Part 12 (2/2)

MacBorrowdale?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I hold to the opinion I have already expressed, that this is as good a gla.s.s of port as ever I tasted.

_Lord Curryfin._ I mean your opinion of modern music and musical instruments.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ The organ is very good for psalms, which I never sing, and the pianoforte for jigs, which I never dance. And if I were not to hear either of them from January to December, I should not complain of the privation.

_Lord Curryfin._ You are an utilitarian, Mr. MacBorrowdale. You are all for utility--public utility--and you see none in music.

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Nay, not exactly so. If devotion is good, if cheerfulness is good, and if music promotes each of them in proper time and place, music is useful. If I am as devout without the organ, and as cheerful without the piano, as I ever should be with them, that may be the defect of my head or my ear. I am not for forcing my tastes or no-tastes on other people. Let every man enjoy himself in his own way, while he does not annoy others. I would not deprive you of your enjoyment of a brilliant symphony, and I hope you would not deprive me of my enjoyment of a gla.s.s of old wine.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian_:

'Tres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur, Poscentes vario multum diversa palate'{1}

1 Three guests dissent most widely in their wishes: With different taste they call for different dishes.

_Mr. Falconer._ Nor our reverend friend of the pleasure of a cla.s.sical quotation.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ And the utility, too, sir: for I think I am indebted to one for the pleasure of your acquaintance.

_Mr. Falconer._ When you did me the honour to compare my house to the Palace of Circe. The gain was mine.

_Mr. Pallet._ You admit, sir, that the Greeks had no knowledge of perspective.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Observing that they had no need of it. Their subject was a foreground like a relievo. Their background was a symbol, not a representation. 'No knowledge* is perhaps too strong. They had it where it was essential. They drew a peristyle, as it appeared to the eye, as accurately as we can do. In short, they gave to each distinct object its own proper perspective, but to separate objects they did not give their relative perspective, for the reason I have given, that they did not need it.

_Mr. Falconer._ There is to me one great charm in their painting, as we may judge from the specimens in Pompeii, which, though not their greatest works, indicate their school. They never crowded their canvas with figures. They presented one, two, three, four, or at most five persons, preferring one and rarely exceeding three. These persons were never lost in the profusion of scenery, dress, and decoration. They had clearly-defined outlines, and were agreeable objects from any part of the room in which they were placed.

_Mr. Pallet._ They must have lost much in beauty of detail.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Therein is the essential difference of ancient and modern taste. Simple beauty--of idea in poetry, of sound in music, of figure in painting--was their great characteristic. Ours is detail in all these matters, overwhelming detail. We have not grand outlines for the imagination of the spectator or hearer to fill up: his imagination has no play of its own: it is overloaded with _minutio_ and kaleidoscopical colours.

_Lord Curryfin_. Detail has its own beauty. I have admired a Dutch picture of a butcher's shop, where all the charm was in detail.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I cannot admire anything of the kind. I must take pleasure in the thing represented before I can derive any from the representation.

_Mr. Pallet._ I am afraid, sir, as our favourite studies all lead us to extreme opinions, you think the Greek painting was the better for not having perspective, and the Greek music for not having harmony.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ I think they had as much perspective and as much harmony as was consistent with that simplicity which characterised their painting and music as much as their poetry.

_Lord Curryfin._ What is your opinion, Mr. MacBorrowdale?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ I think you may just buz that bottle before you.

_Lord Curryfin._ I mean your opinion of Greek perspective?

_Mr. MacBorrowdale._ Troth, I am of opinion that a bottle looks smaller at a distance than when it is close by, and I prefer it as a full-sized object in the foreground.

_Lord Curryfin._ I have often wondered that a gentleman so well qualified as you are to discuss all subjects should so carefully avoid discussing any.

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