METHODS OF ART EDUCATION. 485 
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is based on the broadest humanity. I doubt, myself, if there be such a 
;hing rightly as a school of art—the classic school, or the romantic school, 
or the impressionist school, or the German and French schools. Any form 
or type of art that is merely conventional, manneristic, learned, of a select 
school, party, or clique, and which does not appeal to the common emo- 
tions, reason and imagination, even though it may be the fruit of the 
highest and most exquisite thought, cannot last. It strikes no universal 
chord. It wants power. It is, for instance, wonderful that Benvenuto 
Cellini, creature of Pope and Cesar, though full of genius, could have 
been able to make so good a thing as his Perseus, which, if unclassical, 
has endured. The true artist must have faith in man if not in men. Ie 
should not limit his gift to the service of Lord Tomnoddy and Mr. Creesus. 
The crowds which fill the halls of art museums have eyes and souls, and 
they show this by their delight in, and appreciation of, good art. They 
can be educated, at least, to do so. Good work is not lost with the people, 
any more than in the middle ages. The beautiful public buildings of 
Orvieto, Florence, Cologne, and Bruges did not fail of their popular effect. 
But now new ideas have sprung up ; new faiths, governments, and civili- 
zations have come into being; and these must and will have their art 
expression, so that there should be no want of harmony between the artist 
and the people. There should not be, at all events, in a democratic country 
like ours, a servile copying of Old World forms. Of course, there is an 
historic continuity in the evolution of art, but our art should spring 
mainly from our civilization. It should have faith in Americans and 
America. It should be honest, original, and pure, not essentially aristo- 
aratic in spirit, but popular, though at the same time independent, and 
above the people, in order to command. their admiration and respect, in 
order to be able to raise them above themselves and bring them out of the 
low, vulgar, and commonplace, the unloving and unlovely, and to ennoble 
shem by the sight of the beauty of the human soul, and of that divine 
aature which is the common heritage of all. 
While the Greeks and the Italians of the Renaissance ‘¢ clothed every 
phase of their intellectual energy in the form of art, and it may be said 
shat nothing that they produced did not bear the stamp and character of 
fine art,” * we, on the contrary, of this age and land, regulate our modes 
of thought by methods of science. I will not discuss the question as to 
which is the higher mode, but evidently something vital is lacking when 
sither mode becomes exclusive. The present tendency in our country is 
decidedly scientific, to the exclusion of art and to the benefit of trade; 
and the art we have is, for the most part, foreign. Our architecture 
(though a great improvement is discernible) is Italian or French, and so 
is our painting and sculpture. The Genius of Liberty that lights foreign- 
¥ Symonds’s ¢* Renaissance.”