Lectures on Art | Page 2

10th January, 1888.

LECTURES ON ART

LECTURE I
INAUGURAL
1. The duty which is to-day laid on me, of introducing, among the
elements of education appointed in this great University, one not only
new, but such as to involve in its possible results some modification of
the rest, is, as you well feel, so grave, that no man could undertake it
without laying himself open to the imputation of a kind of insolence;
and no man could undertake it rightly, without being in danger of
having his hands shortened by dread of his task, and mistrust of
himself.
And it has chanced to me, of late, to be so little acquainted either with
pride or hope, that I can scarcely recover so much as I now need, of the
one for strength, and of the other for foresight, except by remembering
that noble persons, and friends of the high temper that judges most
clearly where it loves best, have desired that this trust should be given
me: and by resting also in the conviction that the goodly tree whose
roots, by God's help, we set in earth to-day, will not fail of its height
because the planting of it is under poor auspices, or the first shoots of it
enfeebled by ill gardening.
2. The munificence of the English gentleman to whom we owe the
founding of this Professorship at once in our three great Universities,
has accomplished the first great group of a series of changes now
taking gradual effect in our system of public education, which, as you

well know, are the sign of a vital change in the national mind,
respecting both the principles on which that education should be
conducted, and the ranks of society to which it should extend. For,
whereas it was formerly thought that the discipline necessary to form
the character of youth was best given in the study of abstract branches
of literature and philosophy, it is now thought that the same, or a better,
discipline may be given by informing men in early years of the things it
will be of chief practical advantage to them afterwards to know; and by
permitting to them the choice of any field of study which they may feel
to be best adapted to their personal dispositions. I have always used
what poor influence I possessed in advancing this change; nor can any
one rejoice more than I in its practical results. But the completion--I
will not venture to say, correction--of a system established by the
highest wisdom of noble ancestors, cannot be too reverently undertaken:
and it is necessary for the English people, who are sometimes violent in
change in proportion to the reluctance with which they admit its
necessity, to be now, oftener than at other times, reminded that the
object of instruction here is not primarily attainment, but discipline;
and that a youth is sent to our Universities, not (hitherto at least) to be
apprenticed to a trade, nor even always to be advanced in a profession;
but, always, to be made a gentleman and a scholar.
3. To be made these,--if there is in him the making of either. The
populaces of civilised countries have lately been under a feverish
impression that it is possible for all men to be both; and that having
once become, by passing through certain mechanical processes of
instruction, gentle and learned, they are sure to attain in the sequel the
consummate beatitude of being rich.
Rich, in the way and measure in which it is well for them to be so, they
may, without doubt, all become. There is indeed a land of Havilah open
to them, of which the wonderful sentence is literally true--"The gold of
that land is good." But they must first understand, that education, in its
deepest sense, is not the equaliser, but the discerner, of men;[1] and that,
so far from being instruments for the collection of riches, the first
lesson of wisdom is to disdain them, and of gentleness, to diffuse.

[Footnote 1: The full meaning of this sentence, and of that which closes
the paragraph, can only be understood by reference to my more
developed statements on the subject of Education in "Modern Painters"
and in "Time and Tide." The following fourth paragraph is the most
pregnant summary of my political and social principles I have ever
been able to give.]
It is not therefore, as far as we can judge, yet possible for all men to be
gentlemen and scholars. Even under the best training some will remain
too selfish to refuse wealth, and some too dull to desire leisure. But
many more might be so than are now; nay, perhaps all men in England
might one day be so, if England truly desired her supremacy among