AMERICAN  PREFACE.

xxxvii

To  show  this  has  been  the  main  object  of  the  discussion  thus  far.
It  might  also  be  easily  shown  that  this  knowledge,  and  the  disc'ipline
  whieh  comes  with  the  effbrt  to  acquire  it,  form  an  essential
element  of  general  culture,  an  element  obtainable'  from  no  other
study,  an  element  which,  if  one  Jacks,  he  cannot  be  said  to  have
been  symmetrically  trained.  Indeed,  until  this  element  is  added,
our  public  education  must  continue,  as  it  is,  emphatically  lopsided,
  not  only  from  the  industrial,  but  from  the  culture  point  of
view.  But  this  is  a  matter,  which,  important  as  it  is,  need  not  be
considered  at  the  present  time.
The  second  objection  will  come  from  those  who  look  upon  art  as
something  peculiarly  divine.  They  are  shocked  when  one  talks  of
making  art  contribute  to  the  daily  wages  of  the  artisan,  to  the
volume  of  trade,  to  national  prosperity,  and  the  sinews  of  war.
They  believe  that  the  decided  industrial  tendency  which  art-education
  is  taking  in  this  country  will  prove  destructive  to  all  the
higher  manifestations  of  art;  that  a  people  once  taught  to  make
beautiful  calico  prints,  shoes,  table-ware,  furniture,  will  be  Content ­
  to  do  nothing  more.  They  also  believe  that  instruction  in
neither  industrial  nor  fine  art  can  be  reduced  to  fixed  principles  and
methods,  and  so  believe  that  art  cannot  be  taught  in  schools  as
other  things  are  taught.  Consequently  they  take  delight  in  telling
how  impossible  it  is  to  do  wliat  the  great  masters  have  done,
instead  of  attempting  to  show  how  the  great  masters  actually  went
to  work  to  secure  their  wonderful  results. 1  It  will  be  proper  to
answer  these  objectors,  —  to  show  that  there  is  no  antagonism,  but
the  reverse,  between  industrial  art  and  fine  art,  and  that  each
rests  upon  a  mass  of  definite,  teachable  facts  and  principles,  many
of  which  they  have  in  common.
i  “  The  lectures  to  the  public  are  given  from  a  different  standpoint  than
that  adopted  by  many  of  our  lecturers  on  art  and  its  technies.  Tn  Vienna  the
lecturer  ainis  to  show  the  young  aspirant  how  to  make  a  beginning,  and  how
to  progress  upward  in  the  study  of  the  fine  arts;  while  here  lecturers  who
attempt  to  discourse  upon  art  and  artists  generally  strive  to  show  how  impossible
  it  is  for  any  one  to  reach  the  height  attained  by  the  masters  of  old,  thus
chilling  the  wakening  enthusiasm  of  their  heai’ers,  among  whom,  perhaps,
may  be  soine  who  would  have  liked  to  make  an  effort  to  acquire  art  skill  and
knowledge  for  themselves.”  —From  the  special  report  made  by  Louis  J.  Hinion,
who  attended  the  Vienna  Exposition,  to  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  on“  Museums
of  Art  and  Industry.”