For the industrial competition between
this and other countries--a competition, keen and eager, which means to
certain industries almost a race for life--runs, in many cases, no longer
exclusively or mainly on the lines of excellence of material and solidity
of workmanship, but greatly nowadays on the lines of artistic charm and
beauty of design."
The highest service, however, that Art can accomplish for man is to become
"at once the voice of his nobler aspirations, and the steady
disciplinarian of his emotions; and it is with this mission, rather than
with any aesthetic perfection, that we are at present concerned." [4]
Science and Art are sisters, or rather perhaps they are like brother and
sister. The mission of Art is in some respects like that of woman. It is
not Hers so much to do the hard toil and moil of the world, as to surround
it with a halo of beauty, to convert work into pleasure.
In science we naturally expect progress, but in Art the case is not so
clear; and yet Sir Joshua Reynolds did not hesitate to express his
conviction that in the future "so much will painting improve, that the
best we can now achieve will appear like the work of children," and we may
hope that our power of enjoying it may increase in an equal ratio.
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