Addresses Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy. By
the late Lord Leighton. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—This volume contains eight biennial addresses, ranging in date from 1879 to 1893. The first deals with the very wide subject of "the position of Art in its relation to the world at large in the present and the past time ; " the second, perhaps the most interesting of the whole series, to the relation between art and morals (in- cluding religion) ; the third to what may be briefly described as the local and temporal characteristics of art, a subject pursued through the remainder of the volume in reference to the chief nations of the ancient and modern world. The charm of Lord Leighton's wide culture and penetrating intelligence makes itself felt everywhere. We do not always find ourselves in agree- ment with him ; in the second address especially there is some- thing we cannot help thinking one-sided in his treatment. He begins by stating the two opposing theories, art the handmaid of ethics, and art for art's sake, and leads us to suppose that he is going to strike out the via media. But practically the address is an elaborate argument against the first. Against the second there is little beyond vague generalities. It is to be regretted that, considering the special temptations of the audience to which he was speaking, he did not express himself more plainly. The "foolish heresy," as the President called it, which challenges the dignity of music, is not so foolish as he thought. Much may be urged as to the connection between national decadence and the predominance of the musical art.
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