right to say of one who is still working that he has reached his full
height, and even after death a certain period must elapse before the
true merit of an artist can be established and his name written in its
just place upon the roll of fame. So, in leaving this subject, we will
turn again to the land of which we first spoke in considering modern
sculpture. In Italy this art has not risen above the elevation to which
Canova and Thorwaldsen brought it; for though the last was a Dane, his
work may truly be said to belong to the Roman school. We must regard
Italy as the land of art in a peculiar sense, but it is easy to
understand that under the political misfortunes which she has suffered
an advance in artistic life could not be made. Now, when a new spirit is
active there, and a freer thought prevails in other directions, may we
not believe that in the arts there will be a revival of the best
inspiration that has ever come to that home of grace and beauty?

As we glance over the entire civilized world of to-day we find an
immense activity in all matters pertaining to the fine arts. Schools and
academies are multiplied everywhere, and the interest in works of art is
universal. Many a private gentleman is to-day as liberal a patron of
artists as were the princes and nobles of the past. It is as if there
were a vast crucible in which artists of all nations are being tested,
and from this testing of their metal it would seem that much pure gold
must come forth.

As we review the history of sculpture from its earliest days to the
present, we are compelled to linger lovingly with the Greek or classic
art. The period in which it existed was a blessed period for the
sculptor. We all know that the best foundation for the excellence of art
is the study and reproduction of _nature_, and in the times of the
Greeks there was no reason why the human form, the most beautiful object
in nature, should not be used by the sculptor for the decoration of the
temple, for the statues of the public square or theatre, or for any
position in which sculpture could be used at all. The customs of modern
life are opposed to this free exhibition of nude forms, and the
difficulties that are thrown in the way of the sculptor by this one fact
are almost more than we can realize; and the task of draping a figure
and yet showing its shape and indicating its proper proportions and
action is one before which even a Greek sculptor would have reason to
dou