spectator to see what the artist intended to convey; yet, though no particular story is told, we can see and feel that there must be a story to tell. To take two examples. In the first, there is nothing but the waves and the curved line of the shore, as barren now and lonely as the sea; but we feel the silence "solemn and melancholy," as Gibbon felt it, on the shore that "once rang with the world's debate." The second is equally simple: an island rises sharp and rocky out of the sea, which is smooth and intensely blue; but, again, we understand how it was that, in the time of deepest degradation at Athens, the bema was removed from its accustomed place, that the orators might no longer be inspired "by the sight of the sea and of Salamis." XI. Institute of Painters in Oil Colours.1 It was a favourite principle with the late illustrious Edwin Hatch that in this country, as compared with France, Nonconformity had accomplished a beneficent work by providing channels, as it were, in which such forms of religious thought and enthusiasm as had either escaped from the Church, or arisen outside her boundaries, could be drawn off and utilized instead of being wasted. In France, on the other hand, we are met by the single sharp distinction between the Establishment and its enemies. Now, that everything which is not with the main historical organization should be against it is a state of things no less dangerous in the sphere of art than in that of religion. The blood of honourable rivals is the seed of implacable foes; and if the Royal Academy in England enjoyed the solitary pre-eminence of the Church in France, it is probable that the arts would only escape being frozen in the too still academic air to run the risk of being tortured to death by the random experiments of amateurs. But, as it is, the priority of the Academy confers no primacy. There are the younger societies offering a field and a chance to those who have not yet reached the threshold of the historic institution, or who decline to knock at the door. In fact, if we fail as a school it will be for want of talent, not for want of the means of displaying such talent as we have. 1 From an old proof found among Strong's papers; perhaps for the "Guardian.” The Exhibition of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours fairly represents the main tendencies and the normal level of English art. It stands, as it were, midway between the pedantry which still distinguishes the Academy, like an order of knighthood, and the secondhand French finery of the New English Art Club. XII. Mozart. Philosophers have often dwelt upon the fickleness of the crowd, which will be ready to crucify to-morrow what it applauds to-day; but the variations of expert opinion, though in reality they are none the less wide and abrupt, have as a rule received less attention. This may be partly due to the fact that the expert, if he be lucky enough to earn his promotion to a place among the immortals, is generally introduced to posterity by his apologist, or shield-bearer, whose business it is to apply to the period what might otherwise fall as an accusation upon the person. The shield-bearer is not seldom a reactionary. It is he, for instance, who points out that if the freethinkers had not been so impatient, Papistry might have pretended to be quite reasonable; that if the Holy Inquisition had only been allowed to go on burning Jews and heretics, the world would soon have been educated up to the point of recognizing that this was merely a picturesque impulsive way of expressing liberal tendencies. But while the case of a corporation with never a body to be kicked is comparatively simple, with individuals, on the other hand, the shield-bearer's dexterity sometimes fails, and then there is nothing for it but to drop what it would be either dishonouring to the expert, or inconvenient for ourselves to repeat. For instance, we are not likely to be reminded by musical critics of the "thoughtful" and "sensitive" school who refuse Handel a place in the front rank of artists, that Beethoven declared he would kneel down bareheaded at Handel's grave. A feeling of respect for Beethoven's genuine services in other directions would doubtless make them unwilling to expose the crudities and limitations of his critical perception; while, to take another example, Goethe's estimate of Byron was undeniably such as must disturb our faith either in a good deal of contemporary criticism or in Goethe. But there were 1 Unpublished fragment. more weak places than one in Goethe's judgment, for he even went so far as to assert that only Mozart could have set" Faust" to music. Now this recommendation would have very little weight with modern musicians, whom faith in Wagner has redeemed from the bondage of rules and forms which they have never shown any particular capacity to handle, and who, in their consciousness of emancipation, find themselves quite unable to take the plot of "Don Juan" seriously. In the first place, thoughtful musicians require something to occupy their thoughts, and in the second Mozart's "merry tunes" have no power to charm the senses that have once been feasted upon the dwarfs, rings, dragons, spears and potions of Wagnerian opera. This being so, it is somewhat surprising to have one's attention suddenly called to a work in praise of Mozart's "Don Juan," and by a musician too; and yet this is what M. Saint-Saëns has just done in his brochure entitled, "Charles Gounod et le Don Juan de Mozart." |