THE AMERICAN MONTHLY MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1836. PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN LYCEUM. ESSAY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS OF DESIGN; AND THE TRUE MODES OF ENCOURAGING AND PERFECTING THEM. BY WILLIAM DUNLAP. MANKIND are too much disposed to view the fine arts, their professors and their results, as affairs remote from the ordinary pursuits and enjoyments of life: but such a view of them is taken through a mist of ignorance and consequent prejudice. Seeing, they do not see. To the multitude, seeing with the mind's eye is onerous; and reflection troublesome. It is this disposition to see without observing this wish to avoid the trouble of examination — that is one great cause of the slow progress of truth. It gives facility to every species of imposture. The Impostor asserts boldly, and relies upon the known disposition to receive without examination all that accords with self-love: his dupes are irritated if their weakness is exposed; and he finally has the hardihood to declare that human reason in the mass of mankind is incompetent to the discovery of truth. The Impostor and the Dupe join to destroy any one who would tear the mask from the first, and open the eyes of the second to his own folly. From the ordinary path of life which the savage pursues, the fine arts are really remote; but the products of the arts of design surround the civilized man, and are the basis of his ordinary comforts as well as the ornament of his habitual luxuries; while music refines and elevates his thoughts, and poetry enters into the most precious part of his moral education. If he does not duly appreciate them, and pay the tribute of his gratitude to those who cultivate these glorious arts, it is because they are, like the luminaries of heaven, constantly be |