not unmixed awe of the great man, but memories of by-gone pranks as an undergraduate, which overwhelmed him at that moment, but, as my own conscience was clear, I strolled out to have a look at one of the most profound scholars of the age, the translator of Plato into vigorous and exquisite English. He gave me a keen glance as he passed, and I could see from the lingering twinkle in his eye that our companion's behavior had not escaped his observation. lege, founded in 1871, in memory of Balliol, and I wouldn't meet him for a John Keble, than whom no more ten-pound note! I am afraid it was saintly spirit ever deserved so noble a memorial. Far too soon we were obliged to tear ourselves from a place whose interest and beauty are neverending. We had had but a glimpse, fleeting, yet too impressive to be evanescent. An amusing incident completed a delightful day. Looking up for a moment after emerging from one of the colleges into the open street, I caught sight of an imposing figure bearing down upon us, and felt in my bones that it was a celebrity. My exOxfordite seemed to be seized with the same idea, for he darted into one of the "quads," and ensconced himself from view behind the gateway. "I am in the most awful funk'!" he exclaimed, with British candor, when followed and interrogated by us. "There comes Jowett, the master of English slang for fright. Afternoon tea at a pastry-cook's, à la Tom Brown, and a last stroll up the "High," rounded out the day's pleasures, and as I gazed from the train a little later at the lovely vision of spires, domes, and towers gradually fading away into the distance, I paid them the farewell tribute of a longing sigh. Frances A. Walker. ART AT SMITH COLLEGE. [EDITORIAL NOTE.-The impressions of Mr. Elbridge Kingsley on art training in Smith College have exceptional value in two facts not here set forth by his pen. One is that over this art school presides the genius of Dwight W. Tryon. For no artist in America stands higher than he for refinement of interpretation of simple aspects of the landscape in its most poetic moments. The other fact is that among American engravers Mr. Kingsley stands eminent, if not pre-eminent, for the earnestness and success of his efforts to put away all intermediate processes from between his art and the aspects and inspirations of nature herself. His beautiful experiments in engraving from nature directly upon the block are famous. Not so well known, though hardly less interesting, are his essays in process-engraving, wherein he photographs directly from nature upon the block, dispensing with the office of any intermediate photographer; the object of both these endeavors being to avoid the otherwise inevitable loss of many of the noblest and fairest effects in nature. Mr. Kingsley's engraving on page 53 is one of his best examples of this kind of work.] ROM the first, sentiment behind the "totem" behuman inter- comes clothed in a language harmocourse has been nious with its own aspirations. hampered by the inadequacy of language in the expression of ideas. The accepted, in all methods of communication, serve but as threads of suggestion to lead the creative mind above and beyond its physical environment. And while that mind is seeking to compass the mysteries of a universe, it is brought face to face with the immense spiritual power that controls the whole in such wonderful harmony. It is equally the province of religion and art to cherish and feed this aspiration of the human soul. By whatever mode a national art expression has found voice, its full fruition seems dependent upon reaching down with its roots into the moral and religious conscience of the people. However vast the amount of trivial outcome in the lives of men, born of the fashion for a day and forgotten, there is a golden thread running through the history of the nations, which always means an expression in harmony with this intense yearning of the human after the infinite; the shaping of thought that is to last forever. Civilization affects to despise the crude superstition of the savage, yet contempt changes to worship when the Whether embodied thought be dug from the ruins of Egypt, Assyria, or Greece, whether training be had in the best schools of modern culture, or whether all outside of the national life shall be shut out, the problem that America must solve as it gets older is, What shall it have to say for itself in art, along the lines of its own life, history, and aspirations? There is no doubt as to the meaning of a people at certain salient historical points. The Pilgrim Fathers meant civil and religious liberty when they landed at Plymouth Rock; meant it so intensely that it has not since been forgotten by their descendants in any important issue. To-day America stands foremost among the nations as representative of liberty of thought and conscience for the whole people. Thus it becomes not only fitting but necessary that her art expression should be built along the same lines; that its creators shall dare to think and produce independent of precedent; shall be willing to sacrifice material advantage for the sake of conviction; shall suffer from antagonisms and persecutions. cause it is only through such fires that the best in human nature climbs to the heights of a worthy spiritual influence. Only then does it reach up and touch the greater power beyond, and become vitalized for the good of future genera tions. Always has this great truth the college grounds in a solid wall of been inherent in the best of human production. ton. In the very heart of New England, just where the lovely Connecticut emerges from the hills and flows out upon the lowlands, stands NorthampFor many years the business and educational interests of outlying towns have focused at this point, and, since the days of railways, it has been the avenue to the outside world for many an untraveled and isolated family. Scarcely forty years ago, a small boy took such a drive with his parents from the town of Hatfield to the annual cattle show. He sat on the hillside and saw a wonderful balloon ascension, at the juncture of Main and Elm streets. As with its single occupant it sailed off into space, it carried with it youthful aspirations. Vague, unsubstantial dreams and longings concentrated on the golden bit of color as it hovered in the melting blue above Mount Holyoke. There were the valley and the shining river below, the green meadows and the mountains beyond; one of the fairest landscapes that the sun ever shone upon. Thus the scene appeared from the hillside. But how much greater must the same landscape have appeared from the balloon as it hung poised, like a thing of life, above the mountain, looking down on the world it had left; fitting emblem of the height of the spiritual above the material. Those were days when education for women in higher branches was little thought of, and training for the art student was counted of still less importance. And yet even then the foundations were being laid for a fabric to be reared on that same hillside, which for momentous consequence dwarfed the dreams of childhood. At the time of the balloon ascension the hillside was appropriated by the homesteads of a farming community; to-day the whole space is crowded with massive buildings, and outside business is so brisk that it threatens to inclose brick and mortar, while from a beginning of perhaps a dozen students the college authorities are now obliged to provide for a thousand. This is the tangible and material side of the picture that appears to the observer while walking up Main street, Northampton. But what is not seen at a glance is the spreading out over a vast and growing country, of an army of educated young people who are constantly adding to the elements which contribute to the continual growth of the college in the Connecticut valley. There is an attraction here akin to that force which draws in wanderers from all parts of the earth for one more glimpse of a childhood home. A But one of the most important features of the educational influence emanating from Smith College is its equipment for training in art. This is the least comprehended and understood of all the departments, because the results are exceptionally subtile and spiritual. To realize its importance let us make some comparisons. few short years ago it would have been temerity for a native of New England to have judgment in such matters, and now that so many American artists have returned from abroad with entire loss of individual aim and purpose, it is exceedingly difficult for the layman to escape the dominating influence of Europe. Yet there is the golden thread, all the same, weaving into the texture of the American product. Especially in modern landscape art, which has no traditions of account, this apparent. There are American painters who can win prizes in any European galleries where they care to exhibit, with work so entirely distinctive that no school can lay claim to it; so pure in technical qualities, so broad and fine, so subtile in color values, that there is no question of its future prominent position in the art of the world. is Of this fine art, Smith College has a fair share hanging upon the walls of |