spirit of the author's intention: I am not prepared to deny this; indeed, I have met with such cases; but before you take them as your models, be sure that you possess the same amount of natural talent, or, better still, take them not as examples-rather lament that such gifts from above have been so fruitlessly bestowed. Let me remind you in the way of encouragement, that some of the greatest musicians the world has known, have submitted patiently and willingly to the trammels of severe study. When, by experience in the art and science, you are competent to analyze the masterly works of Handel, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Spohr, Mendelssohn, and others, you will be convinced that not genius alone has effected these wonders.

I trust that nothing which you have heard from me on this occasion will lead you to suppose that I under-rate the claims of the practical performer; much knowledge and fine feeling existing in many musicians would lie dormant and unacknowledged without this agency.

Let me name some great performers from among the greatest musicians.

Sebastian Bach. One of the greatest Organ and Clavier performers of any age.

G. F. Handel. To whom the same words would apply. Mozart.1

1 See Holmes' Life of Mozart.

Beethoven.

Spohr. A great violinist.

Weber. A great pianist.

Mendelssohn. A wonderful performer both on the organ and pianoforte.

These great masters knew well the advantage of combining the power of mechanical skill with deep knowledge, and the result is fully known to all interested in music; but that of the two branches most important is, doubtless, the theory-this point must be maintained. I conclude then by reminding you, that the performer who is ambitious of obtaining and deserving the title of musician, must study "Harmony and the Elements of Musical Composition."

XV.

ON THE FINE ARTS,

EDUCATIONALLY CONSIDERED.

BY

HENRY WARREN,

PRESIDENT OF THE NEW SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN WATER

COLOURS.

Ν

IN coming before you I must confess some difficulty

in my position, as regards the course I shall pursue of necessity, a middle course, that shall apply generally, as well to those who, having already studied art to a certain extent, more or less, are conversant with what may be called its technicalities, as to those of my hearers, who, having turned their attention wholly to other and different studies, may be altogether unacquainted with them.

Our first consideration shall be the enquiry, What is art? or rather, What is understood by the term, Fine Arts?

"The desire to imitate the objects which we see,' says Agincourt, "is a sentiment born with man." In consequence of this natural arrangement, imitation becomes an art whenever the means employed to obtain exactness are submitted to rules, and reduced to principles.

The three arts of Drawing or Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, owe their origin to this natural sentiment; and all three derive also their perfection from the enlightened employment of rules dictated by reason and taste. From this it is evident that the germ of the arts exists in every nation; but that the means employed by each, and the degree of perfection to which they may arrive, can never be the same, in consequence of the difference in climate, manners, religion, and government; the influence of which must ever be most powerful and inevitable.”

By the practice of art then, we are to understand, the effort of the mind, through the agency of the hand, to reproduce, by imitation, such representations as shall address themselves, through the eye, to the sentiment of taste.

This may suppose a state of refinement in society; but the same will be found to obtain in a less advanced state, for even in the savage, in whom we find the lowest grade of civilization, or cultivation, we discover some attempt at art-some effort to reproduce by delineation the representations or appearances of nature around him. The difference therefore, with respect to art, in delineation or expression, is only in degree between the savage and the civilized man, and this degree is what now comes at once under our review.

The desire of art is brought about by leisure; the production of it, by circumstances or early wants.

Art is essentially a human creation, and in all its stages addresses itself to human sympathies.

The form and character of art will be found, as has already been hinted, to belong to circumstances or requirements, and thence in its varieties to certain peoples and countries; but in all cases arising out of an idea or wish to excite admiration. For this the Sandwich Islander clothes himself in gaudy attire, or punctures his skin with the forms of animals, or other objects with which he is conversant. He even goes further, and creates as it were such fanciful forms of ornamental painting on his face, body, and apparel, as his taste dictates, or his slender acquirements furnish the idea of. It follows then that the lowest degree in the sentiment of beauty has been attained by the savage, while the civilized European has mounted almost to the sublime, in the production of what are at this day quoted, whether in painting, sculpture, or architecture, as the highest attainments of art.

I have said that art is brought about by the requirements or exigencies of time and nation, spring-ing in the soil, growing through time, nurtured by intellectual culture. The plant though indigenous is always susceptible of improvement by grafts from foreign stocks. After a succession of prunings and buddings, it seems as it were to branch out from its own selfish nature, bearing blossoms, not only of beauty-of rare beauty-but such as throw out a [q. c. LECT.]

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