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ART  ED  ü  CAT  ION.

disappointed.  England  concentrated  her  attention  upon  the  representation
  of  her  colonies  ;  she  unfolded  her  Asiatic  riches,  while
her  native  industry  was  represented  very  incompletely,  and  her
edueational  System  very  inefficiently.  Nothing  was  to  be  seen  bat
some  specimens  by  the  pupils  of  the  Kensington  School,  and  a  few
of  the  publications  of  this  institution.  It  certainly  seemed  stränge
that  the  country  from  which  the  idea  of  World’s  Fairs  had  first
emanated  should  so  ignore  the  important  chapter  of  art-education,
to  which  it  owes  its  present  position  in  industry  as  compared  to
other  states.
Everybody  perceives  that  the  influence  of  the  English  art-schools
in  the  matter  of  form  within  the  last  twenty  years  has  been  of  the
greatest  importance.  Still  the  aims  originally  proposed  are  far  from
having  been  reached  ;  and  it  will  not  yet  do  for  the  schools  to  rest
upon  their  laureis,  although  the  success  of  art-instruction  may
already  be  traced  in  English  art-industry.  Taste  has  refined  itself
decidedly,  and  the  forms  of  industrial  products  in  general  are  more
artistic,  and  of  a  better  style.  But  they  are  still  far  from  moving  in
a  uniform  track;  on  the  contrary,  they  diverge  into  all  styles  and
all  directions.  It  would  appear  that  an  independent  position  has
been  taken  by  English  art  in  the  ornamentation  of  flat  surfaces
only.  In  this  department,  there  is  observable  a  unity  of  forms  of
a  decidedly  modern  style.  The  same  may  also  be  said  of  furniture,
into  which  polychrome  surface-ornamentation  has  been  introduced.
But  in  silverware,  bronzes,  faiences,  and  majolicas,  the  whole
history  of  art  is  illustrated,  from  ancient  India  down  to  the  epoch
of  the  Baroque  style.  No  doubt  the  historical  technique  in  these
latter  branches  of  industry  very  generally  demands  also  the  historical ­
  style,  since,  as  a  rule,  more  attention  is  paid  to  the  demands
of  Connaisseurs  than  to  an  artistic  taste.  In  the  future  the  principal
  task  of  the  scientific  direction  of  art-instruction  in  England
will  probably  be  to  check  this  dispersion  among  all  the  various
styles,  and  to  lead  from  imitation  to  original  creation.  It  is,
however,  still  a  question  of  time,  whether  England  will  ever  be
able  to  attain  to  the  position  of  recognized  leadership  in  art  and
art-industry,  as  far  as  the  technique  is  coneerned. 1  In  this  the
1  The  above  sentenee  has  been  left  as  it  Stands  in  the  original,  although  the
word  “  technique  ”  appearS  to  have  crept  in  by  a  ndstake.  The  context  makes
it  evident  that  the  “artistic  spirit”  is  alluded  to.—Traust.