselves to Greece, with which and its history, by means of +its incomparable writers, we are best acquainted: the first striking +circumstance in their favour was, that in it they were not borrowed, nor +imported, nor caused by foreign imitation, but were the home-bred +produce of the country; and therefore, however cultivated and improved, +always retained the rich raciness of a native soil. Successive +generations of artists arose, each excelling the other in merit, and +each of these had a correspondent race of their countrymen ready to +admire, and prepared to applaud them. No fastidious delicacy, no +affected superiority of discernment or skill, repressed their talents, +or curbed their genius: but free scope was given to the boldest of their +flights, and, when they happened to succeed, the praise of their own age +was their sure and adequate reward. The productions of the earlier +periods would not have, indeed, pleased in the polished age of Pericles, +unless as illustrative of the progress of the arts; for then more +captivating models were every day produced, more enchanting examples +were every day exhibited to the view. But in their own age, and their +own time, being superior to all that had been seen before, they were +thought matchless performances, and so received with undisputed +plaudits the highest estimation. This connate temper of the times (if I +may use the expression) proved a most powerful incentive to the +abilities of the artists, and ensured to them, if surpassing in merit +their predecessors, honourable regard, and that fame[f] which above all +other considerations was dear to a Grecian heart. Hence labour and +pains, assiduity and exertion, were unremittingly applied to advance +their peculiar art, to smooth its asperities, to ornament its nakedness, +to improve whatever of excellent existed in it, and to aim at still +farther capabilities of excellence. Certain of the approbation of their +contemporaries, repressed by no ideas of unattainable perfection, which +were the growth of latter times and of the greatest refinement, they +daily added something to the common stock; and though that something was +in itself, perhaps, inconsiderable, it yet raised its possessor to no +common degree of celebrity. Thus the arts advanced, proceeding from +strength to strength, constantly receiving accessions of improvement, +which were favoured by many conspiring, and retarded by no unpropitious +circumstances: and, being native to the country, the abilities of the +artists in a great measure formed the taste of the age, as its fostering +admiration constituted their most flattering reward. + +[Footnote f: Præter laudem nullius avaris. Horatius De Arte Poetica.] + +From a situation perfectly dissimilar, though the Romans long and +sedulously cultivated the arts, yet their noblest efforts never equalled +the best works of the Grecian school; of which the sacred remnants still +remain unrivalled and unmatched. For amongst them they were not +indigenous, but introduced as it were by violence; by the power of the +conquering sword, and by the plundering of insatiable rapacity: each of +the Roman generals, however ignorant or unpolished himself, yet +pillaging vanquished Greece of the choicest works of her happier days. +Thus, indeed, exquisite models and patterns of consummate beauty were +procured for the rustic Latians,[g] on which they wrought with +assiduity, and attempted to emulate: but their redundancy was rather +oppressive than co-operative, and their very perfection tended to +prevent an encouraging esteem of the rising artists. For the judgment, +or what we call the Taste, of the public being formed not gradually, and +by progressive steps of improving art, but all at once, and (as it were) +at a bound, assumed a squeamish delicacy which nothing imperfect would +please, and which delighted more in finding faults than in discovering +beauties. And this cause, whose operation is alike powerful and general, +contributed more to keep down the Roman arts, and to prevent them from +equalling the Greek, than any inferiority of talents, or than any want +of continued application and culture. + +[Footnote g: + + - - - - - - artes + Intulit agresti Latio. Horatii Epis. Lib. ii. Ep. 1.] + +The case has been the same in the modern world, and it will be found +universally true, that where the arts have arisen from natural, or +nearly natural causes, and have thence proceeded by gradual advances to +higher degrees of perfection, the judgment or taste of the nation +similarly meliorating with their improvement, they have attained, and +will attain, the utmost excellence which the abilities of the artists +can give them: but when brought forward among a people by extraneous +circumstances, such as the force of conquests, the commanding influence +of supreme power, or the efforts of affected imitation, though they may +bloom and flourish for a season, that they never will arrive at that +richness of maturity they have been seen to possess elsewhere, nor will +enjoy that vigour of growth which native juices infuse; but, like +hothouse plants, though fairly seeming, are yet vapid to the sense, and +when bereft of their borrowed heat, quickly sink, rot, and die. + +The progress of the arts in the ancient world, with the astonishing +excellence to which they were carried, was also much aided by the +manners and customs there prevailing, and in constant and daily +practice. To games and vigorous exercises the ancients were remarkably +addicted, regarding them both as liberal amusements and as a preparatory +discipline for the active occupations of war, in which each freeman of +the state knew himself obliged to engage at a certain period of his +life, and which he could not avoid without being damned to never-ceasing +infamy. Now all these were performed _naked_, as well on account of the +warmth of the atmosphere as to preclude all unequal advantages, and to +habituate the mind fearlessly to expose the person to the assaults of +incumbent danger. Hence the human figure was hourly exhibited to the +inspecting view of the attentive beholder, whether sculptor or painter, +in all its various forms of grace and elegance, of strength and force, +or of agony and torture: and these not the assumed appearances of +fictitious feeling, but the vivid effects of actual endurance, and +glowing from the mint of present impression. These were not to be sought +in Schools and Academies, they were not the lifeless colourings of +mercenary hirelings, but the energies of men emulous of fame, and +conscious that their characters with their countrymen would be +materially influenced by their performances in these favourite contests. +Contests which as amusements were the delight of all, which as exercises +were the duty of multitudes; which hoary age beheld with rapture, as +recalling the remembrance of the days of their prime, and which +unfledged youth gazed on with transport, as picturing those deeds +whereby they panted soon to be distinguished. Thus nothing but the most +careless inattention could avoid noting the distinctive marks of the +various passions and affections, which nature writes in very legible +characters: and as all from repeated observation were equally well +acquainted with them, in their representation by the artist nothing +short of the most exact and accurate likeness could hope for tolerance, +much less for approbation. + +Their scientific knowledge of anatomy, as applicable and subservient to +medical purposes, was perhaps inferior to ours, for they appear not to +have enjoyed the advantage in their principal cities of such men as the +Hunters[h] and Cleghorn:[i] but that inferiority proved not injurious to +the artist, who chiefly engaged in imitating the prominent features of +the human frame when thrown into action, amply compensated for his +ignorance of the theory of muscular motion, of the nervous system, and +of osteology, by the effects of observation incessantly repeated on the +most striking objects, and, it may be, the more impressive from coming +unsought and uninculcated. In fact they could scarcely avoid making this +observation: it was presst on them from every quarter; it was urged on +them by every incident. If they attended their morning exercises, it was +excited there; if they resorted to their evening amusements, it was +roused there also. In the retirement of the country it was not allowed +to sleep; in the bustle of the city it was awakened to all its vivacity. +From private enjoyment, from public security; from the recreations of +peace, from the toils of war; from the vacuities of idleness, and from +the labours of industry it alike received nurture, support, and aliment. +Thus reiteratedly enforced, its effects became, like those of a second +nature, interwoven with the habitudes of the mind, and called forth into +action, when the occasion required, with readiness and facility, without +effort and without premeditation. Hence the wonders that we are told of +the astonishing power of their paintings, limited as we know they were +in the number of their colours; of which though we are deprived of the +sight by the lapse of time, yet are they rendered credible, nay, fully +verified, to us by the matchless remains of their statues; whose +transcendent merit we have ocular demonstration that neither prejudice +had praised nor ignorance had extolled beyond their real deserts. +Hence the truth of nature in the Laocoon, where the expression of +suffering is not confined to the agitated visage, but is as forcibly +marked in the agonized foot as in the distorted countenance. Hence every +muscle moves, every sinew is stretched, every atom of the figure +conspires to the general effect in the Borghese combatant:[k] and hence +each particular part of the Farnesian Hercules represents, as forcibly +as the entire statue, that character of superior manly strength and +resistless might, which ancient tales have taught us to connect with the +idea of the person of that fabled hero. + +[Footnote h: Dr. William Hunter and Mr. John Hunter, the late celebrated +anatomists of London.] + +[Footnote i: Dr. George Cleghorn, the late excellent and deservedly +famous Professor of Anatomy in the university of Dublin: a man of whom +it can be truly said that the excellent qualities of his heart were as +estimable as his superior professional talents were conspicuous.] + +[Footnote k: This statue, which forms one of the most valuable +possessions in the superb Borghese collection, is commonly called _the +fighting Gladiator_; but, we apprehend, very erroneously: as the whole +of that admirable figure bespeaks a character greatly superior to that +of those degraded and despised beings, whose mercenary services +contributed to the amusements of the Roman amphitheatre.] + +It cannot be inferred from what has been here said that there is +intended any unqualified approbation of the custom of appearing naked; +which so generally prevailed among the ancients, and more especially +among the Greeks. Surely no: for its indecency is obvious; it smoothed +the path to many immoralities, and doubtless tended in no slight degree +to inflame, if not kindle, some notorious vices to which they were +eminently addicted. But it has been merely considered with respect to +its subserviency to promote the arts of painting and sculpture: and its +powerful and salutary influence on them seems so apparent as to be +nearly incontestible. It co-operated with other causes, yet to be +mentioned, to give them that superlative excellence which, through a +long succession of centuries, has excited uniform admiration; and which +yet, superlative as it was, fell short of the ideas of it entertained +and cherished by the artists. + +The peculiar situation of Greece, from the first beginnings of the arts +to their most flourishing period, contributed also materially to their +improvement and perfection. In its utmost extent not a country of large +dimensions, it was yet divided and subdivided into a number of +independent states; each eager for distinction, each emulous of fame, +each jealous of all superiority in their neighbours. Never for any +length of time subject to the dominion of masters, till the overwhelming +influence of the Macedonian sunk them all into common slavery, their +constitutions were free, or what they regarded as free: in which each +citizen felt himself equally interested with any other to extend the +reputation, to exalt the glory, and to enlarge the consequence of the +state. And when the pre-eminence of power had assigned to Sparta, and +afterwards to Athens, that preponderance of authority and weight of +consequence necessary to a leading state, first among its equals; still, +from national spirit and from deep-rooted habits, an emulation every +where prevailed of rivalling in the first rank of reputation each of +their neighbours, although they had conceded to one of them the dignity +of command. With the single exception of Sparta, where the stern +discipline of Lycurgus effectually prevented their progress, as after +the arts had began to arise their cultivation was diffused and eagerly +pursued throughout all Greece; the praise of excellence in them early +became and long continued an object of the first importance with all its +various states. They regarded them not only as a means of internal +ornament, in which yet they much prided themselves, but also of external +character; a means which might raise to higher fame than the most +celebrated their favoured district, however inferior to them in +political power. Hence the possession of an artist of distinguished +abilities and superior talents was considered as a national concern: and +the esteem wherein he was held, the popularity he acquired, and the +dignified stations to which with fair prospects of success he might +aspire, were answerable to the consequence which his genius was thought +to confer on his native land. + +As this sentiment was universal, animating the minds and guiding the +conduct of all the different states, its influence on the improvement of +the arts, and on the exertions of their professors, was powerful in the +extreme. They were not deemed the lucrative trades of mechanical men, +by which some fame and much money might be procured; but the ennobling +occupations of the best-deserving citizens, anxiously labouring to exalt +the reputation of their country, and to raise her to a more envied +eminence among the surrounding and rival republics. And the citizens +thus employed were conscious, in addition to the common motives of +rivalry generally prevalent at all times among men of spirit engaged in +the same pursuits, that not only their individual character, but the +fame of their nation, was implicated in their labours; and fired by the +warm energy of that recollection, they wrought with a glowing heat, with +an ardour of enthusiasm that, in repeated instances, burst forth in the +brightest blaze of excellence. For their exertions in their particular +arts were not thought, either by themselves or by the public, the mere +efforts of competition of sculptors, painters, or architects, with their +fellow artists; but trials of merit between adjacent communities, each +vain of their present character, each aiming at higher distinction, +each hoping for the pre-eminence: to which trials the eminent artists +stept forwards the champions of a people, not the combatants in a +private contest. + +Hence with unremitting zeal beauty and grace, strength and spirit, truth +and nature, were investigated through all their different forms, were +examined with minute attention, were applied with scrupulous accuracy. +It little weighed with the professor what his own countrymen, however +polished, judged of his work, what impression it made on them, or what +plaudits of theirs it called forth: but how it would be received at the +Olympic or Isthmian games, at the general assembly of all Greece; where +each skilful eye and each intelligent mind would be employed in +scrutinizing it without favour or affection, and would compare it as +well with the best productions of similar art then known as with the +elaborate essays of contemporary artists. Thus whatever of genius, or +talents, or skill, or judgment, or industry, each man possessed, was +called forth into action by motives the most operative on the human +mind, whose power is known and confessed: and the consequence was the +rapid and unequalled improvement of the Arts. Improvement which still +astonishes, and which we are sometimes inclined to imagine the effort of +a superior race of beings to those with whom we converse: but which +arose from causes strong and cogent indeed, but natural, and without +difficulty discoverable. + +Something not unlike this happened at the revival of the arts in Europe, +and contributed materially to their advancement. For Italy, which was +their cradle, was then broken into a number of independent states, +mostly free, and rivalling each other in every praise of prowess and +policy. Hence, when the revival of the arts furnished a new source of +fame, it was pursued with avidity; and the various schools formed in its +different cities vied with each other for superiority, and by their +laudable rivalry promoted the progress of the arts with extraordinary +celerity. And though, perhaps, these schools, which soon became +distinguished by peculiar merits, may not finally have contributed to +the perfection of the arts, as leading their respective students rather +to pursue the attainment of that one distinct merit than to aim at the +acquisition of universal excellence; yet, at the close of the fifteenth +and in the sixteenth century, by their praiseworthy emulation and +vigorous exertions, they were singularly useful, and essentially tended +to the rapid improvement of the reviving arts. Their fame added much to +the splendor and reputation of the cities wherein they were settled, and +that circumstance proved a very perceptible incentive to invigorate +their talents and to animate their exertions; and so produced, though in +an inferior degree, not a little of that spirited labour, of that +enthusiastic devotion to their profession, which had aided so +considerably the progress of the arts in Greece. We say _in an inferior +degree_; because the Italian cities, though sensible of their worth, and +persuaded of their public utility, never bestowed on individual +professors such extraordinary marks of attention and reverence as the +Grecian states were in the habit of lavishing on their more illustrious +artists; and, consequently, the cause being lessened, the effect must +have been proportionably diminished. In truth this species of rivalry, +in which states or nations, however small, feel themselves interested, +has ever proved one of the strongest stimulatives that could be applied +to abilities; as it combines the patriotic affections of the worthy +citizen with the natural ambition of the artist, and alike operates on +some of the most powerful public and private springs of action. + +But the labour and pains, the study and industry early employed and long +continued, in the cultivation of the arts, naturally and necessarily +advanced their progress in a striking manner: raising them to such a +height of perfection as we weakly think unattainable, because we will +not use the adequate means of endeavouring to attain it. Labour is to +man, from his constitution and his frame, the real price of every truly +valuable acquisition; which, though indolence spurns and idleness +rejects, always brings its own reward with it, whether we are ultimately +successful or not, in the consciousness of having acted a manly part, +and in the vigour of mind and health of body which it, and it alone, +invariably confers. Some fortuitous instances may be mentioned of those +who have possessed both without its aid; of those who, nursed on the lap +of indolence, and folded in the arms of idleness, have enjoyed that +first of human blessings, a sound mind in a sound body: but they are +instances to astonish, not examples to incite. This is even more +strictly and peculiarly true as it regards the arts, than it is in +several other cases. For the great merit of painting and sculpture +consisting in their exact and captivating copies of nature, and of +architecture in its combination of beauty with grandeur, of convenience +with magnificence, it is obvious that these qualities are never the +casual effects of chance and accident, of lucky hits and fortunate +events; but the steady results of pains and care, of study and +attention. + +Of this truth the professors of the arts in Greece were quickly and +fully convinced; and applied that conviction to its only proper purpose, +to an unremitting labour on their own appropriate pursuit: a labour +which, paramount over each other object, neither pleasure prevented, nor +politics precluded, nor the calls of animal life hindered. To excel in +their art, to surpass their predecessors, to outstrip their +competitors, to be the conspicuous subject of Grecian admiration, were +the objects of their daily thoughts and of their nightly dreams: objects +which scarce for a moment retired from their view, or, if for a moment +retiring, it was only that they might recur again with renovated force. +The[l] _multa dies et multa litura_ which the Roman poet ascribes to the +Grecian writers, and to which he truly attributes their superior merit, +were still more eminently true of their artists; who applied to the +completion of their various works a severity of study and a perseverance +of labour that to us, habituated to very different manners indeed, seem +surprizing; but of which the authenticated accounts cannot be disputed. +As exalted character, not the mere making of money, was the aim to which +their thoughts were directed, it was pursued with that eagerness which +honest ambition ever creates: and though, incidentally, fortune +frequently followed their fame, as it came unsought for, none of its +degrading motives swayed their conduct. + +[Footnote l: Horatius.] + +It was not the idea of the[m] hundred talents which he received, great +as that sum was (for not one _drachma_ of it would he have received had +not his work been approved), that inspirited the genius of Phidias when +he was sculpturing the Olympian Jupiter; but the reflection that by his +skill the rude block was to be transformed into the representative +likeness of the father of gods and men, to be the admiration and +adoration of his enraptured countrymen: and hence profound study, +exquisite pains, and incessant labour, were employed to produce that +statue, which thence became afterwards the wonder of the world. Under +the impulse of such impressions must the Apollo Belvedere have come from +the hands of its unequalled sculptor: for though we know not the history +of that incomparable statue, yet its expression of dignity more than +human, its unforced graceful ease which nature can but faintly copy, its +perfect symmetry, and union of complete beauty with full bodily +strength, tell more than a thousand witnesses the pains, the study, and +the labour that must have been unremittingly exerted to produce it. + +[Footnote m: 19,375 l.] + +It would argue a silly prejudice, not a due sense of the merits of the +ancients, to attempt to insinuate that this labour and study, to which +we are inclined to attribute so much, was universal. No; for in Greece +then, as with ourselves now, there were among the artists (what in the +modern phrase we call) _fine gentlemen_: persons of too sublime a genius +to condescend to study, and of too delicate a frame to submit to labour. +The character of the species has been preserved, though the names of its +individuals have long, long since been forgotten. But they never +promoted the progress, never advanced the improvement of any art: but, +like their _amiable_ successors, followed a trade for support, and did +not cultivate a profession with dignity. But the persons of whom we +speak, as distinguished by these qualities, were those worthy citizens +who addicted themselves to no art without adorning and improving it; +whose names ennobled the age in which they lived; who then were never +mentioned without reverence, nor yet, at this far distant period, are +ever thought on without respect. By their studies and their labours, +vigorously and undeviatingly exerted, was the progress of the arts +promoted, their improvement accelerated, and their near approximation +to perfection effected: they thus experimentally proving the energetic +power of these valuable qualities, and leaving examples to fire the +emulation of the spirited and the active in each future age. + +In addition to the circumstances already mentioned, whose power and +efficiency on the progress of the arts we have endeavoured to point out, +there must be called to mind the great national encouragement which they +received in Greece, and the extraordinary influence which it must have +had on the warm imaginations of its gay and high-spirited inhabitants. +The desire of distinction and honour is a principle interwoven in the +constitution of our nature; and though, like most others we possess, it +is liable to perversion, is in itself not only blameless but laudable; +inciting the best exertions of talents where they are, and often +supplying their place where it finds them not. There are no countries, +however adverse the regent of the day may have yoked his horses from +them, where its operation is not more or less felt: and in exact +proportion to the civilization and mental improvement of each country, +its ascendency has ever been found to be high, its dominion to be great. +This is strictly true even with regard to the estimation of private +individuals: but the applause of a whole people has invariably been +deemed the most just meed of the most exceeding merit, ever since +nations have assumed a fixed and stable form. Now this applause formed +an important part of the great national rewards by which Greece fostered +the arts; and it was a part that peculiarly came home both to the +business and bosoms of each worthy citizen, and caused every pulse of a +Grecian heart to vibrate to its impression. Their characteristic +fondness of fame is known and acknowledged; but this applause, though by +them in itself extravagantly valued, was not a mere empty, flattering +sound: for, from the constitutions prevailing in nearly every state of +Greece, it was the sure conductor to domestic dignity, to political +power, and to commanding sway in the public deliberations. The first +offices of the state, and the prime trusts of the government, were open +to that distinguished artist whose admired performances had secured the +universal suffrage. They were often without seeking offered by popular +gratitude to his acceptance; nay, sometimes with honest violence forced +on his unwilling reception. Thus the principles of interest, ambition, +popularity, confessedly some of the most powerful that guide the conduct +of mankind, were called forth in aid of that natural bent or disposition +which had induced the man to cultivate any particular art: and the +consequence was such as might be expected from the efficiency of such +operative motives, surpassing merit and supreme excellence. + +Another species of national encouragement, nearly connected with this, +was the certainty which the eminent artist enjoyed that, whenever the +occasion offered, his talents would be employed to erect, or to decorate +with the labours of his pencil or his chissel, the temples, the +theatres, the porticoes, the places of public assembling of the cities +of Greece; where his works, contributing amply to his fortune from their +munificent reward, would contribute more to his fame when exposed to the +scrutinizing view of that intelligent people. He had no cause to fear +that his abilities would be overlooked or buried in obscurity by +prepossession, partiality, or prejudice: he had no apprehensions to +dread from the effects of interested relationship, of commanding +influence, of narrow local attachment, or of proud and presuming +ignorance. If his merit was acknowledged his employment was sure; and he +was even courted by the general voice to exert his talents for the +public credit, not depressed in their exertion by mean and base +affections. He was not obliged to solicit for employment with +humiliating applications, and, when employed, to labour under the +multiplied disadvantages of deficient or stinted means, of complying +with vitiated judgments, of submitting to the senseless whims of folly +and caprice. Full scope was given to the fertility of his imagination, +to the extent of his genius, to the vigour of his fancy: whilst all the +powers of his mind and all the vigour of his body, all the ingenuity of +his head and all the dexterity of his hands, were impelled to their best +performances by the consciousness that all deficiencies would be +imputable solely to himself, the public being free from the slightest +suspicion of having either curbed or confined his abilities. As no +elevation of genius made him giddy, hence grace and beauty, strength and +vigour, expression and passion, respectively marked his performances; +and his fame became connected with the edifices, the statues, the +paintings, that ornamented the country, which struck every eye, and +which none beheld without recollecting with respect the able artist +whose workmanship had produced them. + +The effect of this kind of encouragement on the arts was great, is +manifest, and need be but slightly mentioned: yet, perhaps, may appear +the more striking from contrasting it with some practices of more modern +times. In them the first city in the world has disgraced itself with +all who have eyesight, by employing to erect its most expensive +building[n] an architect _because the man was a citizen_: and, in more +countries of Europe than one, statues and paintings are exhibited as +commemorative of illustrious public deeds, where contorsion and +extravagance, where flutter and glare, form the predominant characters; +but they dishonour those countries, on account of the artists engaged to +execute them being employed because they were the favourites of despots, +the flatterers of titled harlots, or the relations of directors; whilst +men of the first talents and merit in their profession were pining in +indigence and obscurity, unnoticed and unfriended. The consequences of +this latter conduct none will say that we have reason to boast of from +the superlative excellence of modern art; but what has been felt from it +may readily induce us to believe how essentially its direct opposite +must have promoted the progress of the arts in Greece. + +[Footnote n: The Mansion House of London.] + +The vast sums expended by the Grecian states on their public monuments +and their public works (vast, indeed, when the comparative value of +money then and now is considered), tended much to assist the progress of +the arts, and to aid their high improvement. For, though we have +unquestionable reason to believe that the sordid motive of private +profit was not the first principle in the minds of those great artists +who have immortalized their names by their works, yet without a certain +liberality of expence their ideas could not have been realized, their +works could not have been executed; and that liberality they found +limited commonly by nothing but the public means, and often not even by +them. We know from the gravest and clearest authorities with what lavish +expenditure scenic representations were exhibited at Athens, with what +unbounded magnificence her temples, her tribunals, her porticoes were +decorated: we equally well know the splendor of Corinth, a near +neighbouring city; the incalculable price of its paintings, the +inestimable value of its statues, and that from the coalesced mass of +its molten metals there arose, at its destruction, a compound more +highly prized by the Romans than gold. The other principal cities were +alike studious of embellishment, alike emulous of ornament, and in +various proportions enjoyed them according to the circumstances of time +and situation: but Delphi and Olympia, the grand seats of the national +religion and the national games, concentered in themselves each choicest +production of genius, each happiest effort of art, each transcendent +display of excellence; amassed with a judgment that delighted, with a +profusion that surprized, and with an expence that astonished. + +This generous spirit in carrying on and completing public works which, +though it may sometimes be pushed to an excess (as, perhaps, was the +case in Greece), is so truly honourable to any people, had, and +obviously must have had, the most decided influence in advancing and +improving the arts, and in giving them that degree of perfection which +has never yet been exceeded, nor even equalled. It excited exertion, by +the security that its efforts would not be suffered to remain +undisplayed, but would be invited to add loveliness to the beautiful, +and splendor to the magnificent; it roused the full force of emulation, +by the certainty that superior merit would receive superior rewards, and +neither be permitted to languish in privacy nor to pine in poverty; and +it invigorated the boldest flights of genius, by the firm assurance that +there was a prevalent spirit ready to countenance, prepared to adopt, +and anxious to encourage them. It would be no small absurdity to affirm +that fortune, as well as fame, had not attractions for a Grecian artist; +for it must ever be absurd to affirm generally the absence of the +operation of general principles: and therefore the great pecuniary +recompences which their talents procured had, doubtless, a proportionate +influence on all their labours to improve their art; though, it may be, +less in that region than in many other countries. And from the combined +efficacy of these several kinds of national encouragement, which, like +different branches of the same tree, spring all from the same root, the +progress of the arts was furthered so essentially, was advanced so +highly, as we have heard of with wonder, and have seen with amazement. + +So complex having been the causes, so slow and progressively gradual the +progress of the Fine Arts, highly grateful must it be to every truly +British breast to consider the rapid advances they have made in this +favoured Isle within the last fifty years: advances certainly unmatched +in their former history, as in that period they have arisen from the +utmost imbecility of infantine weakness (indeed almost from +_non-entity_) to a vigorous maturity that leaves far behind them the +emasculate efforts and puny productions of all other contemporary +European nations. The causes of this unequalled improvement have +notoriously been the countenance and fostering protection of his present +Majesty, an admirer and intelligent judge of their merit, and the +ardent spirit of emulation excited among the artists themselves by such +exalted and distinguishing notice. These co-operating have produced an +exertion of talents, a display of abilities, and emanations of genius +that always wore in existence, but which required concurring +circumstances to bring them into full action, and to cause them to +expand their latent energies. And had the general patronage been +correspondent to these fortunate incidents, had not the fashionable +jargon of presumptuous, self-created, arbiters of taste, affecting to +despise National art, vitiated the public mind, or rather strengthened +an ancient prejudice there floating, it is not easy to conceive how much +greater still would have been their progress. It is at least certain +that our ingenious young artists would have been amply encouraged to +exert themselves, and not suffered, after the most promising exhibitions +of dawning talents, to pine in indigence and wretchedness, to sink into +obscurity and oblivion, or (like the illfated, but most meritorious +Proctor[o]) to hasten, in the very opening of life, the termination of +mortal existence from the excruciating pressure of continued penury and +misery. + +[Footnote o: The fate of this ingenious youth deserves to be distinctly +recorded. Born of humble parentage in one of the more distant counties, +he had early manifested an admiration of the Arts, and, being admitted a +student of the Royal Academy, eminently distinguished himself there by +his abilities and his industry. Applying peculiarly to Sculpture, soon +after the termination of his studies in the Academy he exhibited, at its +annual Exhibition in Somerset-place, two models of unrivalled +excellence, which might, without fear of deterioration, have been placed +in competition with the happiest productions of the best days of Grecian +art, and which at the time met with their well-earned applause. But, +alas! applause was his only reward: no wealthy patron took him by the +hand, no affluent lover of the Arts enquired into, or assisted, his +circumstances; and his means being very confined, misery was his +portion. He had however the soul of an Artist, and for a length of time +bore up with manly fortitude against his distresses. The present worthy +President of the Royal Academy, suspecting his situation, with the aid +of the Council obtained for him from the Academy an annuity of 100l. a +year, to enable him to go to Italy, and improve himself there: but the +unhappy youth had unavoidably contracted some trifling debts, which he +was utterly unable to discharge, and his mind was too delicately alive +to every finer feeling to bear the thought of leaving this country +without paying them. This circumstance, preying on his agitated spirits, +and on a frame emaciated by the severest distress, caused his speedy +dissolution, to the irreparable injury of the Arts. After his death it +was discovered that, for the last two years of his life, he had resided +in a miserable cock-loft in the worst house in Clare market, which he +had rented for a shilling a week; and that his daily sustenance for that +time had been _only two dry biscuits with a draft of water from the +market pump_.] + +Thus having attempted to investigate the progress of the arts, and to +what was owing that supreme excellence which they formerly attained, we +seem to have reasonable grounds to conclude that it flowed from such +natural and moral causes as, at all times and in all cases, are known +powerfully to affect the feelings and to actuate the conduct of man. No +whimsical refinements, no marvellous mysteries, no imaginary and +fantastic theories have been had recourse to: but lighted on our way by +the irradiating torch of authentic history, and unseduced by the false +glare of lying legends, we have not dared so much to affirm what, in +certain situations, our fellow-creatures MUST do, as to detail with some +care what in fact they DID do. If what we have here advanced has not +the attraction of novelty to allure, it is hoped that it is not +deficient in the recommendation of truth to convince. It has not been +thought necessary formally to refute the sentiments of those profound +Philosophers, who have sagaciously discovered the causes of the +inferiority of the arts in some countries and of their superiority in +others, and consequently the perfection to which they arrived in Greece, +in the power of the solar beams in certain latitudes, in the influences +of the atmosphere, and in those of terrestrial and celestial vapours: +for if the causes here assigned appear fully adequate to the end +produced, as we conceive they do, it must be idle to shew the inutility +of others, gratuitously brought forth from the inexhaustible storehouse +of fancy, and supported by any thing rather than solid reasoning. It +must be allowed that they very roundly assert, but as fallaciously +argue, whenever they deign to argue on this subject: for mere +assertions, positive, pompous, presuming, but assertions still, are the +commonest weapons of their warfare. And, possibly, it would neither be +reputable to contest the specious subtilty of the sophisms of even such +sages, nor honourable to conquer the powerless imbecility of their +assertions. + +It is but fair to avow that this enquiry into the progress of the arts +has not been entered on for the sole purpose of ascertaining, as far as +we were able, the causes of the surpassing excellence to which they were +carried in Greece, without at the same time intimating, with due +deference to superior judgments and to superior authority, the efficacy +of the same causes, at all times and in all countries, in improving and +exalting them. As human nature is the same at all periods, though +diversified in its exterior shew by the various customs, modes, and +manners, that variously prevail, it cannot be seriously doubted but that +those principles, which have been found by experience in one country to +powerfully sway its conduct, and to incite its efforts in the Arts to +their noblest productions, would be equally efficient and equally +successful elsewhere, were they fairly applied, and as vigorously +exerted. We have no satisfactory reason for believing that either the +mental or corporeal powers of man have degenerated in the succession of +ages: and we well know that, by the benefits of experience and +invention, considerable aids have been added to both, to methodize their +motions and to facilitate their operations. Our profounder and +better-studied knowledge of Metaphysics, our improved skill in Natural +Philosophy and Mechanics, and our more accurate acquaintance with the +principles of colours, with their combinations and their shades, all +confessedly tend to these points. Should then the same liberal public +encouragement be displayed, by those possessed of the power of +displaying it, as dignified the best days of Greece; should the same +labour, the same pains, the same study, the same industry, be used by +modern artists as distinguished their truly illustrious predecessors; we +might not vainly hope to see the arts carried to still greater +perfection than they have ever yet attained; we might expect to behold +their deficiencies supplied, their utilities increased, their energies +enlarged, and their beauties augmented. + +On national encouragement it becomes not the mediocrity of our talents +and station to presume to decide; yet, possibly, it will not be judged +too vauntingly confident to say that it should in all cases be spirited, +generous, impartial, and should not be subjected to the caprices of +power, to the varying humours of the transient depositaries of the +public confidence, nor to the inconstant and ever-mutable gusts of +popular phrenzy. What effect such encouragement would have on the +artists themselves can, indeed, be only conjectured; for such +encouragement has never yet been exhibited in the modern world: but that +conjecture is neither vague nor random, as it is guided by permanent +principles, and directed by the known influence of steady affections on +the human heart. It may be affirmed then, with some assurance, that it +would inspirit their labours, that it would multiply their pains, that +it would invigorate their studies, that it would augment their industry: +for such were heretofore its experienced consequences in similar cases, +and therefore they are reasonably to be expected again. They would not +waste their youth in the riot of lawless pleasure, and so treasure up +sickness and sorrow for the days of their prime: they would not spend +their hours in the ceaseless pursuit of the intoxicating amusements of +some great capital: they would not lay out their whole attention on the +low and subordinate, but gainful, branches of their _trade_, in contempt +of the superior features of their ART, and of its possible improvement: +but concentring all their powers, all their abilities, all their +faculties, in the advancement of their peculiar pursuit, would rapidly +raise themselves from the drudgery of mechanical workmanship to the +proud elevation of professional exertion. Thus the arts, advanced by so +conspicuous a change of manners in their cultivators, and by an +encouragement differing so widely from the paltry private patronage +pretending to that name, would attain that state of perfection to which +their admirers fondly wish to see them carried; but which they must wish +in vain till something like the changes here etched out shall have taken +place. And that what depends on the artists has not been too sanguinely +supposed, nor too strongly pictured, will surely not be asserted: for it +has only been supposed that they are men of common sense and natural +feelings; that they are not insensible to the allurements of each +dignified distinction in life; that they have hearts that can be warmed +and minds that can be roused. + +That much higher ideas might justly be formed of some artists we can +positively affirm from personal knowledge; as we know some who have +really the souls of Artists; who, even in present circumstances, instead +of grovelling all their lives in mean and sordid occupations, +adventurously dare to soar into the immense void of possible +excellence; and whose characters it would be highly grateful to portray, +were not the desire restrained by the consciousness of inability to do +justice to their merits. Such men, indeed, by the vigour of their +genius, counteract the disadvantages to which they may be exposed, and, +bursting the barriers of opposing obstacles with spirit all their own, +impart to the arts whatever of addition or improvement they receive; +elucidating their obscurities, polishing their asperities, and lopping +their luxuriancies: and their number might be increased to any given +amount. But until that halcyon period shall arrive, if it ever shall +arrive, when the arts shall be considered as real national objects, and +receive _real_ national encouragement (without which, it must be +confessed, all extraordinary progress in them is not _generally_ to be +expected), their beauty, their grace, their grandeur, depend on these +men alone. And conscious of the high ground whereon they stand, as the +champions of truth and nature against fashion and futility, and caprice +and extravagance, and of the possible benefits resulting from their +labours in giving passion to the mute canvas, expression to the +inanimate block, and magnificence to utility in each public edifice; +they will not suffer themselves to be discouraged by temporary neglect, +nor to be disheartened by temporary preferences of the incapable and +undeserving. They will strengthen their minds to encounter the provoking +criticisms of pert and petulant presumption; they will scorn the +contempts of self-conceited and ignorant folly, however highly seated; +and they will meet with firm dignity the misjudging decisions of +purse-proud affluence. And conscious worth shall crown them with a +wreath of honour, greener than ever bloomed on the brow of an Olympic +conqueror; their own hearts shall applaud them; their works shall form a +lasting monument to the immortality of their names; and their fame shall +float down the current of future ages with daily increasing strength, +with daily augmented splendor. + +The final result then of our enquiry on this amusing and interesting +subject is, that we have the best grounds for concluding the progress of +the arts originally, and the great perfection to which they were carried +in Greece, to have arisen from natural and moral causes of confessed +efficacy, and not from any casual circumstances, extraneous to and +independent of man: and we deem it reasonable to think that the same +causes, operating as uncontroledly any where else within the extent of +the temperate climates, would most probably again produce the same +effects. Far from indulging any licence of imagination, or from giving +wing to its flights, it has been endeavoured rather carefully to detail +facts than wantonly to invent systems. Of the evidence, which to us has +appeared convincing, the public will judge: of the rectitude of our +intention in producing it we are sure, for it is only to incite public +reward, to encourage study, and labour, and industry. + + + + + William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: University of California + THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + + + _General Editors_ + + R. C. BOYS + University of Michigan + + VINTON A. DEARING + University of California, Los Angeles + + RALPH COHEN + University of California, Los Angeles + + LAWRENCE CLARK POWELL + Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library + + + _Corresponding Secretary_: Mrs. EDNA C. DAVIS, + Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library + +The Society exists to make available inexpensive reprints (usually +facsimile reproductions) of rare seventeenth and eighteenth century +works. The editorial policy of the Society remains unchanged. As in the +past, the editors welcome suggestions concerning publications. All +income of the Society is devoted to defraying cost of publication and +mailing. + +All correspondence concerning subscriptions in the United States and +Canada should be addressed to the William Andrews Clark Memorial +Library, 2205 West Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles 18, California. +Correspondence concerning editorial matters may be addressed to any of +the general editors. The membership fee is $3.00 a year for subscribers +in the United States and Canada and 15/- for subscribers in Great +Britain and Europe. British and European subscribers should address B. +H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, England. + + * * * * * + + Publications for the eighth year [1953-1954] + (At least six items, most of them from the following list, will be + reprinted.) + + JOHN BAILLIE: _An Essay on the Sublime_ (1747). Introduction by + Samuel H. Monk. + + Contemporaries of the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_. Introduction by + Richmond P. Bond. + + _John Dart and George Ogle on Chaucer._ Introduction by William L. + Alderson. + + JOHN T. DESAGULIERS: _The Newtonian System of the World the Best + Model of Government_ (1728). Introduction by Marjorie H. Nicolson. + + _Sale Catalogue of Mrs. Piozzi's Effects_ (1816). Introduction by + John Butt. + + M. C. SARBIEWSKI: _The Odes of Casimire_ (1646). Introduction by + Maren-Sofie Roestvig. + + _Selections from Seventeenth-Century Songs._ Introduction by + Jennifer W. Angel. + + _A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul_ (1745). + [Probably by Samuel Johnson]. Introduction by James L. Clifford. + +Publications for the first seven years (with the exception of Nos. 1-6, +which are out of print) are available at the rate of $3.00 a year. +Prices for individual numbers may be obtained by writing to the Society. + + * * * * * + + THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + _WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY_ + 2205 WEST ADAMS BOULEVARD, LOS ANGELES 18, CALIFORNIA + + Make check or money order payable to + THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. + + + + + PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY + + +FIRST YEAR (1946-1947) + + Numbers 1-6 out of print. + + +SECOND YEAR (1947-1948) + + 7. John Gay's _The Present State of Wit_ (1711); and a section on + Wit from _The English Theophrastus_ (1702). + + 8. Rapin's _De Carmine Pastorali_, translated by Creech (1684). + + 9. T. Hanmer's (?) _Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet_ (1736). + + 10. Corbyn Morris' _Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, + etc._ (1744). + + 11. Thomas Purney's _Discourse on the Pastoral_ (1717). + + 12. Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph + Wood Krutch. + + +THIRD YEAR (1948-1949) + + 13. Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), _The Theatre_ (1720). + + 14. Edward Moore's _The Gamester_ (1753). + + 15. John Oldmixon's _Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley_ + (1712); and Arthur Mainwaring's _The British Academy_ (1712). + + 16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). + + 17. Nicholas Rowe's _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William + Shakespeare_ (1709). + + 18. "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 + (1719); and Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). + + +FOURTH YEAR (1949-1950) + + 19. Susanna Centlivre's _The Busie Body_ (1709). + + 20. Lewis Theobold's _Preface to The Works of Shakespeare_ (1734). + + 21. _Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, and + Pamela_ (1754). + + 22. Samuel Johnson's _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749) and Two + _Rambler_ papers (1750). + + 23. John Dryden's _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). + + 24. Pierre Nicole's _An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which + from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and + Rejecting Epigrams_, translated by J. V. Cunningham. + + +FIFTH YEAR (1950-1951) + + 25. Thomas Baker's _The Fine Lady's Airs_ (1709). + + 26. Charles Macklin's _The Man of the World_ (1792). + + 27. Frances Reynolds' _An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of + Taste, and of the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty, etc._ (1785). + + 28. John Evelyn's _An Apologie for the Royal Party_ (1659); and _A + Panegyric to Charles the Second_ (1661). + + 29. Daniel Defoe's _A Vindication of the Press_ (1718). + + 30. Essays on Taste from John Gilbert Cooper's _Letters Concerning + Taste_, 3rd edition (1757), & John Armstrong's _Miscellanies_ + (1770). + + +SIXTH YEAR (1951-1952) + + 31. Thomas Gray's _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard_ (1751); + and _The Eton College Manuscript_. + + 32. Prefaces to Fiction; Georges de Scudéry's Preface to _Ibrahim_ + (1674), etc. + + 33. Henry Gally's _A Critical Essay_ on Characteristic-Writings + (1725). + + 34. Thomas Tyers' A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson + (1785). + + 35. James Boswell, Andrew Erskine, and George Dempster. _Critical + Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira, Written by Mr. David + Malloch_ (1763). + + 36. Joseph Harris's _The City Bride_ (1696). + + +SEVENTH YEAR (1952-1953) + + 37. Thomas Morrison's _A Pindarick Ode on Painting_ (1767). + + 38. John Phillips' _A Satyr Against Hypocrites_ (1655). + + 39. Thomas Warton's _A History of English Poetry_. + + 40. Edward Bysshe's _The Art of English Poetry_ (1708). + + 41. Bernard Mandeville's "_A Letter to Dion_" (1732). + + 42. Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained +except in obvious cases of typographical error: + + "... joined increased (conveniencies->) conveniences" + "... which nothing imperfect (eould->) would please," + +Footnotes interrupting paragraphs have been moved to the end of +the respective paragraphs. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42371 *** |