Every trick of thought and every harlequinade of
phrase have been put in operation for the purpose "de nier ce qui est,
et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas."
Ce qui n'est pas:- for the drama has not declined. The facts and the
philosophy of the case seem to be these. The great opponent to
Progress is Conservatism. In other words- the great adversary of
Invention is Imitation: the propositions are in spirit identical. Just
as an art is imitative, is it stationary. The most imitative arts
are the most prone to repose and the converse. Upon the utilitarian-
upon the business arts, where Necessity impels, Invention, Necessity's
well-understood offspring, is ever in attendance. And the less we
see of the mother the less we behold of the child. No one complains of
the decline of the art of Engineering. Here the Reason, which never
retrogrades or reposes, is called into play. But let us glance at
Sculpture. We are not worse here, than the ancients, let pedantry
say what it may (the Venus of Canova is worth, at any time, two of
that of Cleomenes), but it is equally certain that we have made, in
general, no advances; and Sculpture, properly considered, is perhaps
the most imitative of all arts which have a right to the title of
Art at all. Looking next at Painting, we find that we have to boast of
progress only in the ratio of the inferior imitativeness of
Painting, when compared with Sculpture.
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