12. On the Graphic and Fine Arts.

Of the importance of the proposed Museum of Industrial Science and Art, it is needless to speak.  It would be for the public the central feature of the Institute, and of incalculable value not only to it, but to all engaged in all active industry whatever.

As regards the School of Industrial Science and Art, with its divisions, we see no occasion for material cause of difference between its constitution and that of the excellent Polytechnic College in Philadelphia.  New departments of instruction could be added as the means and power of the Institute increased, until it would ultimately form what the world needs but has never yet seen—­a thoroughly scientific University, in which every branch of human knowledge should be clearly taught on a positive basis—­a school where literature and art would be ennobled and refined by elevation from mysticism, ‘rhapsody,’ and obscurity, to their true position as historical developments and indices of human progress.  We are pleased to see that in the plan proposed, provision would be made for two classes of persons—­those who enter the school with the view of a progressive scientific training in applied science, and the far more numerous class who may be expected to resort to its lecture-rooms for such useful knowledge of scientific principles as they can acquire without continually devoted study, and in hours not occupied by active labor.

This whole plan, though in the highest degree practical, has, it will be observed, ’no affinity with that instruction in mere empirical routine which has sometimes been vaunted as the proper education for the industrial classes’—­an absurd and shallow system which has been urged by quacks and dabblers in world-bettering, and which has been exhausted without avail in England—­the system dear to single-sided Gradgrinds and illiterate men who grasp a twig here and there without knowing of the existence of the trunk and roots.  It lays down a perfectly scientific and universal basis, believing that the most insignificant industry, to be perfectly understood and pursued, must proceed from a knowledge of the great principles of science and of all truth.

Under the charge of Professor W.B.  Rogers, Messrs. Charles H. Dalton, E.B.  Bigelow, James M. Beebee, and other members of a committee embracing some of the most public-spirited men of Boston, this plan has been thus far matured, and now awaits the sympathy, aid, and counsel of the friends of industrial art and general education throughout the community.  We have gladly set forth its objects and claims, trusting that it may be fully successful here, and serve as an exemplar for the establishment of similar institutions in every other State.

SLAVERY AND NOBILITY vs.  DEMOCRACY.