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3 o'clock.Friday, Feb. 5th4th Intermediate, 3 o’olk.are Very interestingattractedattention.»ThkSrnatr Committih oh Bknbvolrnt Institutions.—rThe Committee, consisting of Doctor* Kincaid, Case, Vannatta, Ashman, Mr. Canfield, and the Honorable CharlesThem as, accompanied by the county Treasurer,CountyIsaiah Rogers, Esqmorning visited the Hamilton County LunaticAsylum, at Lick Run. After inspecting the arrangements throughout, whioh they pro-nounoed most perfect, the party sat down to asubstantial dinner, prepared by^the direction of Dr. Mount, who acted as c\ap«rm« upon the occasion. Nanoy Farrer was the principaloook, and after the guests had proved themselves excellent trencher men, she was introduced by the Dooter as the experienced agent, under whose auspices the dinner was served up. The antecedents of the individual were notwell calculated to aid the digestion of thosewho had partaken of the viands, and some ofthe party looked as if they would like to refund the account; however, they made the bestof it, by diluting the dinner with a due pro portion of native wine. Three of the Commit*• ♦tee, namely: Drs. Kinoaid, Ashman and Vannatta, were originally graduates of the Ohioreceivedfrom the hand of Dr. Mount, who was met asa very old acquaintance.After they had snffioiently recruited themselves at the Asylum, they visited the House of Refuge. This morning upon their exploring expedition, they depart for Dayton.Third Lecture Biforb the Y. M. M. L. A.by Herman Melville, Esq.—Herman Melville’s lecture last night, upon “Statues inRome,” proved a most agreeable entertainmentto a select audienoe of at least a thousandpersons. Had the weather been even reasonably propitious,! the spacious hall, no doubt, would have been filled. 'As a literary production,the lecture was very superior; it abounded withhappy gems of thought and beautiful wordpainting—a department of literature in whichdr. Melville greatly excels. We subjoin abrief sketch of it, pleading a want of spaceand time as excuse for a less finished report:If what is best in nature and knowledge cannot be elaimed for the privileged profession ofany order of men, it would be a wonder if, in that region called Art, there were, as to what is best there, any essential exclusiveness. True, the dilletnti may employ his technical terms; but ignorance of these prevents not due feeling for Art, in any mind naturally alive to beauty or grandeur, just as the productions ofnature may be both appreciated by those whoknow nothing of Botany, or who have no inclination for it, so the creations olt; Art may be, by those ignorant of its critical science, or, indifferent to it. N%y, as it is doubtful whether to the Scientific Linnaeus flowers yielded so much satisfaction as to the unscientifio Burns, or struck so deep a chord in his bosom; so may it be a question whether the terms of Art may not inspire in unartistio but still susceptible minds, thoughts, or emotions, not lower than those raised in the most accomplished ofcritics. Yet, we find that many thus natarally susceptible to such impressions, refrain from their utterance, out of fear, lest in their ignorance of technicalities their unaffected terms might betray them, and that after all, feel as they may, they know little or nothing, and hence keep silence, not wishing to become presumptuous. * * * * May it not possibly be, that as Burns perhaps understood flowers as well as Linnaeus, and the Sootch peasant’s poetical description of the daisy, “wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower, is rightly set above the technical definition of the Swedish professor, so in Art, just as in nature, it may not be the aooredited wise man alone, who, in aU respects, is qualified to com-prshni or describe.lt; _f/ - KfWith this explanation* I, who am neither oritio nor connoisseur, thought fit to introduoe some familiar remarks upon the Sculptures inRome, a subject iwhich otherwise might be thought to lie peculiarly within the province of persons, of a kind of cultivation, to which I make no pretension.The approach to Rome from Naples is by thegate of St. John, passing through whioh the first object of attraction is the gronp of colossal figures in stone, surmounting, like storks, the lofty pediment of St. John Lteran. Standing in every grand or animated attitude, they seem not only to attest that this is the Eternal City, but likewise at its portal, to offer greeting in the name of that great company of statues whioh, amid the fluctuations of the human census, abides the true and undying population of Rome. It is, indsed, among these mute citizens, and mostly in the Vatioan Museum, that the stranger forms his most pleasing and oherished associations. In thatgrand hall he will nbt only make ne w acquaintances, bat will likewise revive many long before introduced by the historian. And he willfind many deficiencies of the historian suppliedilptor, wno has effected in part,iult; ‘ ^ ': “by the soulptor, who has effected in part, for the celebrities of old what the memoir writer of the present day does for modern ones. In viewing the statues and basis of Demosthenes, Titus, Socrates, Cu'sar, Seneca, Nero, and others, we feel a sense of reality not to be givea by history; and although we are at first startled by some of them froih our preconceived opinions, yet we seldom, on reflection, fail to concede the general likeness to that which the historian has furnished us. The analysis of the marble coincides with the historian’s ana • lysis of the man.The statue whioh most of all in the Vatioanexcites the admiration of all visitors, is theFew sneak, or even whisper, whenIf oneApollo.pethey enter the cabinet where it stands, were to try to convey some adequate notion, other than artistic, of a statue whioh so signally lifts the imaginations of men, he might hint that it gives a kind of visible response to that class of hnman aspirations which, according to Faith, be truly gratified, except inanother world. It is infinitely grander than the Yenns di Medici, in Florence, for while she is lovely, he* is divine. The thought of many of these beautiful figures having been pleasiag to the Romans, at least persuades us that their violence, as a conquering race, did not engross them, and the flame kindled in most men bynature was at ne time in Roman breasts wholly stamped out When I stood in the Colisseum,its mountain-chains of ruins waving with foliage girding me round, as in some great green hollow in the Appenine range, the solitude was like that of savage nature; but restoring the shattered arches and terraces, I repeopled them with dll the statues from the Vatican, and in the turfy glen of the arena below, I placed the fighting Gladiator from the Louvre, confronting him with the dyfng one from the Capitol. And as in my fancy I heard the ruffian huzzasfor the first, rebound from the pitiless hiss forthe last, I felt that more than one in that host I had evoked, shared not in its passions; that some hearts were there that felt the horror keenly as any of ns would have felt it.Not the least, perhaps, among these causeswhich make the Roman museums so impressiveis their tranquil air. In chambers befittingstand the images of gods, while in the statues of men, even the vilest, what was corruptible in their originals here in pure marble puts on inoorrnption. In the Reman Vatican and the Washington Patent Office the respective characteristics of the ancient* and moderns stand contrasted. But is the Looomotive as grand an objeet as the Lao coo*? Does it attest this hurried intelligenee? We moderns did invent the printing press, but from the anoients have we not the best thoughts whioh it circulates? As the Roman arch enters into and sustains our best architecture, does not her spirit stiR animate and support whatever is soundest in societies and States? Or shall the scheme of Fourier supplant the code of Justinian, only when the novels of Dickens silence the satires of Juvenal? If the Collisenm expresses the durability of Roman ideas, what does the Crystal Palace express? Will the glass of the one bide the hail storms of eighteen centuries as well as the travertine of the ether? 4When falls the Oolisenm, Rome shall fall,”And when Rome falls, the world.”Mr. Melville Is rather an attractive person, though not what anybody would describe good looking. He is a well built, muscular gentleman, with a frame oapatle of great physical exertion and enduranoe. His manner isgentle and persuasive, while a certain indefinable sharpness of features, with small twinklingblue eyes under arched brows, and a rathercontracted and rugged forehead, indicates thefpirit of adventnre whioh sent him roving aHis face, thgee parts obsailor’s aturdy life. ^ _urnred bv a heavy brown beard and moustache, Mill glbums duskily wltk th. PolynMi.. polUh l imiM uudM th. U»nj iofln.uOM of. South.tu iun. and hi. voio. u »• »ft *»d .1-most as sweet, barring * slight hnskineas pro-o* eding from a cold, as the warbling of thewinds in cocoa groves. His style of deliveryIs earnest, though not sufficiently” animated fora Western audieaoe, and he enunciates wishstood iand vurai,even*militc of lOV plea*aleg I(friend (who i atoryLieotlt;well e:W m. Clarabeautten hjan Enlove tlt;lhatic young baa oeflourisroungmanncderedand Pi Britislselves.renderspiritJonatlnectici Skunk tenciei captur yet, tb his sidi Pel eg womaxlantr/tf hiscompaicow hid DOrsa confesspoison* and Kli piece ticharacl and eflt tractivithen*—’Tbaaotic sextinuoui sary ac stage, i riablv «lishuiei(Com pia movei Barzedaword tothe proidas is ai which 1 brightei and it it every ef respects Stage M fully for and for tists, ax neitherErrjpublishmtariiintelligrepublrspace flt;ever, is“ill, ishouldFaith ibest secor remcWithconneoiand infifact, thibelieveto belieprobabldisposit“reason,ichaATION.—plaintiffiendanttman, th present* Htandixj tain tint and was called a1 from th* three yei man, as taken bj fendanti that the as such lt;tiff’s de* been wi de fendaituenc« don hava his claim, w King i for defer Disaqiman, a t fenae toagree, aYaEIDand othe lidity of was exelt; law of try, i* Jcounselell, MinJacob fice on awaa disc before JPerfecit will b GalleryAnd jGallery,Withl 58 Westto get glt; measuresty*.AmbrotBishop'betweenServe*street.Ladieidish ofOr ii axFor CNETT’8 lt;Testii the We RobertDr. iBloodPhave su the taainerves.gards, tOfficethird bTo »Freigband red For coi ton; 24t street,lt;Str aiiShonlner of ]hie var and bet call.OnTton. 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Cincinnati Daily Commercial
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Wed, Feb 03, 1858
Page 2
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Cincinnati A.
OH, USA 22 Jan 2023
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