The Work Of Iron, In Natureart, And Policy.

ivork . Another is , that whatever the material you choose to ¦ work with , your art is base if it docs not bring out the distinctive qualities of that material . . The reason of this second law is , that if you don't want the qualities of the substance you use , you ought to use some other substance : it can be only affectation , ancl desire to display your skill that lead you to employ a refractory substance , and therefore

your art will all be base . Glass , for instance , is eminently , in its nature , transparent . If you don't want transparency , let the glass alone . Do not try to make a window look like an opaque picture , but take an opaque ground to begin with . Again , marble is eminently a solid ancl massive substance . Unless you want mass and solidity , don't work in marble . Ifyou wish ' for lightness , take wood ; if for freedom , take stucco ; if for ductility , take glass . Don't try to carve feathers , or trees , or nets , or foam , out of marble . Carve white limbs and broad breasts only out of that .

So again , iron is eminentl y a ductile and tenacious substancetenacious above all things , ductile more than most . AV hen you want tenacity , therefore , and involved form , take iron . It is eminently made for that . It is the material given to the sculptor as the companion of marble , ivith a message , as plain as it can well be spoken , from the lips of the earth-mother , " Here's for you to cut , and here ' s for you to hammer . Shape this , and twist that . \/ liat

¦ A is solid aud simple , carve out ; what , is thin and entangled , beat out . I giro you all kinds of forms to be delighted in ;—fluttering leaves as well as fair bodies ; twisted branches as well as open brows . The leaf and the branch you may beat ancl drag into their imagery ; the bod y ancl brow you shall reverently touch into their imagery . Ancl if you choose rightly and ivork ri g htly , what you do shall be safe afterwards . Your " slender leaves shall

not break off in my tenacious iron , though they may he rusted a little with an iron autumn . Your broad surfaces " shall not be unsmoothed in my pure crystalline marble—no decay shall touch them . But if you carve in the marble what -will ' break with a touch , or mould in the metal what a stain of rust or verdigris will spoil , it is your fault—not mine . "

These are the main princi ples in this matter ; ivhich , like nearly all other ri ght principles in art , ive moderns deli ght in contradicting as directly and specially as may be . AVe continually look for , and praise , iu our exhibitions , the sculpture of veils , and lace , ancl thin leaves , and all kinds of impossible things pushed as far as possible iu the fragile stone , for the sake of ' showing the sculptor ' s dexterity . On the other hand , ire cast our iron into barsbrittle

— , though an inch thick—sharpen them at the ends , and consider fences , ancl other work , made of such materials , decorative ! I . do not believe it would be easy to calculate the amount of mischief done to our taste in England by that fence ironwork of ours alone . If it ivere asked of us , by a single characteristic , to distinguish the dwellings of a country into two broad sections ; and to set , on one side , the places where people iverelor the most

, part , simple , happv , benevolent , and honest ; and on the other side , the places where at least a ;> -reat number ot the people were sophisticated , unkind , uncomfortable , ancl unprincipled , there is , I think , one feature that you could fix upon as a positive test : the uncomfortable and unprincipled parts ola country would be the parts where people lived among iron railings and the comfortable ancl principled parts where they had none . A broad generalization , you will say ! Perhaps a ' little too broad : yet , m all sobriety , it will come truer than you think

Consider every other kind of fence or defence , and you will find some virtue iu it : but in the iron railing none . There is , first your castle rampart of stone—somewhat too grand to be considered here among our types of fencing ; next , vour garden or park wall of brick , ivhich has indeed often au unk ' ind look ou the outside , but there is more modesty in it than unkindness . It generally means , not that the builder of it wants to shut von out f 1 oin the view

- or his garden , but from the view of himself ; it is a . hank statement that as he needs a certain portion of time to himself , so he needs a certain portion of ground to himself , and must not be stared at when he di gs there in his shirt sleeves , or plays at leapfrog with his boys from school , or talks over old tunes with his wife , walking up and down in the evening sunshine , besidesthe brick wall has good practical service in itand shelters

, , you from the cast wind , and ripens your peaches and nectarines , and glows iii autumn like a sunny bank . And , moreover , your Di-ick wall , i you 1 ,,,,-Jd it p .-oporiy , so tlifit it shall stand ' long enough , is a beautiful thing when it is old , and has assumed if : ; grave purple red , touched with mossy gm-u . KexlU , your lordl y wall , in digi ' iity of enclosure , comes vour close set wooden paling , which is more ohiodioiiribh .. because it

commonly means enclosure on a larger scale than people want . Still it is significative of pleasant parks , ancl ivell kept field walks , and herds of deer , and other such aristocratic pastoralisms , which have here and there their proper p lace in a country , and may bo passed Avithout any discredit .

Next to your paling , comes your low stone dyke , 3 'our mountain fence , indicative at a g lance cither of wild hill country , or of beds of stone beneath the soil ; the hedge of the mountains —• delightful in all its associations , and yet more in the varied and craggy forms of the loose stones it is built of ; and next to the low stone wall , your lowland hedge , either in trim line of massive green , suggestive ofthe pleasaunces of old Elizabethan houses , ancl

smooth alleys for aged feet , ancl quaint labyrinths for young ones , or else in fair entanglement of eglantine ancl virgin ' s bower , tossing its scented luxuriance along our country' waysides : —how many such you have here among your pretty hills , fruitful with black clusters of the bramble for boys in autumn , ancl crimson hawthorn-berries for birds in winter . And then last , and most difficult to class among fences , comes your handrail , expressive of

all sorts of things ; sometimes having a knowing and vicious look , ivhich it learns at race-courses ; sometimes an innocent ancl tender look , ivhich it learns at rustic bridges over cressy brooks ; and sometimes a prudent ancl protective look , which it learns on passes of the Alps , where it has posts of granite ancl bars of pine , and guards the brows of cliffs and the banks of torrents . So that in all these kinds of defence there is some good , pleasant , or noble meaning . But what meaning has the iron railing ? Either ,

observe , that you are living in the midst of such bad characters that you must keep them out by main force of bar , or that you are yourself of a character requiring to be kept inside in the same manner . Your iron railing always means thieves outside , or Bedlam inside ;—it can mean nothing else than that . If the people outside were good for anything , a hint iu the way of fence ivould be enough for them ; but because they arc violent ancl at

enmity ivith you , you arc forced to put the close bars and the spikes at the top . Last summer I was lodging for a little while in a cottage in the country , and in front of my low window there were , first , some beds of daisies , then a row of gooseberry ancl currant bushes , ancl then a low wall about three feet above the ground , covered ivith stone-cress . Outside , a ^ corn-field , Avith its green cars glistening in the sun , and a field path through it , just

past the garden gate . From my Avindow I could sec CA-ery peasant of the A-illagc who passed that way , ivith basket on arm for market , or spade on shoulder for field . AVhen I was inclined for society , I . could lean over my wall , and talk to anybody ; ivhcn I ivas inclined for science , I could botanize all along the top of my Avail —• there were four species of stone-cross alone growing ou it ; and when . 1 was inclined for exercise , I could jump oi'er my Avail , backwards and forwards . That ' s the sort of fence to have in a

Christian country ; not a thing ivhich you can't walk inside of without making yourself look like a wild beast , nor look at out of your window in tiie morning without expecting to see somebod y impaled upon it in the night . And yet farther , observe that the iron railing is a useless fence —it can shelter nothing , and support nothing ; you can't nail your peaches to itnor protect your flowers with itnor make

, , anythink whatever out of its costl y tyranny ; ancl besides being useless , it is an insolent fence ;—it says plainly to everybody who passes— " You may be an honest person—but , also , yon may be a thief : honest or not , you shall not get in here , for I am a respectable person , anil much above you ; you shall only sec what a grand place I have got to keep you out of—look here , ancl depart in humiliation . "

This , however , being in the jiresent state of civilization a frequent maimer of discourse , and there being unfortunately manydistricts where the iron railing is unavoidable , it yet remains a question whether you need absolutely make it ugly , no less than significative of evil . You must have railings round your squares in London , and at the sides of your areas ; but need you therefore have railings so ugly that tbe constant sight of them is enough to

neutralize the effect of all the schools of art in the kingdom V You need not . Far from such necessity , it is even in your power to turn all your police force of iron bars actuall y into drawing masters , ancl natural historians . Not , of course , without some trouble aud some expense ; you can do nothing much ivorth doing , in this world , ivithout trouble , you can get nothing much worth haiing , without expense . The main question is only—what is

worth doing and having : —Consider , therefore , if this be not . Here is your iron railing , as yet , an uneducated monster ; a -timbre seneschal , incapable of any words , except , his perpetual "Keep out ! " and' -Away with you ! " Would it not be north