nts of
consent or objection, with name of consenter or objector; so that after
courteous discussion had, and due correction of the original statement,
we may get something at last set down, as harmoniously believed by such
and such known artists. If nothing can thus be determined, at least the
manner and variety of dissent will show whether it is owing to the
nature of the subject, or to the impossibility, under present
circumstances, that different persons should approach it from similar
points of view; and the inquiry, whatever its immediate issue, cannot be
ultimately fruitless.

FOOTNOTES:

[62] _Art Journal_, New Series, vol. iv., pp. 5-6. January 1865.--ED.

[63] See p. 353, Sec. 83, for a further mention of William Blake.--ED.

THE CESTUS OF AGLAIA

CHAPTER I.[64]

31. Our knowledge of human labor, if intimate enough, will, I think,
mass it for the most part into two kinds--mining and molding; the labor
that seeks for things, and the labor that shapes them. Of these the last
should be always orderly, for we ought to have some conception of the
whole of what we have to make before we try to make any part of it; but
the labor of seeking must be often methodless, following the veins of
the mine as they branch, or trying for them where they are broken. And
the mine, which we would now open into the souls of men, as they govern
the mysteries of their handicrafts, being rent into many dark and
divided ways, it is not possible to map our work beforehand, or resolve
on its directions. We will not attempt to bind ourselves to any
methodical treatment of our subject, but will get at the truths of it
here and there, as they seem extricable; only, though we cannot know to
what depth we may have to dig, let us know clearly what we are digging
for. We desire to find by what rule some Art is called good, and other
Art bad: we desire to find the conditions of character in the artist
which are essentially connected with the goodness of his work: we desire
to find what are the methods of practice which form this character or
corrupt it; and finally, how the formation or corruption of this
character is connected with the general prosperity of nations.

32. And all this we want to learn practically: not for mere pleasant
speculation on things that have been; but for instant direction of those
that are yet to be. My first object is to get at some fixed principles
for the teaching of Art to our youth; and I am ab