higher tendencies, and is reduced either to a sensuous pleasure, or to mere
display of technical skill. Admiration for the arts, which, when kept in its
proper place, has done so much for modern life, may become deeply
corrupting influence, if it becomes the paramount a consideration. It is
notorious what an atrocious custom prevailed in Italy for several centuries,
simply for the sake of improving men's voices. Art, the true purpose of which
is to strengthen our sympathies, leads when thus degraded to a most abject
form of selfishness; in which enjoyment of sounds312 or forms is held out as
the highest happiness, and utter apathy prevails as to all questions of social
interest. So dangerous is it intellectually, and still more so morally, for
individuals, and above all, for societies to allow aesthetic considerations to
become unduly preponderant; even when they spring from a genuine
impulse. But the invariable consequence to which this violation of the first
principles of social order leads, is the success of mediocrities who acquire
technical skill by long practice.
Thus it is that we have gradually fallen under the discreditable influence of
men who were evidently not competent for any but subordinate positions,
and whose preponderance has proved as injurious to Art as it` has been to
Philosophy and Morality. A fatal facility of giving expression to what is neither
believed nor felt, gives temporary reputation to men who are as incapable of
originality in Art as they are of grasping any new principle in science. It is the
most remarkable of all the political anomalies caused by our revolutionary
position; and the moral results are most deplorable, unless when, as rarely
happens, the possessor of these undeserved honours has a nature too noble
to be injured by them. Poets are more exposed to these dangers than other
artists, because their sphere is more general and gives wider scope for
ambition. But in the special arts we find the same evil in a still more
degrading form; that of avarice, a vice by which so much of our highest
talent is now tainted. Another signal proof of the childish vanity and
uncontrolled ambition of the class is, that those who are merely interpreters
of other men's productions claim the same title as those who have produced
original works.
display of technical skill. Admiration for the arts, which, when kept in its
proper place, has done so much for modern life, may become deeply
corrupting influence, if it becomes the paramount a consideration. It is
notorious what an atrocious custom prevailed in Italy for several centuries,
simply for the sake of improving men's voices. Art, the true purpose of which
is to strengthen our sympathies, leads when thus degraded to a most abject
form of selfishness; in which enjoyment of sounds312 or forms is held out as
the highest happiness, and utter apathy prevails as to all questions of social
interest. So dangerous is it intellectually, and still more so morally, for
individuals, and above all, for societies to allow aesthetic considerations to
become unduly preponderant; even when they spring from a genuine
impulse. But the invariable consequence to which this violation of the first
principles of social order leads, is the success of mediocrities who acquire
technical skill by long practice.
Thus it is that we have gradually fallen under the discreditable influence of
men who were evidently not competent for any but subordinate positions,
and whose preponderance has proved as injurious to Art as it` has been to
Philosophy and Morality. A fatal facility of giving expression to what is neither
believed nor felt, gives temporary reputation to men who are as incapable of
originality in Art as they are of grasping any new principle in science. It is the
most remarkable of all the political anomalies caused by our revolutionary
position; and the moral results are most deplorable, unless when, as rarely
happens, the possessor of these undeserved honours has a nature too noble
to be injured by them. Poets are more exposed to these dangers than other
artists, because their sphere is more general and gives wider scope for
ambition. But in the special arts we find the same evil in a still more
degrading form; that of avarice, a vice by which so much of our highest
talent is now tainted. Another signal proof of the childish vanity and
uncontrolled ambition of the class is, that those who are merely interpreters
of other men's productions claim the same title as those who have produced
original works.
