INSIDE THE POTTERY. 99 defeat the Boers who invaded our territory. Having defeated them, they harbor no ill will, but regard them with humane feelings. No, no,' said he, clinching his fist and stretching out his right arm, combat does not involve malice. Difference of function does not imply even antagonism. Look at my arm. With the extensor I thrust out my arm; with the flexor on the other side I draw it back. The two muscles have absolutely opposite functions, but you need both of them in order to use your arm. So it is in life. There is an apparent opposition, a duality of func tion necessary to build up a true unity. Hence intolerance of opposition is one of the worst sins against progress. 11 CREEDS AS PICTURES. "Creeds," said he, "are all very well in their way; but, after all, they are but pictures of the Infinite as seen by the human mind. Take an illustration. I have seen some picture of some natural object, and I wish to make you understand what it is. Far simpler than to describe it in words is to make a picture, -draw a sketch, and let you look at it. It is the same with creeds. The Church makes creeds as I make a picture. For the ordinary man, who has had no vision himself, it suffices. If you can see the object yourself, you recognize that my sketch is only a picture, and not the real thing. tendency is always to substitute the sketched object for the reality. Look at this hand," said he. "What wonderful things we can do with the human hand." The I looked at it closely, and wished that I could read the secret of the innumerable lines which crossed and recrossed, not only the palm, but every phalange; the hand of the artist and thinker, -a hand every inch of the surface of which was scored deep with eloquent lines. Mr. Watts was not thinking, however, of palmistry. He was bent upon giving me one of those homely illustrations with which his conversation abounds. THE PARABLE OF THE FINGERS "Here," said he, seizing the forefinger of his right hand in the finger and thumb of his left, "do you see that? That stands for faith, that for hope, and so on," he continued. "These four fingers represent the ministration of man. They stand for Religion. Now look at the thumb. The thumb stands for Reason. Cut off a man's thumb, and what can he do? Nothing, except perhaps hang on to a bar with his fingers. Take away the fingers, and what can he do with his thumb? And so it is in life. The human race loses the use of its hand when religion is divorced from reason or reason from religion. As you must have your fingers and your thumb in order to grasp anything, so man needs both reason and religion in order to conduct his life. But stay," said he; I have had typed out for you two quotations which seem to me to express the highest thought uttered by man upon the subject of religion. There is nothing higher or simpler or more noble." TWO GOLDEN SENTENCES. With that he left the room, and presently returned with a sheet of paper on which were typewritten two sentences. "The first," he said, "contains the closing words of the speech of Abraham Lincoln": With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his children, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. "Oh, he was a great man, Abraham Lincoln, THE UTMOST FOR THE HIGHEST. "Yes, indeed," I said, "and the essence of all religion is the same. What is wanted is to create some center where the best thought of the best men, all the best that has been done and thought in the world, should be rendered accessible to every one, and that from that center should go forth the energizing force, reviving civic religion. and summoning and directing us all in the service of mankind." "Ah, yes," said he, "if you could make such a church, then indeed we would all belong to it. You know my motto," he continued, pointing as THE DOOR OF THE MORTUARY CHAPEL. he spoke to a sundial which bore eloquent testimony to the skill of the potter-artists who worked under the direction of Mrs. Watts. I read the inscription. The utmost for the highest.' That has ever been my watchword. Do you not think it is a good one?" "Yes, indeed," I replied. "But it is easier for us to know when we have done our utmost than to be sure about the highest." The painter did not speak, but, walking a little way, he picked up a daisy from the lawn and gave it me. "It is my flower," said he; "a humble thing, but it ever looks upward." MR. RHODES. "Ah," said Mr. Watts, Mr. Rhodes was a great personality, one of the few of the great ones who were left to us. Bismarck, I suppose, was a great man; but here among us I do not see any other personality so great as Rhodes. You know, he came," said Mr. Watts, "at six o'clock in the morning, and stood here for his portrait for two or three hours. I never finished it. Some day I hope I shall do so. He was a great man, and yet," "said he, "I do not know that I care very much for the idea of Imperialism." THE STATUE OF TENNYSON. One of these good men to whom England gave birth in the nineteenth century is engaged in modeling plaster. Mr. Watts took me to the outbuilding in which he was modeling a colossal figure of Tennyson. It represented the poet wearing his familiar cloak. The head, though not then placed upon the shoulders of the gigantic figure, began to bear a striking likeness to the dead poet. Speaking of ideal figures, Mr. Watts mentioned incidentally, when we were talking in the studio, that in painting his ideal pictures he never employed the services of any model. By this means he avoided the danger of introducing the copy of an actual physical creature into a picture which was designed solely to represent an idea. If he found himself at a loss for any particular anatomical detail, he would model the figure in clay, and use that as a guide to his brush. Of late Mr. Watts has been painting trees. His pictures, of panel shape, were painted from trees which can be seen from the windows of Limnerslease. There was a large unfinished picture in his studio representing Repentant Eve. Eve, mother of all mankind, stands with her back to the spectator, treading under foot a white lily, while a long glorious wealth of flaxen hair streams from her head, which is slightly bowed in grief. "It is a study," said Mr. Watts, of penitent woman, which is probably the highest form of womanhood; and yet they are often penitent, poor things," he said, "when they have little reason for remorse. They suffer much at the hands of others." THE GENEROSITY OF GENIUS. Mr. Watts has been singularly reckless and prodigal with the gifts of his genius. Now and then he sells a picture merely to supply the wants of every day; but most of his work he has done without other fee or reward than the consciousness of artistic creation and the joy of his art. From the time he was sixteen, that is to say, for three score years and ten,-Mr. Watts has maintained himself by his brush. He might have been a very wealthy man, but he is one of the children of light whom the skill of the children of the world in amassing worldly gear repels rather than attracts. In the course of an artistic career extending over the life of two generations, Mr. Watts has been brought in contact with men in all sorts of positions, from the King on the throne to the Hooligan in the street. I asked him whether he had ever kept a journal. He said, no; he did not care for personal gossip. THE PARADISE OF LIMNERSLEASE. After lunch, while Mr. Watts rested, Mrs. Watts took me round the little domain, which was beginning to glow with the early glory of spring. It was difficult to realize that all this wealth of shrubbery and wood was the growth of only eleven years. Everywhere the touch of the master and the grace of the mistress had together made Limnerslease itself a beautiful picture, the idyllic peace of which imprinted itself upon all its denizens. Mr. Rhodes was deeply impressed with the sweet serenity and calm of the artist's retreat. The servant who opened the door, the man who drove him to the station, seemed to share in the restful ease which soothed and tran quillized the eager Colossus. "And do you know," said he, in his odd way, "I believe if I had gone down to the kitchen, I am sure I should have found the same sweet serenity on the face of the cook." A little way to the south of the house, in the valley, lies the art pottery works originally es The pottery naturally suggested itself as one of the most obvious and simple means by which to teach children to make things. Near Limnerslease lies a long deep narrow stratum of clay, the product of the attrition of granite boulders in ages long gone by, which have left behind them this clay as part of the inheritance of the human race. From this stratum the clay is brought out, disintegrated by winter's frost, then caked together, and passed through a mill whose revolving knives chop it up. It is then taken to a well, where it is mixed with water, and in the consistency of a muddy liquid it passes through a fine sieve into the vats, where it remains until sufficient moisture is removed to render it available for the potter's wheel. The one great staple "The Wounded Heroes" and two portraits of women, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837; "Isabella Finding Lorenzo Dead," from Boccaccio (1840); "Caractacus Led in Triumph Through the Streets of Rome" (1842); "Alfred Inciting the Saxons to Prevent the Landing of the Danes by Meeting Them at Sea "— a cartoon (1847), for which he won a prize of £500, purchased with his "Echo" by the Commissioner, and now at Westminster; "Justice," or "School of Legislation" (1859), a fresco, in dining hall of Lincolns Inn; "Orlando Pursuing the Fata Morgana" (1848); "The Good Samaritan" (1850), painted in honor of Thomas Wright, of Manchester, and presented to the Town Hall of Manchester by the artist; "Life's Illusions" (1849); "St. George and the Dragon," a fresco, in the upper waiting room at Westminster, begun in 1848, and completed in 1853; "The Window-Seat," "Sir Galahad" (1862), “Virginia" and "Ariadne" (1863), "Esau" (1865), "Love and Death" (1877), presented by the artist to Whitworth Institute at Manchester; "Paolo and Francesca" and "Orpheus and Eurydice" (1879), both in possession of the artist; "Psyche" (1880), "Rider on the Pale Horse" and "Rider on the White Horse" (1881). "Rider on the Black Horse" and "Rider on the Red Horse" (1883), "Love and Life" (1884), "Death of Cain," "The Soul's Prism" and "Hope" (1886), in possession of William R. Moss; "Love Steering the Boat of Humanity," exhibited this year at the New Gallery. A LIST OF SOME OF MR. WATTS' MOST IMPORTANT WORKS. Among his sculptured works are "Clytie," "Statue of Hugh Lupus," "The Huntsman" (at the Duke of of the pottery manufacture is the great globular vase which is usually brought from Italy, but which can now be supplied from the Compton pottery. Another important department of the output consists in the manufacture of windowboxes in what appears to be terra cotta, with beautifully modeled bas-reliefs and fronts. These are supplied at 10s. and 12s. 6d. each. The cost of the vase is 20s. THE WORK OF THE VILLAGE ARTISTS. They also produce sundials in clay at various prices, everything being done with the hand, and nothing by machine or by mould. Endless varieties of pattern can be obtained. All the productions are stamped with a special seal. I saw some of these, on the bases of which the heraldic bearings of the purchaser had been carefully modeled, and then affixed to the side of the globe. All manner of charming, quaint, and symbolic work can be seen at the pottery; but to see what can be done when good clay is moulded by nimble fingers under the direction of an artistic brain, a visit should be paid to the mortuary chapel in the little graveyard, close to Limnerslease. It is all the work of the Compton people, and the ironwork at the door was done by the village blacksmith. Westminster's country seat, near Chester), "Physical Energy," and the recumbent figure of Bishop Lonsdale in Litchfield Cathedral. He has painted portraits of Guizot (1848), Tennyson (1859), also one early unfinished study and a painting finished from the study in May, 1890, another in possession of the Dowager Lady Bowman, another in red robes at Trinity College, Cambridge, and another in a peer's robes in possession of the artist; Browning, Swinburne (1865), William Morris, Carlyle, J. Stuart Mill (1874), Matthew Arnold, Dean Stanley, W. E. Lecky, Gladstone (1865), the Duke of Argyll, Leslie Stephen, Holman Hunt, Burne-Jones, Millais, Leighton, Lord Lyndhurst, presented to the National Gallery by the artist, with portraits of Lord John Russell and Lord Lyons; John Lothrop Motley (1882), Cardinal Manning (1882), Lord Lytton (1882), Sir Alexander Cockburn, Viscount Sherbrooke, Mrs. Frederick Meyers, Marquis of Salisbury (1884), Earl Lytton (1884), Rt. Hon. Gerald Balfour (1899), Livingstone, Joachim (1867), Dr. Martineau, Calderon, Max Müller, Lady Mount-Temple, Walter Crane (1893), Sir Andrew Clark, the Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham, Major-General Baden-Powell, exhibited at this year's Academy, and several portraits of himself, one in possession of the Dowager Lady Bowman, and one in the Uffizzi at Florence. Mr. Watts has painted five generations of the Ionides family. Many of the portraits first in the list were seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the winter of 1884-85. A number of these portraits will go to the nation. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS IN CUBA. BY ALBERT G. ROBINSON. UBA'S present is dark with the gloom of in Her future is bright with the promise of peace and abundant prosperity. Given a land of im measurable fertility, readily accessible to the markets of the great world outside it,—a land receiving in due measure the kiss of the sun and the benediction of the rain,-and, if that land be not unduly and artificially barred from the world's markets, prosperity is inevitable. is Cuba's future. The days which lie immediately before her are filled with an uncertainty which renders prediction concerning them little else than folly. But, sooner or later, the clouds and the doubts which overshadow the Cuba of to-day will pass, and the island will take its place in the world as a land of peace and plenty. That SPANISH TRADE RESTRICTIONS. Cuba's present distress is but the crisis of an economic disease of many years' standing. The original provoking cause was the unjust and unwise colonial policy adopted and maintained by the mother country. It began as far back as the year 1503, when a royal ordinance established the Casa de la Contratacion, or House of Commerce, at Seville. This body was empowered to grant licenses, to dispatch fleets, and to regulate and control Spanish colonial trade as an exclusive monopoly. In 1717, the institution was transferred to the port of Cadiz. The colonial trade was thus restricted to a single Spanish port. Further restrictions prohibited both intercolonial trade and trade with any country other than Spain. For a period during the seventeenth century such trade was made an offence punishable by the death of the trader and the confiscation of the property involved. In the first fifty years of Cuba's history, Santiago was the only port of the island through which merchandise could be either imported or exported without violation of the law. With the establishment of Havana as the capital, in 1552, that city became the only port officially recognized. With the exception of the brief term of British occupation, 1762-63, this condition obtained until the close of the eighteenth century. A royal order, issued in 1801, opened the other ports of the island to foreign trade. This was annulled by another order in 1809. A few years later a new policy was adopted. The ports were opened, but the same results were accomplished by a system of discriminating tariffs which gave Spain a practical monopoly of Cuban trade. This continued, subject to sundry minor modifications, until the execution, in 1891, of the reciprocity treaty with the United States. With the termination of that treaty, in 1894, there came a reversion to the old system of discriminating, pref. erential, and special tariffs in favor of Spain and against all other countries. This restriction of the fullest development of the resources of the island was one of the prominent fundamental causes of all the numerous revolts, large and small, which have occurred in Cuba since her first really notable revolt, in 1823. The Ten Years' War (1868-78) made no serious inroads upon Cuba's production. The abolition of slavery, finally effected in 1886, made a material difference in the cost price of her products. This was one of the direct results of the Ten Years' War. Coincident with the war and this enhanced cost of sugar production, there came the vigorous competition of Europe's bountied beet sugar, which forced the f. o. b. prices of Cuba's raw sugar down from 5 to 5 cents per pound, which it obtained from 187080, to 2 to 3 cents per pound twenty years later. To meet this competition, Cuban planters borrowed heavily for the construction of grind ing mills equipped with modern machinery. In spite of the benefits of the years of reciprocity between Spain and the United States (189194), the outbreak of the revolution of 1895 found many Cuban planters burdened with overwhelming mortgages, and facing a further downward tendency in sugar prices. The three years of devastating war destroyed scores of mills and plantations, but it did not destroy the mortgages and the financial obligations of the planters. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AFTER THE SPANISH- American intervention, in 1898, terminated a war which left Cuba an industrial wreck, with her finances in a state of chaos. Unfortunately for Cuba, and for the United States as well, her real condition was neither realized nor under |
0 Opiniones Las opiniones no están verificadas, pero Google revisa que no haya contenido falso y lo quita si lo identifica Escribir un comentario |