AMERICAN P RE FACE. 
xxxviii 
NO HISTORIC ANTAGONISM BETWEEN FINE ART AND INDUSTRIAL ART. 
No broad and clear-cut distinction can be made between fine 
art, and art as applied to industry, such as will enable one to say, 
all upon this side belongs to fine art, all upon that to industrial 
art. It is true that in certain' particulars they difler decidedly; 
but in others they as decidedly agree. It is witli them as with 
poetry and prose, with speaking and singing, with pure geometry 
and geometry as applied to mechanics. It is no degradation of 
art, as the same thing is no degradation of geometry, to make it 
subserve the cause of industry ; that is only making art perform a 
portion of its legitimate work. History shows that the periods 
which have been especially distinguished for achievements in fine 
art have also been especially distinguished for applications of art 
to industry. Recent times furnish an illustration of this fact in 
the case of France. Of her art it may be most emphatically said, 
that it rests upon an industrial basis ; yet where has fine art flour- 
islied better during the last hundred years ? Again, many of 
those familiär with the individual lives of the great masters know 
that many of them began their studies and their work with art 
applied to manufactures. From this industrial basis they ad- 
vanced to painting and statuary, to the representation of intelli- 
gence, of spirit, of beauty in its highest form. Nor did the great 
artists of former ages tliink it beneath their dignity, unworthy 
their powers, to devote a part of their time, even in the height of 
their renown, to making designs for industrial purposes. They were 
in sympathy with the working world around them. These historical 
facts are enough in themselves to show that there is no antagonism 
between fine art, and art applied to industry. A rational consid- 
eration of the matter, showing that the two have many teachable 
things in common, only confirms the verdict of history. 
ART NOT A MERE MATTER OF FEELING, BUT TEACHABLE. 
Every teachable thing must have an indisputable basis of fact 
and reason. It is utterly vain to attempt to formulate and teach 
what is a mere matter of vague, undefinable feeling; for when the 
best has been done there is always need to “ explain the explana- 
tion.” Ilence it is that those who regard art mainly or wholly as