It will be seen that this work involves a considerable amount of weighing and calculation, but this is rendered easy by the previous grounding in elementary physics, and a series of experiments such as that described may be carried out intelligently by any properly trained class of girls.
PART IV. ÆSTHETICS.
ART.
By Dorothea Beale.
This part is one of great and perhaps increasing importance owing to the development of musical education and of art and technical schools.
Music.The power of music over the emotional life has ever been felt; in many ways it is opposed to thought, if we regard it from the standpoint of the listener, who yields himself up to its influence; on the other hand, the performer, and still more the composer, can bring to bear on the subject high intellectual gifts, and it may have a great educational value. It is of the utmost importance, that in this as in all æsthetics, a taste be cultivated for all that is true and pure and lovely; not for low and false and sensuous music such as Browning has described in the “Toccata of Galuppi,” but for the thoughtful, the devotional, as given in the two companion poems, “Hughes of Saxe Gotha” and “Abt Vogler”; and the learner should feel that she is studying to express right feelings, as Mme. Schumann and Jenny Lind insisted, not to show off her execution and make a display. It is greatly to be regretted that the general education is often stopped in order to specialise in music and art, before the mental equilibrium is fully established; if, besides this, there is an uprooting from one’s home and country, at the most impressionable and excitable period of life, much danger is incurred.
Music is not only a powerful means of expression and of promoting sympathy, it also draws people together for healthy recreation; especially valuable for this purpose are orchestral and choral classes. The power of the artist in music is far better understood than it was fifty years ago. I remember Dr. Kinkel, the German poet, saying to me about the year 1860, “the English will become a musical people, they are learning”. We owe much to Mr. Hullah for this, and to the Tonic-Sol-fa system. I subjoin a paper by a most able teacher of the [piano], one on [the violin], two [papers] on [singing] and one on [voice production and elocution].
Art historical.We are beginning now to study art in connection with the history and literature of different periods and countries. In another [section] I have touched on art in connection with history. We all know how great has been in all ages the power of art in expressing and forming religious ideas; we cannot but see that Fra Angelico and Dante interpret one another. There is not space here to dwell on the subject; the writings of Ruskin and Browning and the works of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood have helped this generation to feel all that art may be in our life. The educative power of great paintings has been practically recognised by those who have gathered together great pictures in East London—the Art for Schools Association recognises its importance; by visits to galleries, by good reproductions, and occasional lectures, children should if possible have their eyes opened to see what are the higher teachings which painters and sculptors and architects have expressed in their works; those who have heard Miss Harrison’s lectures know how the statues, vases, friezes, etc., of old times help us to make these live again for us; especially valuable is what those of our own time have given us, for these utter what is most intrinsic in our life. England is richer for such pictures as “The Light of the World”.
Mr. Thring used to insist much on schools being as beautiful as possible, and that painted windows and all the surroundings should help in the great work of education, the fulfilling of the human nature with the sense of the spiritual underlying realities; it should be the earnest endeavour of all educators to make, as Herbart has done, æsthetics in its widest sense, a help in ethics, and to consecrate and enrich the experiences and the teachings which come to us through sense.
Drawing.Drawing as a mode of expression is a really necessary subject; it is a form of writing; and modelling is another form of effective expression. In their higher aspects these arts are ennobling, cultivating the taste and leading up to the ideal. “Once,” writes Dr. Harris, “trained to recognise the beautiful and graceful, the pupil has acquired a quality of mind useful in every occupation and every station.”