tossed up in their force and splendor. How tame and unreal seem our flower paintings beside such work as this, superb as decoration but also full of the essential mystery of life and growth! VI What I have had to say in these few pages is of course the merest index to some of the predominant phases of the art of Asia. But it will serve at least to illustrate both the real relation that exists between the arts of these various countries and the inherent difference of character which has made each what it is. The absence of the scientific spirit, which has had so potent an influence on the art of Europe since the Renaissance, — the absence of this spirit and its application to all the problems of representation, -is perhaps the source of the most obvious differences between the painting of East and West. If we take a deeper view, the essential likeness between all fine creative work becomes more apparent the more we study. But within the art of Asia itself we note a real division. Indian art may be broadly compared with the medieval art of Europe. It is practically anonymous. Very few names of individual artists are recorded. There are no great outstanding personalities. It is an art of popular tradition, still able, at least in architecture, to work wonders, with none of the scientific apparatus and divided labor that are necessary with us. It is also, like mediæval art, pervaded by religion and the religious spirit. That makes it immensely interesting for us in an age when the popular crafts have so much died out and have lost all touch with the expressive arts. On the other hand its limitations are very great; how great, we realize when we turn to China and Japan, where, though the crafts have remained in touch with the arts, painting has developed within itself movements, corresponding to the movements in Western painting, and where a surprising amount of work that is centuries old seems modern in feeling and contemporary with ourselves. Chinese painting touches every side of human life, every relation of the human spirit to the world of nature. While the art of Europe has been pored over in minutest detail, we are still only at the beginning of the study of the art of Asia. Only the main outlines are apprehended, hardly even these. Indeed the special study required is so exacting and the subject has been approached from such different standpoints, that there may be a danger, in the fascinating task of detailed exploration, of losing sight of just those large relations which it has been the object of this paper to bring out. Snow on these fell-tops with a northeast wind Behind it, blowing steadily with a bite That made you feel that you were stark and skinned. And those poor beasts and they just off the boat A day or so, and hardly used to land Still dizzy with the sea, their wits afloat. When they first reached the dock, they scarce could stand, They'd been so joggled. It's gey bad to cross, After a long day's jolting in the train, Thon Irish Channel, always pitch and toss He'd almost think he must be getting old, To feel the wind so. And long out of sight They'd never heed a byroad. Many a day He'd had to trudge on, trusting them to fate, But in the end a man could walk them down. They're showy trotters, but they cannot last. On a day's journey. Beasts were never made But not a day like this! He'd never felt A wind with such an edge. 'T was like the blade Of the rasper in the pocket of his belt He kept for easy shaving. In his trade You'd oft to make your toilet under a dyke For all the use his clothes were, with the snow 'T was worse than when he'd groped His way that evening down the Mallerstang- He saw a lighted window he'd not seen, And he could taste them now, and feel the glow Of steady, aching, tingly, drowsy heat, As he sat there and let the caking snow Melt off his boots, staining the sanded floor. And that brown jug she took down from the shelf- And piping, 'Now reach up, and help yourself!' She was a wonder, thon, the gay old wife - Or no one would be dying, but the fat For want of custom.... Hell! but he would soon And not a spark Of comfort for him! Just to strike a light, |