REPORT OF MR. MILLETT.
159
great triumph of art is to produce in the spectator feelings akin to those experienced by the artist; to awaken in the depth of the soul some passion long dormant; to appeal to the inmost nature with a voice that demands recognition, and thus to bring all men to the common level of humanity, endowed with the same faculties, moved by the same feelings. As the king and the peasant both bow to the same holy symbol, so do they meet on the common ground of human passions and feelings, in the contemplation of a noble work of art. The artist must remember that the public is passive, and that it lies with him to stir in its multivalve heart an echo of the passion burning in his own breast, or to strike a sympathetic chord. The public cannot be impressed with the same degree of feeling as that which excites the artist to communicate his idea through the medium of colors or mar- We; for there will always be the cold harrier of the material and tangible to weaken the warmth of sympathy between soul and soul. Then, for an artist to succeed with a subject, he must be so thoroughly possessed with the idea he wishes to represent, that it penetrates every corner of his soul, and enters into every thought, until it becomes a presence not- to be escaped, not to be avoided, until he has worked out its unage on the canvas, or formed it in the clay. Spontaneous, unpulsive works are almost always highly impressive, but the public feeling may be considered as more inclined to chord with the cold and passionless, and to be moved only when the impulse is a vigorous one. The great and noticeable lack iu works of the present day is this same spontaneity, which, ui its overflowing strength and warmth, takes a form sure to unpart some of its glow 7 to the spectator.
-The peculiar circumstances which controlled the enlistment °f artists in the time of the old masters, were calculated to SJ ft out from the ranks many of those w 7 ho could not keep pace with the soaring spirit that inspired the true artist. The limitations of art have been removed, the field of action is broader and more comprehensive than ever before, and the . qualifications of artists have diminished with the increase of the branches of art in wdiich it is comparatively easy to be- c°me, by courtesy, an artist. 'With the introduction of the ac ademic system grew up a cold, passionless and formal man-