Page:The Polygraphic Apparatus.djvu/27

n I i E I 22 § return supplanted by our native ones, and let the former be placed there, where our history is silent and does not {ind an inch of space for its representation. Let us aim at establishing cheapness to such a degree, that ' even the less wealthy tradesman --- instead of the passing enjoy- I ments in places for public amusement-- may, by degrees, be enabled to purchase pictures that would give him more lasting pleasure, whilst they would serve to instruct and emulate his children; and we shall — just as we meet in towns which have taste for the line arts, like Munich, Dresden, and Dusseldorf, private individuals in possession of small collections of the best masters -—·— at least in some time to come, find those choice colour-prints on the walls, which, considering the reasonableness of the price, these parties will like as well, as the other parties like the rare productions of the great masters. But there is one favorable circumstance I must not pass over. Every year a number of individuals quit the academies for the plastic arts who have not attained th at kind of excellence in the department they have chosen, which would enable them to claim an indepen- dent position as artists; and they find still more difficulty in main- taining themselves by a common trade. lf the graphical departments of art were made use of for the purposes already intimated, every year might be expected to bring forth a number of young, hopeful artistieal mechanists who could be withdrawn from the proletarian artists. lf these academies in principal cities received a proper im- pulse, that aimed at more universal usefulness, I should think that the time has arrived at which it would be advisable to establish such an artistical institution as the point of issue and point of con- tact for the cultivation of the people, the prolit of which —— if appro- priately conducted -·—· considering that the number of purchasers would amount to nearly 37 millions, would be very considerable. Let us consider that the public in Austria does not consist of people whose fondness for reading and sights is on the decline, --· but that these qualities might rather be expected to increase in