A fine bust, also, of this same poet, is about to be put in marble, which has been ordered by Harvard College; and in this instance, at least, Harvard has done itself honor. If it will not yet open its doors to women who ask education at its hands, it will admit the work of a woman who has educated herself in her chosen department.
Miss Lewis has a fine medallion portrait of Wendell Phillips, a charming group of sleeping babies, and some other minor works, in her studio. At Rome, she is visited by strangers from all nations, who happen in the great city, and every one admires the genius of the artist.
The highest art is that which rises above the slavish copying of nature, without sinking back again into a more slavish conventionalism. All the forms of such art are intensely simple and natural, but through the natural, the spiritual speaks. The saintly glory shines through the features of its saints, and does not gather in a ring around their heads. It speaks a language all can understand, and has no jargon of its own. It needs no initiation before we can understand its mysteries, excepting that of the pure heart and the awakened mind. It represents nature, but in representing, it interprets her. It shows us nothing but reality, but in the real, it mirrors the invisible ideal.
A statue is a realized emotion, or a thought in stone—not an embodied dream. A picture is a painted poem—not a romance in oil. Working together with nature, such art rises to something higher than nature is, becomes the priestess of her temple, and represents to more prosaic souls that which only the poet sees. The truly poetical mind of Edmonia Lewis shows itself in all her works, and exhibits to the critic the genius of the artist.
ROBERT PURVIS.
Robert Purvis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but had the advantages of a New England collegiate education. He early embraced the principles of freedom as advocated by William Lloyd Garrison, and during the whole course of the agitation of the question of slavery, remained true to his early convictions.
Possessed of a large fortune at the very commencement of life, Mr. Purvis took an active part in aiding slaves to obtain their freedom, by furnishing means to secure for them something like justice before the pro-slavery courts of Pennsylvania, when arrested as fugitives, or when brought into the state voluntarily by their owners.
Mr. Purvis did not stop with merely giving of his abundant means, but made many personal sacrifices, and ran risks of loss of life in doing what he conceived to be an act of duty. Though white enough to pass as one of the dominant race, he never denied his connection with the negro.
In personal appearance, and in manners, Mr. Purvis is every inch the gentleman. Possessing a highly-cultivated mind, a reflective imagination, easy and eloquent in speech, but temper quickly aroused, he is always interesting as a public speaker.
Although he spent a large amount in philanthropic causes, Mr. Purvis is still a man of wealth, and owns a princely residence at Bybury, some fifteen miles from Philadelphia. With character unblemished, blameless in his domestic life, an ardent friend, and a dangerous foe, Robert Purvis stands to-day an honor to both races.