be borne in mind that the luxury would be more spectacular than actual, since it would consist principally of mural hangings, to be colored and recolored at will, of carpets, plants, and of the simplest furniture. Nor can there be any doubt that a collection of works of art thus framed would prove profoundly instructive, not only to the general public, but also to the artists themselves, painters equally with sculptors, goldsmiths, designers of fabrics, glass-workers, and cabinet-makers. The city possessing such an annual Salon might go far in the develop ment of a general Renaissance such as may be observed at various points in the history of art, and inevitably further a growth of lofty ideals and standards which would place her, for a time at least, in the very forefront of intellectual communities. But the experiment should above all be tried in a city not as yet corrupted, as is Paris, Berlin, London, or New York, by the mercenary and secular considerations which have come in these centres to be the prime factors in the activity of the artistic world.-A. S., G. W. C.

The distributing of works of art over walls, about floors, and throughout glazed cases will never be agreeable to the enthusiastic lover of the works of art themselves. But, then, for that matter, it will never be agreeable to the lover of the work of art to have it fixed permanently, kept out of the reach of his changing as to place and as to its angle of light, kept out of the way of his handling that he might turn it over and up and see its inside as well as its more brilliantly adorned exterior, kept out of the sphere of his influence that he might move it into a fuller daylight or put it into a more concentrated beam of light, with a view to bringing out its modelling. Neither the sculpture of large size which never seems at home in a gallery, nor the paintings of importance which must of necessity be injured by their near neighbors, nor the more refined and more exalted works of delicate water-color which are sure to find neighbors even more injurious than do the oil paintings, nor the pieces of bookbindings, of wrought silver, of carved ivory, of enamel or of porcelain, which are of necessity boxed in by sheets of plate glass, through which but a partial view of the charming objects themselves can be had; not one of all these can be enjoyed as well in the public gallery as the man who loves them

thinks he could enjoy them if in his own control. He would put the large scale sculpture into the open air and into a special point of vantage where its own special dignity might tell while its peculiar delicacy, whatever that might be, might not be lost; he would put the large painting upon a wall where nothing else could disturb it, trying gingerly, bit by bit, the neighborhood of this or that minor work of art in hopes that someone, or even several, of these last, might be found rather to gain than to lose by the neighborhood of their formidable neighbor and perhaps be helped by a sort of contrast. And as for the more delicate, the minuter objects, there is only one way to enjoy them, as the true student of such things knows. It is to keep them locked up out of harm's way and bring them out once in a while for examination with the fingers as well as with the eyes. A true lover of Japanese lacquer boxes or of repoussé and enamelled eighteenth century watches-if you have ever watched him enjoy the examination and critical appreciation of this or that piece of his favorite department of art, he will seem to you to perceive as much through his fingertips as through his eyes. If you have had the good fortune to visit the collection of a friend of art with the collector's presence and suggestions to help, you have noticed his eagerness to bid you take and handle the choicest pieces-he having first assured himself that you know how to grasp them firmly and hold them safely.

This freedom to handle and to change the point of view cannot be granted in the case of the public exhibition, permanent or temporary; but the other thing, the collection of works of art, arranged as in a private room and for the delectation of a loving collector, might indeed be attained, though not so very easily nor so very soon. Success in this will come only with time and as the result of experiment. A very singular intelligence on the part of placing committees themselves, and a very singular patience, too, will be found essential to arrange these imagined collections in which each piece helps its neighbors and is itself benefited by the help it gives. And, moreover, there is the certainty of protest from those persons who for the moment are more desirous to learn than to enjoy-more desirous to compare as investigators do than to receive and rejoice as enthusiasts do in their moments of leisure.

In fact, it is to many persons not a moment of leisure nor a moment fitted for tranquil enjoyment when they stand in a hall of temporary exhibition. The opportunity lasts for only a month; the building is a little out of the way; time is precious and engagements are many; it is not likely that more than three or five-visits can be paid-and during the brief hours of those visits as much as possible must be learned-let enjoyment wait for another time, even for the time when memory shall deal with that which is to be learned while the exhibition remains open. So, too often, would the eager student receive your offer to him of a truly artistic combination of pieces in an exhibition of the future.

There is another difficulty to be met that is a two-fold one. It is the same difficulty that attends the organization and policing of our great modern agglomerations of men and women which we call cities, or-in a very modern phrase-metropolitan districts, and the like. It is a two-fold difficulty-the vast number of works of art which offer themselves for exhibition and the great crowds of people who come to look at them. Unless abundant space can be provided, the exhibitions of the twentieth century will suffer like those of the nineteenth century from the crowd, often of well-chosen works of art, and from the throng, which cannot be kept out, of even well-meaning visitors. Much system, much form and order must be maintained, or these crowds of works of art and of students of art will inevitably clash. It would seem as if the paintings must still hang on walls, and that the minor works of art must needs be arranged in somewhat a formal way on tables; and then the multitude, which tries to move slowly on before the pictures, will be impa

tient with the tables, and eagerly seek for their removal. As for sculpture, unless the abundant space of the old Parisian Palais d'Industrie, with its green sward and winding paths, with statues and busts on pedestals standing here and there without apparent system;-unless that abundant accommodation can be provided, the statues and busts will still have to be arranged in rows, greatly to the injury of their effect, no doubt, but perhaps inevitably so. The ideal exhibition will be, as it has been, the small onethat in which only a few pieces are on view at any one time, and those are put into full light and can be seen without the severe elbowing of your neighbors. But at that rate the year would not be long enough to hold the exhibitions which succeed one another. And the immediate remedy seems to lie somewhere in combination of all the exhibitions of the great city into what might be considered a single exhibition--single, because simultaneous. A dozen societies can provide more room for their exhibitions than a single one; and if those many associations agree to build their galleries in close connection with one another, and, if they agree further to hold exhibitions simultaneously, such liberty of choice would be given, such abundant opportunity of passing restfully from one intellectual excitement to another, that the fatiguing mass of a great exhibition in a single line of thought would be partially removed. Whether out of such a collected exhibition the more freely combined display of works of art might find its origin we cannot assert in advance. The tendency might not be exactly in that way, but it would assuredly be a tendency toward opportunities for more enjoyment and more intelligent study.-R. S.