Lectures on Art | Page 3

the
nations to be in kindness and in learning. To which good end, it will
indeed contribute that we add some practice of the lower arts to our
scheme of University education; but the thing which is vitally
necessary is, that we should extend the spirit of University education to
the practice of the lower arts.
4. And, above all, it is needful that we do this by redeeming them from
their present pain of self-contempt, and by giving them rest. It has been
too long boasted as the pride of England, that out of a vast multitude of
men, confessed to be in evil case, it was possible for individuals, by
strenuous effort, and rare good fortune, occasionally to emerge into the
light, and look back with self-gratulatory scorn upon the occupations of
their parents, and the circumstances of their infancy. Ought we not
rather to aim at an ideal of national life, when, of the employments of
Englishmen, though each shall be distinct, none shall be unhappy or
ignoble; when mechanical operations, acknowledged to be debasing in
their tendency,[2] shall be deputed to less fortunate and more covetous
races; when advance from rank to rank, though possible to all men,
may be rather shunned than desired by the best; and the chief object in
the mind of every citizen may not be extrication from a condition
admitted to be disgraceful, but fulfilment of a duty which shall be also
a birthright?
[Footnote 2: "+technai epirrêtoi+," compare page 81.]
5. And then, the training of all these distinct classes will not be by

Universities of general knowledge, but by distinct schools of such
knowledge as shall be most useful for every class: in which, first the
principles of their special business may be perfectly taught, and
whatever higher learning, and cultivation of the faculties for receiving
and giving pleasure, may be properly joined with that labour, taught in
connection with it. Thus, I do not despair of seeing a School of
Agriculture, with its fully-endowed institutes of zoology, botany, and
chemistry; and a School of Mercantile Seamanship, with its institutes
of astronomy, meteorology, and natural history of the sea: and, to name
only one of the finer, I do not say higher, arts, we shall, I hope, in a
little time, have a perfect school of Metal-work, at the head of which
will be, not the ironmasters, but the goldsmiths: and therein, I believe,
that artists, being taught how to deal wisely with the most precious of
metals, will take into due government the uses of all others.
But I must not permit myself to fail in the estimate of my immediate
duty, while I debate what that duty may hereafter become in the hands
of others; and I will therefore now, so far as I am able, lay before you a
brief general view of the existing state of the arts in England, and of the
influence which her Universities, through these newly-founded
lectureships, may, I hope, bring to bear upon it for good.
6. We have first to consider the impulse which has been given to the
practice of all the arts by the extension of our commerce, and enlarged
means of intercourse with foreign nations, by which we now become
more familiarly acquainted with their works in past and in present
times. The immediate result of these new opportunities, I regret to say,
has been to make us more jealous of the genius of others, than
conscious of the limitations of our own; and to make us rather desire to
enlarge our wealth by the sale of art, than to elevate our enjoyments by
its acquisition.
Now, whatever efforts we make, with a true desire to produce, and
possess, things that are intrinsically beautiful, have in them at least one
of the essential elements of success. But efforts having origin only in
the hope of enriching ourselves by the sale of our productions, are
assuredly condemned to dishonourable failure; not because, ultimately,

a well-trained nation is forbidden to profit by the exercise of its
peculiar art-skill; but because that peculiar art-skill can never be
developed with a view to profit. The right fulfilment of national power
in art depends always on THE DIRECTION OF ITS AIM BY THE
EXPERIENCE OF AGES. Self-knowledge is not less difficult, nor less
necessary for the direction of its genius, to a people than to an
individual; and it is neither to be acquired by the eagerness of
unpractised pride, nor during the anxieties of improvident distress. No
nation ever had, or will have, the power of suddenly developing, under
the pressure of necessity, faculties it had neglected when it was at ease;
nor of teaching itself in poverty, the skill to produce, what it has never,
in opulence, had the sense to