Letters on the Eastern States (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ployment, and talents now are not thought incompatible with performing an active part, either in public or private concerns. There is less encouragement in this, than in any other country, for a man to confine himself to authorship. This I think a great advantage; it prevents genius from degrading itself by unworthy subserviency, and it gives servants to the public of greater capacity. It brings men of learning and men of the world more into contact; it blends the business of life and Uk instruction more intimately; it destroys pedantry, and enriches literature. LETTER VI. Fine Arts. Mv Dear Sm, We agreed so fully in the opinion, that our country was destined to acquire a glorious reputation from the successful cultivation of the fine arts, that I very cheerfully answer your inquiries as to our prospects in this respect, and what has been done here for encouragement. On this subject there is much prejudice, and it is so often considered Under very narrow and false views of its importance, that I shall, at the risk of repealing many ideas which may be already familiar to you, presume so far on your patience, as to give an outline of the reasons which should influence us, rationally and individually, to promote the growth of the fine arts in our country. I think my observations will be capable of general application, but I request you to bear in mind,that I am writing under the impulse of local impressions, and my allusions will be principally to facts existing in this vicinity. It is impossible to avoid very confident expectations of future glory from the arts, when we consider the numerous indications that we have given of aptitude for their cultivation. Surely, the eminent artists produced in this country, during the last generation, did not sprine from mere accide...