xlviii

AMERICAN  PRF.FACE.

means  to  work  with,  make  the  study  of  the  elements  of  art  as  of
mathematics  compulsory,  and  good  results  will  surely  be  secnred.
Bnt  what  of  more  advanced  instruction  in  both  industrial  and  fine
art?  This  must  be  given  in  well-appointed  art-schools,  otlierwise
it  can  be  made  neither  so  general  nor  so  good  as  it  should  be.
Were  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Illinois  as
well  supplied  with  these  schools  as  England,—that  is,  for  each
210,000  inhabitants  one  school  with  190  students,  —  Massachusetts
would  have  7  of  them,  New  York  20,  Pennsylvania  17,  Illinois  12  ;
which  w'ould  give  the  four  States  a  total  of  57  schools,  with  10,640
students.  These  schools,  supplied  with  all  necessary  means  for
their  work,  should  be  in  the  Charge  of  persons  who  possess  a  thorough
  knowledge  of  the  teachable  features  of  the  subjects  of
instruction,  and  who,  in  addition  to  this  knowledge,  possess  the
ability  to  impart,  in  the  most  rational  way,  what  they  knoy.
But  it  will  be  vehemently  urged  by  some,  that  this  teaching  of  the
schools  cannot  be  effectual,  that  old  practices  should  be  followed,
that  art-students  must  get  their  training,  if  it  is  to  be  of  any
value,  in  the  Studios  of  great  artists,  as  formerly  was  the  fact.
To  this  there  are  several  objections;  but  one,  which  is  all-sufficient,
  is  enough  to  name:  the  large  number  who  ought  to  be
taught,  and  in  various  things,  cannot  be  reached  by  such  a  mode
of  procedure.  This  Studio  instruction,  excellent  in  many  points,
was  essentially  an  apprenticeship  und  er  the  old  masters.  Now
the  times  have  so  changed  that  apprenticeship  has,  in  obedience  to
natural  causes,  nearly  or  quite  disappeared  from  all  industries.
In  a  similar  manner,  to  meet  the  rapidly  increasing  and  varied
demands  for  art-instruction,  the  school  must,  in  the  main,  supplant
  the  private  studio,  doing  the  work  required  better  than  the
private  studio  can  possibly  do  it.  But,  again,  it  will  be  vehemently ­
  urged  that  art-instruction,  which  is  limited  to  the  things
that  can  be  taught  with  pedagogical  precision,  will  never  produce
a  genuine  artist;  that  there  must  be  a  certain  something  which  a
Student  can  obtain  only  by  working  under  a  great  master.  It  is
indeed  true  that  a  knowledge  of  the  precise  and  teachable  features
of  art  is  far  from  enough  for  the  making  of  a  genuine  artist;  but
it  is  also  true  that  there  can  be  no  genuine  artist  who  has  not  this
knowledge,  which  is  all  that  even  the  greatest  master  can  impart.