-
Articles/Ads
Article THE WORK OF IRON, IN NATUREART, AND POLICY. ← Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Work Of Iron, In Natureart, And Policy.
tint to give rich harmonics of distant purple in opposition to the green of our woods and fields . Whatever brightness or power there is in the hue is entirety owing to the oxide of iron . AAfthout it the slates would cither be pale stone colour , or cold grey , or black .
Thus far wc have only been considering the use and pleasantness of iron in the common earth of clay . But there arc three kinds of earth ivhich in mixed mass and prevalent quantity form the world . Those are , in common language , the earths of clay , of lime , and of Hint . Many other elements are mingled with these in sparingquantities ; but the great frame and substance ofthe earth is made of these three , so that wherever you stand on solid ground , in any
country of the globe , the thing that is mainly under your feet will be either clay , limestone , or some condition of the earth cf flint , mingled with both . These being what we have usually to deal with , nature seems to have set herself to make these three substances as interesting to us , and as beautiful for us , as she can . The clay , being a soft and changeable substanceshe doesn't take much pains aboutas we
, , have seen , till it is baked ; she brings the colour into it only when it receives a permanent form . But the limestone and flint she paints , in her own way , in their native state ; and her object in painting them seems to be much the same as in her painting of flowers ; to draw us , careless and idle human creatures , to watch her a little , and see what she is about—that being , on the whole , good for us—her children . For nature is always carrying on very
strange work with this limestone and flint of hers—laying down beds of them at the bottom ofthe sea ; building islands out ofthe sea ; filling chinks ancl A-cins in mountains with curious treasures ; petrilyingmosses , ancl trees , and shells ; in fact , carrying on all sorts of business , subterranean or sub-marine , which it would be highly desirable for us , who profit ancl live by it , to notice as it goes on . And apparently to lead us to do this , she makes picture-books
loins of limestone and flint ; and tempts us , like foolish children as we are , to read her books by the pretty colours in them . The pretty colours in her limestone books form those variegated marbles which all mankind have taken delight to polish and build with from the beginning of time ; and the pretty colours in her flint-books form those agates , jaspers , cornelians , bloodstones , onyxes , cairngorms , chrysoprascs , winch men have in like manner taken delight to cut , and polish , and make ornaments , from the beginning of time ; and yet , so much of babies are they , and so fond of looking at the pictures instead of reading the book , that I
question whether , after six thousand years of cutting ancl polishing , there are above two or three people out of any given hundred , who know , or care to know , how a bit of agate or a bit of marble ivas made , or painted . How it was made , may not be always very easy to say ; but with what it was painted there is no maimer of question . All those beautiful A-iolet A'e ' m ' mgs and variegations of . the marbles of Sicily and Spain , the glowing orange and amber
colours of those of Siena , the deep russet of the Rosso antico , and the blood-colour of all the jirccious jaspers that enrich the temples of Italy ; and , finally , all the lovely transitions of tint in the pebbles of Scotland and the ] thine , which form , though not the most precious , by far the most interesting portion of our modern jewellers' work;—all these are painted by nature with this one material only , variously proportioned and applied—the oxide of
iron that stains your Tunbridge springs . But this is not all , nor the best part of the work of iron . Its service in producing these beautiful stones is only rendered to rich people , who can afford to quarry and polish them . But nature paints for all the world , poor and rich together ; and while , therefore , she thus adorns the innermost rocks of her hills , to tempt investigationor indul luxury—she paintsfar
your , ge your , more carefully , the outside of the hills , ivhich are for the eyes of the shepherd and the ploughman . I spoke just now of the effect in the roofs of our villages of their purple slates ; but if the slates are beautiful CA'CII in their flat ancl formal rows on house-roofs , much more are they beautiful on the rugged crests ancl flanks of their native mountains . Have you ever considered , in speaking as wc do so often of distant blue hills , what it is that makes them blue V certain extent
To a it is distance ; but distance alone will not do it . Many lulls look white , however distant . That lovely dark purple colour of our 'Welsh ancl Highland hills is owing , not to their distance merely , but to their rocks . Some of their rocks are , indeed , too dark to be beautiful , being black or ashy grey ; owing to imperfect and porous structure , lint when you see this dark colour dashed with russet and blue , ancl coming out iu masses among the green ferns , so purple that you can hardly tell at first whether it is rock or heather , then you must thank your old Tunbridge inenil , the oxide of iron ,
But this is not all . It is necessary for the beauty of hill scenery that nature should colour not only her soft rocks , but her hard ones ; and she colours them with the same thing , only more beautifully . Perhaps you wondered at my frequent use of the word " purple , " speaking of stones ; but the Greeks , and still more the Romans , who had profound respect for purple , used . it of stone long ago . You have all heard of " h " as among the most
porpyry jirccious of the harder massive stones . The colour which gave it that noble name , as well as that ivhich gives the flush to all the rosy granite of Egypt—yes , and to the rosiest summits of the Alps themselves—is still owing to the same substance—your humble oxide of iron .
And last of all : A nobler colour than all these—the noblest colour ever seen on this earth—one which belongs to a strength greater than that of the Egyptian granite , and to a beauty greater than that of the sunset or the rose—is still mysteriously connected with the presence of this dark iron . I believe it is not ascertained on what the crimson of blood actually depends ; but the colour is connected , "
of course , with its vitality , and that vitality with the existence of iron as one of its substantial elements . Is it not strange to find this stern and strong metal mingled so delicately in our human life , that we cannot CA ' blush without its help V Think of it , my fair and gentle hearers ; how terrible the alternative—sometimes you have actually no choice but to be brazen facedor iron faced !
, In this slight review of some of the functions of the metal , you observe that I confine myself strictly to its operations as a colouring element . I should only confuse your conception of the facts , if I endeavoured to describe its uses as a substantial element , either in strengthening rocks , or in influencing vegetation by the decomposition of rocks . I have not , therefore , even glanced at any of the more serious uses of the metal in the of art . But
economy what I wish you to carry clearly away with you is the remembrance that iu all these uses the metal would be nothing without the air . Tiie pure metal has no power , and never occurs in nature at all , except in meteoric stones , whose fall no one can account for , ancl which arc useless after they have fallen : in the necessary work of the world , the iron is invariably joined with the oxygen , and would be of no service or beauty Avhatever without it .
Iron in A rt . —Passing from the offices of the metal in the operations of nature to its uses in the hands of man , you must remember , in the outset , that the type which has been given you , by the lifeless metal , of the action of body and soul together , has noble antitype in the operation of all human power . All art worthy the name is the energy—neither of the human body alone , nor of the human soul alone , hut of both united , one guiding the other : good craftmaiiship and work of the fingers , joined with good emotion and work of the heart .
There is no good art , nor possible judgment of art , when these two arc not united ; yet we are constantly trying to separate them . Our amateurs cannot be persuaded but that they may produce some kind of art by their fancy or sensibility , Avithout going through the necessary manual toil . That is entirely hopeless . AVithout a certain number , and that aA'ery great number , of steady acts of hand—a practice as careful and constant as would be
necessary to learn any other manual business—no drawing is possible . On the other side , the workman , ancl those who employ him , are continually trying to produce art by trick or habit of fingers , without using their fancy or sensibility . That also is hopeless . AVithout mingling of heart passion with hand power , no art is possible . The highest art unites both in their intensest degrees ; the action ofthe hand at its finest , with that ofthe heart at its fullest .
"Hence it follows that the utmost power of art can only be given in a material capable of receiving and retaining the influence of the subtlest touch of the human hand . That hand is the most perfect agent of material power existing in the universe ; and its lull subtlety can only be shown when the material it works on or with is entirely yielding . The chords of a perfect instrument will receive it , but not of an imperfect one ; the softly bending of colourwill receive
point of the hair pencil , ancl soft melting , it , but not even the chalk or pen point , still less the steel point , chisel , or marble . The hand of a sculptor may , indeed , be as subtle as that ot a painter , bnt all its subtlety is not bestoivablc nor expressible : the touch of Titian , Correggio , or Turner , is a far more marvellous piece of nervous action than can be shown in anything but colour , or in the very hig hest conditions of executive expression in music . In . proportion as the material worked upon is less delicate , the execution necessarily becomes lower , and the art with it . This is one main principle of all
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Work Of Iron, In Natureart, And Policy.
tint to give rich harmonics of distant purple in opposition to the green of our woods and fields . Whatever brightness or power there is in the hue is entirety owing to the oxide of iron . AAfthout it the slates would cither be pale stone colour , or cold grey , or black .
Thus far wc have only been considering the use and pleasantness of iron in the common earth of clay . But there arc three kinds of earth ivhich in mixed mass and prevalent quantity form the world . Those are , in common language , the earths of clay , of lime , and of Hint . Many other elements are mingled with these in sparingquantities ; but the great frame and substance ofthe earth is made of these three , so that wherever you stand on solid ground , in any
country of the globe , the thing that is mainly under your feet will be either clay , limestone , or some condition of the earth cf flint , mingled with both . These being what we have usually to deal with , nature seems to have set herself to make these three substances as interesting to us , and as beautiful for us , as she can . The clay , being a soft and changeable substanceshe doesn't take much pains aboutas we
, , have seen , till it is baked ; she brings the colour into it only when it receives a permanent form . But the limestone and flint she paints , in her own way , in their native state ; and her object in painting them seems to be much the same as in her painting of flowers ; to draw us , careless and idle human creatures , to watch her a little , and see what she is about—that being , on the whole , good for us—her children . For nature is always carrying on very
strange work with this limestone and flint of hers—laying down beds of them at the bottom ofthe sea ; building islands out ofthe sea ; filling chinks ancl A-cins in mountains with curious treasures ; petrilyingmosses , ancl trees , and shells ; in fact , carrying on all sorts of business , subterranean or sub-marine , which it would be highly desirable for us , who profit ancl live by it , to notice as it goes on . And apparently to lead us to do this , she makes picture-books
loins of limestone and flint ; and tempts us , like foolish children as we are , to read her books by the pretty colours in them . The pretty colours in her limestone books form those variegated marbles which all mankind have taken delight to polish and build with from the beginning of time ; and the pretty colours in her flint-books form those agates , jaspers , cornelians , bloodstones , onyxes , cairngorms , chrysoprascs , winch men have in like manner taken delight to cut , and polish , and make ornaments , from the beginning of time ; and yet , so much of babies are they , and so fond of looking at the pictures instead of reading the book , that I
question whether , after six thousand years of cutting ancl polishing , there are above two or three people out of any given hundred , who know , or care to know , how a bit of agate or a bit of marble ivas made , or painted . How it was made , may not be always very easy to say ; but with what it was painted there is no maimer of question . All those beautiful A-iolet A'e ' m ' mgs and variegations of . the marbles of Sicily and Spain , the glowing orange and amber
colours of those of Siena , the deep russet of the Rosso antico , and the blood-colour of all the jirccious jaspers that enrich the temples of Italy ; and , finally , all the lovely transitions of tint in the pebbles of Scotland and the ] thine , which form , though not the most precious , by far the most interesting portion of our modern jewellers' work;—all these are painted by nature with this one material only , variously proportioned and applied—the oxide of
iron that stains your Tunbridge springs . But this is not all , nor the best part of the work of iron . Its service in producing these beautiful stones is only rendered to rich people , who can afford to quarry and polish them . But nature paints for all the world , poor and rich together ; and while , therefore , she thus adorns the innermost rocks of her hills , to tempt investigationor indul luxury—she paintsfar
your , ge your , more carefully , the outside of the hills , ivhich are for the eyes of the shepherd and the ploughman . I spoke just now of the effect in the roofs of our villages of their purple slates ; but if the slates are beautiful CA'CII in their flat ancl formal rows on house-roofs , much more are they beautiful on the rugged crests ancl flanks of their native mountains . Have you ever considered , in speaking as wc do so often of distant blue hills , what it is that makes them blue V certain extent
To a it is distance ; but distance alone will not do it . Many lulls look white , however distant . That lovely dark purple colour of our 'Welsh ancl Highland hills is owing , not to their distance merely , but to their rocks . Some of their rocks are , indeed , too dark to be beautiful , being black or ashy grey ; owing to imperfect and porous structure , lint when you see this dark colour dashed with russet and blue , ancl coming out iu masses among the green ferns , so purple that you can hardly tell at first whether it is rock or heather , then you must thank your old Tunbridge inenil , the oxide of iron ,
But this is not all . It is necessary for the beauty of hill scenery that nature should colour not only her soft rocks , but her hard ones ; and she colours them with the same thing , only more beautifully . Perhaps you wondered at my frequent use of the word " purple , " speaking of stones ; but the Greeks , and still more the Romans , who had profound respect for purple , used . it of stone long ago . You have all heard of " h " as among the most
porpyry jirccious of the harder massive stones . The colour which gave it that noble name , as well as that ivhich gives the flush to all the rosy granite of Egypt—yes , and to the rosiest summits of the Alps themselves—is still owing to the same substance—your humble oxide of iron .
And last of all : A nobler colour than all these—the noblest colour ever seen on this earth—one which belongs to a strength greater than that of the Egyptian granite , and to a beauty greater than that of the sunset or the rose—is still mysteriously connected with the presence of this dark iron . I believe it is not ascertained on what the crimson of blood actually depends ; but the colour is connected , "
of course , with its vitality , and that vitality with the existence of iron as one of its substantial elements . Is it not strange to find this stern and strong metal mingled so delicately in our human life , that we cannot CA ' blush without its help V Think of it , my fair and gentle hearers ; how terrible the alternative—sometimes you have actually no choice but to be brazen facedor iron faced !
, In this slight review of some of the functions of the metal , you observe that I confine myself strictly to its operations as a colouring element . I should only confuse your conception of the facts , if I endeavoured to describe its uses as a substantial element , either in strengthening rocks , or in influencing vegetation by the decomposition of rocks . I have not , therefore , even glanced at any of the more serious uses of the metal in the of art . But
economy what I wish you to carry clearly away with you is the remembrance that iu all these uses the metal would be nothing without the air . Tiie pure metal has no power , and never occurs in nature at all , except in meteoric stones , whose fall no one can account for , ancl which arc useless after they have fallen : in the necessary work of the world , the iron is invariably joined with the oxygen , and would be of no service or beauty Avhatever without it .
Iron in A rt . —Passing from the offices of the metal in the operations of nature to its uses in the hands of man , you must remember , in the outset , that the type which has been given you , by the lifeless metal , of the action of body and soul together , has noble antitype in the operation of all human power . All art worthy the name is the energy—neither of the human body alone , nor of the human soul alone , hut of both united , one guiding the other : good craftmaiiship and work of the fingers , joined with good emotion and work of the heart .
There is no good art , nor possible judgment of art , when these two arc not united ; yet we are constantly trying to separate them . Our amateurs cannot be persuaded but that they may produce some kind of art by their fancy or sensibility , Avithout going through the necessary manual toil . That is entirely hopeless . AVithout a certain number , and that aA'ery great number , of steady acts of hand—a practice as careful and constant as would be
necessary to learn any other manual business—no drawing is possible . On the other side , the workman , ancl those who employ him , are continually trying to produce art by trick or habit of fingers , without using their fancy or sensibility . That also is hopeless . AVithout mingling of heart passion with hand power , no art is possible . The highest art unites both in their intensest degrees ; the action ofthe hand at its finest , with that ofthe heart at its fullest .
"Hence it follows that the utmost power of art can only be given in a material capable of receiving and retaining the influence of the subtlest touch of the human hand . That hand is the most perfect agent of material power existing in the universe ; and its lull subtlety can only be shown when the material it works on or with is entirely yielding . The chords of a perfect instrument will receive it , but not of an imperfect one ; the softly bending of colourwill receive
point of the hair pencil , ancl soft melting , it , but not even the chalk or pen point , still less the steel point , chisel , or marble . The hand of a sculptor may , indeed , be as subtle as that ot a painter , bnt all its subtlety is not bestoivablc nor expressible : the touch of Titian , Correggio , or Turner , is a far more marvellous piece of nervous action than can be shown in anything but colour , or in the very hig hest conditions of executive expression in music . In . proportion as the material worked upon is less delicate , the execution necessarily becomes lower , and the art with it . This is one main principle of all