The German Emperor never fails us. Like Cleopatra and the
great Lord Brougham, "custom cannot stale his infinite variety." On Thursday he addressed the sculptors who executed his Avenue of Victory at Berlin on the principles of their art, and of art in general. As regards the work, said the Emperor, "I never entered into details, but was content simply to point out the way and to give the impulse." Just as Birdofredum Sawin thought that " libbaty's a kind o' thing thet don't agree with niggers," so the German Emperor does not consider that liberty is good for art, and especially sculpture. "With the much-misused word ' liberty ' and under its flag people often land in lawlessness and in overweening conceit." Possibly, but is the rival flag always an entire preservative against at any rate the last of these defects? The Emperor went on to declare that the great, artist needs no puffing, "no Press, no connections." The great artists of Greece and Italy never indulged in self-advertisement. That is true, no doubt, but then in Greece and Italy the other classes of the community were equally free from self-adver- tisement. The artists of those days were also free from interference and censorship. We read that Pericles admired and encouraged the work of Pheidias, and that Charles V. picked up the brush of Titian, but we do not recall that the Emperor lectured the painter on chiaroscuro, or that Pericles expatiated on the proper chiselling of draperies. The Emperor ended his speech by declaring that "the impression which the Avenue of Victory makes upon foreigners is quite overpowering." We do not doubt it for a moment.
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