ページの画像
PDF
ePub

All the productions of the Greek mind bore a definite relation to each other. They are each part and parcel of a common intellectual, moral, and physical life. He whose knowledge of the Grecian mind is drawn from literature alone, will fail to grasp a well-rounded idea of its many-sided and all-embracing power. The molding influence of the Greek upon the Roman mind is nowhere so conspicuous as in the art-treasures with which the very soil of Rome is filled. The earlier Italian art indigenous to the Etruscan and Roman mind is peculiarly indicative of national character. The introduction of Greek art into Rome after the conquest of Sicily and Greece was both cause and consequence of the wonderful change in the Roman character in the later days of the republic. Greek sculpture changed the religion of Rome, as really as Greek philosophy changed its law when the speculations of the Porch and the Academy replaced the narrow and oppressive technicalities of the Twelve Tables. The gods of Homer and Hesiod were naturalized in Rome by the silent power of plastic art. The arch, and its modification in the dome-the great contribution of the Roman mind to architecture-furnish an index to the movement of Roman influence over the Christian world. This influence determined the distinctive features of Byzantine architecture in the East, and the Romanesque in the North and West. The stiff and angular drawing of the medieval Greek mosaics, the growth of an age of superstition and decadence, repeats itself in the early religious painting of Italy and Germany, and shows the constant intercourse between the East and the West. The art-remains of the catacombs illustrate the early growth of Christianity, and give indications, by no means unworthy of attention, of doctrinal belief at the period of catacomb construction. The rise of modern Italian art under Giotto and his pupils marks the commencement of the intellectual and moral changes which led the way to modern civilization. All through the creative period of the Italian mind, literature, science, and art received their impulse from similar forces, and each illustrates and completes the conception of the other. Even Dante can not be adequately understood without reference to the art of his time, nor can Italian art since be understood in the largest sense without the study of Dante. "The Last Judgment" seems little else than a portion of the "Inferno," translated into outlines and colors. The semi-heathenism of the Renaissance is as clearly portrayed in art as in the speculations of the Neo-Platonic scholars who graced the symposia of the Medicean court. The architecture of the Middle Ages alone is sufficient to extirpate the vulgar prejudice which assumes that the European mind lay dormant from the downfall of the Roman empire till the revival of learning. There is no monument of human genius more impressive than Strasburg minster, or that vast truncated mountain of arches, buttresses, and spires which rises from the valley of the lower Rhine amid the bustle and traffic of Cologne. The "stone books" sculptured on the cathedral walls of Rheims and Chartres are a more significant type of the nascent social order of medieval Europe than any of its monuments of literature. The inner life of the Hanse towns-those wonderful outgrowths of civic life, at once so concentrated and 80 expansive-is nowhere so clearly expressed as in those monumental town halls, whose towers and bells were alike the emblems of municipal sovereignty and the landmarks, amid feudal barbarism, of civil liberty and commercial life. Illustrations of the value of the instruction we advocate crowd upon the attention; but mention has been made of sufficient for our purpose.

ART-TRAINING ECONOMICAL AND FEASIBLE.

The question naturally arises, What will this cost, and how can the result be accomplished? We believe (and we speak from some experience) that useful instruction can be given with a very small collection of illustrations. One thousand dollars, judiciously expended, can be made to accomplish valuable results. Five thousand dollars would purchase a fair collection. Ten thousand dollars (a part expended at once and a part put at interest) would soon meet all the most pressing needs of an institution. Of course such a collection can be profitably enlarged in any direction and to any degree, in proportion to the provision made for it. But public benevolence is not likely to go astray in this direction.

Again, it may be asked, where shall we procure competent teachers? We answer that wherever an endowment for a collection and a lectureship shall be provided there will be no lack of men. If there shall be no fund to pay a special lecturer, there certainly ought to be found in every college faculty one or more capable of giving the very elementary instruction required. If a lecturer, profoundly learned in the subject of art, were endowed, the time for an elaborate and detailed course of lectures could not and ought not to be spared. In this, as in every thing else, we ought to aim at the practicable and possible, and learn not to despise the day of small things.

HOW CERTAIN SCIENCES WERE FIRST TAUGHT IN AN AMERICAN COLLEGE.

Benjamin Silliman began teaching mineralogy and geology with one small box of illustrative specimens, which he was hardly competent to classify. But it was a beginning out of which great things have grown. It is clear that some degree of artculture is desirable and attainable, and that it may be accomplished by an outlay for illustrations and teaching capacity not beyond the reach of any well-organized institution of learning.

STATISTICAL TABLES

RELATING TO

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

States and Territories.

TABLE I.-Statistics of the school systems of the States and Territories, showing the enrollUnited States Bu

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

ment, attendance, number, and duration of schools, &c.; from replies to inquiries by the reau of Education.

[blocks in formation]
« 前へ次へ »