what purports to be a description of his mental powers that will be a sure guide to him in selecting his occupation, and in forming his relationships with other individuals. There is, however, a still lower depth into which these investigations of the nature of the mind from an external instead of an internal point of view have led, which has been distinguished by the term "Neurology;" and which undertakes to prove, by the same incontrovertible evidence of facts, that the mind is not confined to the head, but pervades every part of the body; and that its faculties are not to be determined either by reflecting upon the facts of the consciousness, or by investigating the functions of the brain, but are to be discovered by mesmeric experiments, by which dispositions and faculties of the mind are to be found upon the surface of the body; a method the external, illegitimate, and destructive character of which cannot be exceeded. In the next place, Ethics, or Moral Philosophy, which constituted the external development of Psychology, has been succeeded by autobiographical descriptions of individual experiences, and by illustrations, in the form of fictitious narrative, of the affectional and sentimental conditions and functions of the mind. It is in this way that the relationships and duties of domestic and of social life, and even theories of political economy, of morality, and of religion, are now taught; and it is only in this form that descriptions which relate to the manifestations of the mind, or to the moral, domestic, and social qualities of human nature, can be made attractive; notwithstanding that these are superficial and deceptive productions of the Fancy, and can convey no real information upon the subjects which they profess to illustrate. This department of knowledge has thus sunk from mental analysis to mental illustration, or from a philosophy of mind to a philosophy of manners; and, while it has become easy to create any number of fictitious characters, it has become impossible to understand one that is real. The mind- having lost the power of analyzing mental states, and of comprehending the various powers of thought, of affection, and of will, by reflection in the consciousness only calculate how individuals, possessing certain physical characteristics and mental powers, will conduct themselves under a variety of circumstances. This class of writings, which appears under the forms of the novel and the novelette, has now become so popular and so abundant that this may be called emphatically the novel-writing and the novel-reading age; and when we contemplate the flood of literature of this most external descrip

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tion with which we are now inundated, proceeding from female and feminine minds, we can hardly doubt that the crisis of this latter development has nearly been reached. There is another phenomenon that should be noticed as belonging particularly to this last period of philosophical development, and which could not before have been realized, arising in the development of the destructive laws of the mind, by which an inversion of legitimate philosophical speculations is realized, and all the departments of literature become perverted; a perversion that is particularly dangerous, for the reason that it is accompanied by a personal elevation in those through whom it is realized, and a consequent elevation in their productions, which may be termed an advance from external to internal, and from material to ethereal, and which imparts to them a peculiar and deceptive charm. But as this subject would require an extensive and complicated consideration of abstract principles, which would interfere with our present object, which is to refer to things that can readily be recognized, as philosophic manifestations have already been alluded to belonging to this particular sphere of development,and as the analysis of Transcendentalism, which is the sphere to which these manifestations belong, will next occupy our attention,

we shall make no further allusion to it here. Having considered the degradation that has taken place in Architecture, Sculpture, and Philosophy, we will consider the minor and more external departments of Art.

The sciences and the inferior mechanic arts, being mathematical, external, and material, flourish at this period with increased vigor, for the reason that this is the material period of the soul's development. The higher subordinate arts are less depreciated than those we have just described, because they partake more of an external and affectional character. Even here, however, a decline is so evident that it can be neither overlooked nor denied. In Music, this decline is shown in the fact that it has descended from a religious and intellectual into a moral and affectional condition, which is passing from the supernatural to the natural, and from the Sublime to the Beautiful. This may be seen in the substitution of the Opera for the Oratorio and the Mass, and in the predominance generally of the secular over the sacred style; for to such an extreme has this been carried, that it is not uncommon to hear love songs and even bacchanalian songs introduced, under disguises, into the services of the Church. It may also be seen in the popular taste, which prefers that music which is the

sweetest, the most melodious, and the most affectional in character, and shows a particular fondness for "negro melodies," in which these qualities are strikingly predominant. The taste for this kind of music attends the corruption of Music as an Art; and this may be seen in the facility with which this degenerates into the Comic,- —a kind of music which is destructive to musical art, and also to the human voice. In Painting, this decline cannot be denied; for where shall we find among modern painters any who can be compared with Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, or Raphael? or who that reads the history of Painting can fail to perceive the gradual decline that followed the culminating point in this art, which was attained in the labors of these three great masters? At the time in which these artists appeared, the Eastern, the Grecian, and the Roman orders of Architecture were rigidly separated, and the religious ideas symbolized by the Italians in Painting, by which Christianity was represented, existed in the most violent contrast with the religious ideas of the Greeks as symbolized by this Art, by which the Incarnation of the Divine in the Human was represented. To Michael Angelo as the exponent of the Sublime, to Raphael as the exponent of the Beautiful, and to Leonardo da Vinci as the exponent of Beauty, which unites the sublime with the beautiful, was committed the task of co-operating in the production of Eclecticism in Art, or of uniting all its elements in one great school; and although these three artists were the exponents of the sublime, of the beautiful, and of beauty in art, these three were combined in the compositions of each. Hence, when Michael Angelo was called upon by the head of the Church to construct its great Cathedral at Rome dedicated to St. Peter, he combined in his plan the Eastern, the Grecian, and the Roman orders of Architecture: and, when Raphael was called upon to decorate the palace of the Pope at Rome, on the four walls of the first room painted by him he portrayed the four antagonistic sides of human thought, ― Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence; a fact which not only proclaimed the eclectical character of the school of which he was one of the founders, but also the eclectical character of the Church of Rome, and of the Pope as a true descendant of St. Peter. This school of Art is thus alluded to in Kugler's handbook of Painting as an introduction to a description of the works of the three great artists here mentioned: "All the elements which had existed apart from each other, and had composed distinct styles in the periods hitherto considered; all the qualities

which had been successively developed, each to the exclusion of the rest, but which in the aggregate fulfilled the conditions of a consummate practice of Art, were united about the beginning of the sixteenth century. This union constituted a most rare and exalted state of human culture, — an era when the divine energies of human nature were manifested in all their purity. In the master-works of this new period, we find the most elevated subjects represented in the noblest forms, with a depth of feeling never since equalled." This is the high point from which Art has fallen, even in the department of Painting, which is one of the most external of the arts, and therefore one in which degradation does not so readily appear; although it is even here so apparent and so fully acknowledged, that it is hardly necessary to describe it. It may be seen in the predominance of the Landscape over the Historical form, and even over that of legitimate Portraiture, which, as a product of the Imagination, is ideal in character, — in the extensive introduction, into its compositions, of domestic animals, with which Sublimity, which is the life of Art, can never be associated, — in the tendency to illustrate affectional experiences, and also those of common and even of vulgar life which border upon caricature, a style of art in which Wilkie was so successful, and for which he obtained the honor of Knighthood, — and, finally, this decline may be seen in the tendency to indulge in caricature, or the Comic, which is an inversion of true Art; a tendency distinctly manifested in the productions of the Dusseldorf School, which constitutes the culminating point in the external or Unitarian school of modern art. There is another sign of degradation, which will be found not only in Painting, but in every other form of modern art; and we will take a more particular notice of this, because, though it is not one of the most striking, it refers to an element in Art that it has been particularly difficult to define, — the Picturesque. This is the most external, although it is also one of the most important, elements in Art. It is realized by the Fancy, as the constructor of the body of Art, and consists of legitimate or harmonious relationships between opposite things, upon the principle of contrast, of gradation, or of unity in diversity, by which the necessary relief is given to the most prominent ideas or objects, in order that the mind may be directed towards them, and the requisite attention bestowed, — that harmonious relationships may be established between the various parts, so that its individuality shall be preserved, and one idea shall characterize the whole, — and that a proper subordination of the lower to the

higher may be effected throughout. The picturesque is particularly important in pictorial art, from which its name has been derived; it being here seen, not only in the disposition of the light and shade, by which a picture is to a great extent constituted, but in the arrangement of its forms and colors, and even in the disposition of its more internal elements, by which one thing is made distinctly visible by being set off against something that is comparatively opposite and at the same time harmonious. By taking this idea as our guide, we shall be able clearly to comprehend the difference between the true and the false picturesque, which may be described as follows: The true picturesque is realized in contrasting things which are comparatively opposite, and yet harmonious, in any work, for the purpose of bringing prominently before the mind the principal elements contained in it, and binding all its parts together in a legitimate chain of relationship by which the lower are made completely subordinate to the higher for use. The false picturesque is realized in contrasting things which are opposite and at the same time discordant, or between which no legitimate relationship exists; and in making prominent those objects which should be kept subordinate, and used simply to relieve those more important, thus destroying unity and repose, which are vital elements in all Art.

That the true ground of the picturesque is contrast, has always been practically recognized, because to these contrasts the term "picturesque" has usually been applied. It is therefore rather remarkable that this ground should have been sought for in some one simple idea or element. By some writers, decay has been assumed to constitute the picturesque in Art: and Mr. Ruskin conceives it to be constituted by the sublime; distinguishing the true and the false picturesque as genuine sublimity, and " parasitic sublimity." Now, decay is often introduced into Art as a contrast to freshness and vigor, and the sublime is often introduced as a contrast to the beautiful; but neither of these constitutes the picturesque. Decay is one of the most common elements in the production of illegitimate picturesque effects, for the reason that the contrast is more extreme between life and death than between any other opposites that can be found; and it was probably the frequency of its use that led to the theory just mentioned. Thus, a decayed leaf upon a fresh branch, a dead branch upon a verdant tree, a dead tree or a ruin of some kind in a landscape, are said to be picturesque. Decay is of itself falsely picturesque, because the opposite element with which it is contrasted is readily fur