tedly to results of immeasurably more importance than the end
originally proposed; and that, while the ostensible end may turn out to be
a failure or of doubtful benefit, some real good, some lasting advantage,
shall be brought out by the exercise of the ability, energy, and
faithfulness of the agents employed.

The mind can scarcely work on given materials without making some
discovery. In this sense did Socrates adopt the line of Hesiod--

"Employ thyself in any thing rather than stand idle."

We are of those who would doubt the advantages proposed by the Commission
of the Fine Arts. If it were likely to lead to a permanent patronage for
_great works_, it would be a boon indeed; but if it be the cause of only a
temporary excitement, holding out a promise which it has no means of
fulfilling, encouraging talent, and making it unprofitable, turning it
from the line in which it is wanted, to that in which it is not likely to
be sought after, the artists will have little reason in the end to be
thankful for the establishing of this Commission. The competition which it
proposes is not altogether wholesome: it is sicklied over from the
beginning with the fear and jealousy of a class. The tried hands of an
academy abstain from a contest which may take away from them the honour
(in the world's eye) which has been exclusively appropriated to them; and
the new aspirants work at too probable a loss, scarcely hoping that their
labours will be adopted or rewarded: while in that absence of a higher
competition, the public, and possibly the Commission itself, expect
inferiority; and if these _great_ pictures, great in dimensions as in
attempt, are not purchased by the public, there can be little hope that
any private dwellings will contain them. If the object be to adorn the
Houses of Parliament with pictures, it would be far better to select from
the painters we have, and give them their work to do, than to raise up a
host of artists, nine-tenths of whom must sink under a hopeless lack of
employment; for there is not a general taste for the particular style
which it is the object of the Commission to promote, nor can there well be
in a country where there are so few public edifices of importance and of
public resort, and so few palaces capable of containing works of great
size. Indeed the art of decoration is with us quite of another character,
and one little adapted for the display of great works. There, is paint in
profusion