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Josiah Wedgwood.
great many shrewd and true observa-
tions, with an almost magical beauty.
If Goldsmith wished to tell us that
two and two make four, his way of stat-
ing it turns the formula into poetry; but
here comes one of England's most ace
complished gentlemen, a man who has
had every advantage that schools, uni-
versities, travel, the highest social con-
verse, and experience in affairs can give,
a training, in short, of which poor Gold-
smith never had the least share; from
which, indeed, he was completely cut
off by his birth and the very constitu-
tion of his mind; and yet with all these
gifts of fortune, Mr. Gladstone is power-
less to make even an attractive subject
attractive. The story of Wedgwood,
with all the historic interest of the art
he practiced, added to that story, or, the
story itself - think what Goldsmith
would have done with it! Think what
Ruskin would have done ! But out of
Mr. Gladstone's oppressively "p proper,"
correct, and labored address, without en-
thusiasm and with very little practical,
or practically put, information, we have
been able to extract only these few para-
graphs which are likely to interest our
manufacturers.
But little has been done thus far
among us in the way of calling in the
assistance of cultivated minds, of men
of talent, to add the element of beauty
to our manufactured-goods. In truth,
we produce very little in the way of
ornament, although we use, and pay for,
a good deal. But all, or niearly all our
designers for printed goods, cotton or
woolen, the decorators of our china, the
makers of patterns for our wall-papers
and carpets, the designers and carvers
of our furniture, the designers of our
jewelry, are either foreigners, or steal
their models from abroad. We wish it
were otherwise; but, so long as no large
nind springs up among the manufac-
turers to see what is to be gained for
the country and himself by establishing
a new order of things, we shall go on
imitating or buying foreign goods,
neglecting the vast storehouse of native
beauty in flowers, plants, and the
myriad suggestions of nature which
surround us in bountiful profusion.
The ' School of Design for Women,"
originally intended by its charitable and
intelligent founders to bring about this
very result, and which, if it could have
been ranaged with the energy that, dis-
played by the same ladies, among others,
has made the Sanitary Commission one
of the most splendid features of our
war-would have opened to American
women a hundred happy avenues to
honorable employment-has, since the
Cooper Institute swallowed it up, been
turned entirely away from its original
purpose, and, with the exception of the
wood-engraving department, has become
a mere drawing-school, presided over in
this, its latest stage of decline, by a
principal without ideas as without
knowledge, and as thoroughly un-
American as English bigotry, narrow-
ness, and prejudice can make her, as-
sisted by an Italian who can supply in
ample measure all that might be want-
ing in any of these qualities. Under
such auspices, the School of Design is
rapidly becoming a means of diffusing
as much useless and pernicious knowl-
edge on the subject of art as is possible
for one institution to accomplish. Of
course, the girls who study there are
learning nothing that will do them any
good. With Mr. Farrer's resignation of
his place, all chance of their ever learn-
ing to draw from nature is taken away.
And thus the best hope we had, that a
class of workmen might be in training
for the work that will surely be re-
quired before long in our manufactories,
is gone for a good while, and a hundred
or so bright intelligent girls are to waste
their time and their money in pursuing
a system of study that, after a fair and
intelligent trial in every country in Eu-