The People's Share In Art.

War produced only Tennyson ' s " Charge of the Six Hundred ; " the Indian Mutiny , although fruitful of incidents displaying the daring courage and heroism aud devotion of the British soldier , was absolutely barren of verse ; the war in America had produced a good deal of writing , but not one verse that could live . On the side of the

people struggling for independence there was one touching ballad ; on the side of those fighting for empire there was the dolorous ditty , "John Brown ' s Body is Mouldering , and his Soul is Marching on . " Where , then , did the present generation stand ? Were they given over , body

and mind , to the steam empire ? Had the iron of the railway entered into their soul ? Where is the food on which the imagination might be matured ? The answer was twofold . Amonst those who had the time and means of obtaining a classical education there was still the systemand

, lie trusted it would long continue , of becoming acquainted with the classic authors . He might be asked , what had a classic education to do with Gothic art , of which they were admirers ? Well , he was treating- of art from an educational , and not from a technical , point of view ; and next it

was in the name of Gothic art that he claimed its pre-eminence in the Literature of Greece and Rome . Gothic art had shown them the more excellent way , but they should confess that that more excellent way had its foundation in the streets of Athens and Rome . One reason wh

y they studied Medieval art with more profit and elasticity , and less of mere pedantry than their contemporaries in France and Germany , was , that in those countries the rival Classic and Gothic

schools were pitted against each other bitterly and unreasonably . Well , it being admitted that the study of ancient literature developed the imagination , expanded the sphere of thought , he asked what were the masses , who had not time , or means , or facilities of learning these things , to

do ? What equivalent was to be given for the knowledge of Classic literature ? what compensation for the fresh stream of ballad and popular poetry which their rude ancestors called their own ? His answer was a simple one , and it brought him to the point of the lecture : —

for the masses , give freely , readily , and with an open hand the means of enjoying art ; give them ]) lenty of opportunity of seeing art ; give them the opportunity , too , of learning such simple principles of art as shall enable them to appreciate the merits or recognise the demerits of

the sj ) ecimens of art brought before them . It might also be asked , were they to take the rough sons of labour by the hand , and hopefully to ask them to admire that which -was so different from all that came within the ken of their ordinary life , and from the spirit of their ordinary pursuits ?

There might be difficulty in the way , but that ought not to deter them ; for they should remember that the more the forms of beauty were strange

to the ordinary life of the class to which he alluded , the more ought they to put them in the way of enjoyinng them when and as they could . One way in which they could do so was this , by giving them ample opportunity of studying copies , if they could

not study the originals , of the masterpieces of art of a past time ; and next , by keeping up a brisk supply of creditable art of modern production in and around and amongst them . If they banished ancient art , they would cut off a great connection with the past and an important branch of art

education ; on the other hand , if they confined themselves to the reproduction , in casts and models , of old masterpieces , they would not infuse the breath of life into the existing body . Modern art might be inferior to ancient , but it was their own ; it was the form and embodiment of the day in which they lived ; and unless they fostered the school of art of their own

time—unless they were forbearing and not too exactingunless they encouraged it in its first tottering footsteps they would fail to fulfil a duty they owed to the time in which they lived . In short , they should give the people museums and schools of art , and something more , —scattered up and down ,

iu the highways and byways of their towns and villages they should have the forms of sculptured art ; in their public buildings they should have specimens of painted art , so that the idea of j > ainting and sculpture should become as household thoughts to the mass of the population . This was

found to be the case on the continent , and what was to lead to its being the case at home ? Simply to go on boring with the thing until they made something like an impression—to go on displaying before the eyes of the people a successive series of representations of forms , not merely graceful

forms , but forms that would recall great historical events of a past time—and , again , by taking every opportunity of giving instruction in art .

The question of art-instruction for the multitude was last year , and might be again , matter of discussion in those high quarters where public affairs were seriously debated . It was , he held , the duty of a civilised commonwealth , as soon as it had appreciated the necessity and advantages of a

movement towards general art-education , to foster that movement with no niggard hand , as a thing in which advancement must be made from above , even while the acknowledgment from below must , for a time , at least , hardly correspond with the zeal with which the missionaries of the movement stirred

themselves up to their work . There was a great agitation now for industrial exhibitions . They had almost a plethora of art-competition all over the country . What was required still was simply a regulating mind—a broad appreciation of art , not merely in its technical detailsas good

anato-, mical drawing , good foliage grouped in naturalistic or conventional forms , good adjustment of colour , and so forth—all these were most essential—but also as regarded its training directly with a view to