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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
influence and drift of modern art-industrial education, a further quotation will be pardoned :—
“ There is no difficulty in finding the path we must follow. England has already chosen it with great success, and it lies open to us also. It was fortunate for the reforming endeavor in England, and is beneficial for us, that French taste and French art-industry are, in themselves, hollow, insipid and perverted. It is here that the English apply the lever with a keen understanding. Had they continued following the French, the}' would have naturally always kept in the back ground ; they would not have been able to overtake the amazing start their rivals possessed. They were obliged first, to oppose a new and true taste to the old acknowledged bad one, and then to convert the world—perhaps the hardest part of the task. To the arbitrary caprice of the French, the}' opposed conventional strictness of style ; to frivolity, principles ; to outward show and puppetlike attire, the dignity innate to art. In order not to be led astray or to permit the ascendancy of what ought to be secondary, they kept constantly before their eyes the goal they aim to reach.
“The recent international exhibitions showed that wherever the object was taken up and pursued with strict consistency, as in paper hangings, carpets, porcelain, terra-cotta and upholstery, but above all in works of crystal, the English either surpassed, or, after traversing the wide distance which had separated them, equalled the French. Where, however, they allowed themselves to remain subjected to French fashion, especially in works of gold, silver and jewellery, there they remained far behind. * * *
“We are aware, indeed, that the efforts w'hich the patrons of art in England, supported by the government, have made to act upon the public mind, are of the most manifold kinds; that museums and other institutions, general instruction in drawing, public lectures, popular literature, are constantly extending their influence. We know, too, that this influence is gradually gaining ground every day, and that its ultimate result cannot be doubtful. The present state of the case, and the path we have to follow, are thus clearly marked out for us. In the first place we must, and that immediately! emancipate ourselves from French taste. We must no longer allow ourselves to look with slavish admiration on Paris. We must not, as hitherto, regard whatever comes from thence as faultless in beauty and unexceptional in taste, without exercising our own reflection and judgment, but rather look upon it with the persuasion that much that comes from there is faulty. We allow that French works of art-industry are very much better than our own, but still they are not absolutely good, only relatively so.”