had
neither been buried nor misapplied. We find in a short paper on Lord
Houghton the remark that "there is an important difference between the
impression which a man makes who has avowedly done the utmost of which
he is capable, and that which springs from the exercise of genuine gifts
not so stimulated to their highest development." It cannot be doubted
that the former description is that which would apply to Taylor himself,
and probably with more force than to almost any of his contemporaries.

The American Art Review, Nos. 8 and 9. Boston: Estes & Lauriat.

These two numbers of the _Art Review_ contain some critical writing of a
really high order in a couple of papers by Mrs. M. G. Van Rensselaer,
entitled "Artist and Amateur." They present an earnest plea for the
pursuit of culture for its own sake in this country. Taking "culture" in
the true sense of the word, as the opening and development of all the
faculties, a positive and electric not a negative and apathetic force,
Mrs. Van Rensselaer points out that it is not the natural birthright of
a select few, but is to be won by none without hard endeavor. The
endeavor, the intelligence and, to a certain extent, the desire for
culture, already exist here, but are constantly misapplied, and this, as
Mrs. Van Rensselaer aims to prove, through a misconception of the
relative positions of artist and amateur. All instruction is directed
toward execution, which is the artist's province, instead of
understanding and appreciation, which are the gifts of culture. The
effort to make the execution keep pace with the teaching confines the
latter, for the majority of learners, to the lowest mechanical rules,
leaving intellectual cultivation altogether to artists. Mrs. Van
Rensselaer argues that the time and money spent by young ladies of
slender talent in learning to paint pottery would, if given to study of
the principles of technique and of the history and aims of art, leave
them with more trained perceptions, an intelligent delight in works of
art and a wider intellectual range. She does not confine the application
of her ideas to painting, but extends it to other arts, making the aim
in music the substitution of appreciative listeners for mediocre
performers. Another interesting article, which the two numbers before us
divide between them, is one on Elihu Vedder by Mr. W. H. Bishop. It does
not force any very definite conclusions upon the reader, but it gives
him some