a colorist. No visitor in Rome can
afford to miss the studio of one of the most imaginative of modern
artists. A wonderful picture still in process is a genre work with
several figures, called "Music." An idyllic scene of a festa amid the
ilex trees--with the Italian sky and the golden sunshine pervading a
luminous atmosphere, while the joyous abandon of the dancers appeals to
all who love Italy--is one of the many beautiful pictorial scenes of Mr.
Stetson which enchant the eye and haunt the imagination. Another
picture is called "Beggars,"--a name that illy suggests its splendor.
There is the facade of a church to which a long flight of steps leads
up, a procession of cardinals and friars in their rich robes, while at
one side the groups of beggars shrink into the darkness. It is an
impressive commentary upon life.

For a long period, through the early and middle years of the nineteenth
century, Rome held her place as the world centre of modern artistic
activity. Great works of poetic and ideal sculpture elevated the general
public taste to a high degree of appreciation. The standards were not
ingeniously adjusted to mere spectacular methods whose sole appeal was
to the crude fancy of possible patrons. Art held her absolute and
inviolate ideals, and the spirit of her votaries might well have been
interpreted in Mrs. Browning's words:--

"I, who love my art,
Would never wish it lower to suit my stature."

The tone of public appreciation is raised to a high quality only when
the artist refuses to sell his soul for a mess of pottage. He may, to
be sure, need the pottage, but the price is too great. Rather will he
find his attitude expressed in these wonderful lines:--

"I can live
At least my soul's life without alms from men.
And if it be in heaven instead of earth,
Let heaven look to it--I am not afraid."

All art that has within itself true vitality must ever be the leader and
the creator of the popular taste; only when it falls into decadence does
it become the servile follower.

It is a serious question as to the degree in which the art of to-day
keeps faith with the eternal ideals. The great expositions of the past
quarter of a century, while they have contributed immeasurably to the
popularization of art and to the familiarization of the public with the
work of individual painters and sculptors, have yet, in many ways, been
a demoralizing inf