It would be to waste the time of my readers and my own if I strove to demonstrate how the general mediocrity of fortunes, the absence of superfluous1 wealth, the universal desire of comfort, and the constant efforts by which everyone attempts to procure2 it, make the taste for the useful predominate over the love of the beautiful in the heart of man. Democratic nations, amongst which all these things exist, will therefore cultivate the arts which serve to render life easy, in preference to those whose object is to adorn3 it. They will habitually4 prefer the useful to the beautiful, and they will require that the beautiful should be useful. But I propose to go further; and after having pointed5 out this first feature, to sketch6 several others.
It commonly happens that in the ages of privilege the practice of almost all the arts becomes a privilege; and that every profession is a separate walk, upon which it is not allowable for everyone to enter. Even when productive industry is free, the fixed7 character which belongs to aristocratic nations gradually segregates8 all the persons who practise the same art, till they form a distinct class, always composed of the same families, whose members are all known to each other, and amongst whom a public opinion of their own and a species of corporate9 pride soon spring up. In a class or guild10 of this kind, each artisan has not only his fortune to make, but his reputation to preserve. He is not exclusively swayed by his own interest, or even by that of his customer, but by that of the body to which he belongs; and the interest of that body is, that each artisan should produce the best possible workmanship. In aristocratic ages, the object of the arts is therefore to manufacture as well as possible—not with the greatest despatch11, or at the lowest rate.
When, on the contrary, every profession is open to all—when a multitude of persons are constantly embracing and abandoning it—and when its several members are strangers to each other, indifferent, and from their numbers hardly seen amongst themselves; the social tie is destroyed, and each workman, standing12 alone, endeavors simply to gain the greatest possible quantity of money at the least possible cost. The will of the customer is then his only limit. But at the same time a corresponding revolution takes place in the customer also. In countries in which riches as well as power are concentrated and retained in the hands of the few, the use of the greater part of this world's goods belongs to a small number of individuals, who are always the same. Necessity, public opinion, or moderate desires exclude all others from the enjoyment13 of them. As this aristocratic class remains14 fixed at the pinnacle15 of greatness on which it stands, without diminution16 or increase, it is always acted upon by the same wants and affected17 by them in the same manner. The men of whom it is composed naturally derive18 from their superior and hereditary19 position a taste for what is extremely well made and lasting20. This affects the general way of thinking of the nation in relation to the arts. It often occurs, among such a people, that even the peasant will rather go without the object he covets21, than procure it in a state of imperfection. In aristocracies, then, the handicraftsmen work for only a limited number of very fastidious customers: the profit they hope to make depends principally on the perfection of their workmanship.
Such is no longer the case when, all privileges being abolished, ranks are intermingled, and men are forever rising or sinking upon the ladder of society. Amongst a democratic people a number of citizens always exist whose patrimony22 is divided and decreasing. They have contracted, under more prosperous circumstances, certain wants, which remain after the means of satisfying such wants are gone; and they are anxiously looking out for some surreptitious method of providing for them. On the other hand, there are always in democracies a large number of men whose fortune is upon the increase, but whose desires grow much faster than their fortunes: and who gloat upon the gifts of wealth in anticipation23, long before they have means to command them. Such men eager to find some short cut to these gratifications, already almost within their reach. From the combination of these causes the result is, that in democracies there are always a multitude of individuals whose wants are above their means, and who are very willing to take up with imperfect satisfaction rather than abandon the object of their desires.
The artisan readily understands these passions, for he himself partakes in them: in an aristocracy he would seek to sell his workmanship at a high price to the few; he now conceives that the more expeditious24 way of getting rich is to sell them at a low price to all. But there are only two ways of lowering the price of commodities. The first is to discover some better, shorter, and more ingenious method of producing them: the second is to manufacture a larger quantity of goods, nearly similar, but of less value. Amongst a democratic population, all the intellectual faculties25 of the workman are directed to these two objects: he strives to invent methods which may enable him not only to work better, but quicker and cheaper; or, if he cannot succeed in that, to diminish the intrinsic qualities of the thing he makes, without rendering26 it wholly unfit for the use for which it is intended. When none but the wealthy had watches, they were almost all very good ones: few are now made which are worth much, but everybody has one in his pocket. Thus the democratic principle not only tends to direct the human mind to the useful arts, but it induces the artisan to produce with greater rapidity a quantity of imperfect commodities, and the consumer to content himself with these commodities.
Not that in democracies the arts are incapable27 of producing very commendable28 works, if such be required. This may occasionally be the case, if customers appear who are ready to pay for time and trouble. In this rivalry29 of every kind of industry—in the midst of this immense competition and these countless30 experiments, some excellent workmen are formed who reach the utmost limits of their craft. But they have rarely an opportunity of displaying what they can do; they are scrupulously31 sparing of their powers; they remain in a state of accomplished32 mediocrity, which condemns33 itself, and, though it be very well able to shoot beyond the mark before it, aims only at what it hits. In aristocracies, on the contrary, workmen always do all they can; and when they stop, it is because they have reached the limit of their attainments34.
When I arrive in a country where I find some of the finest productions of the arts, I learn from this fact nothing of the social condition or of the political constitution of the country. But if I perceive that the productions of the arts are generally of an inferior quality, very abundant and very cheap, I am convinced that, amongst the people where this occurs, privilege is on the decline, and that ranks are beginning to intermingle, and will soon be confounded together.
The handicraftsmen of democratic ages endeavor not only to bring their useful productions within the reach of the whole community, but they strive to give to all their commodities attractive qualities which they do not in reality possess. In the confusion of all ranks everyone hopes to appear what he is not, and makes great exertions35 to succeed in this object. This sentiment indeed, which is but too natural to the heart of man, does not originate in the democratic principle; but that principle applies it to material objects. To mimic36 virtue37 is of every age; but the hypocrisy38 of luxury belongs more particularly to the ages of democracy.
To satisfy these new cravings of human vanity the arts have recourse to every species of imposture39: and these devices sometimes go so far as to defeat their own purpose. Imitation diamonds are now made which may be easily mistaken for real ones; as soon as the art of fabricating false diamonds shall have reached so high a degree of perfection that they cannot be distinguished40 from real ones, it is probable that both one and the other will be abandoned, and become mere41 pebbles42 again.
This leads me to speak of those arts which are called the fine arts, by way of distinction. I do not believe that it is a necessary effect of a democratic social condition and of democratic institutions to diminish the number of men who cultivate the fine arts; but these causes exert a very powerful influence on the manner in which these arts are cultivated. Many of those who had already contracted a taste for the fine arts are impoverished43: on the other hand, many of those who are not yet rich begin to conceive that taste, at least by imitation; and the number of consumers increases, but opulent and fastidious consumers become more scarce. Something analogous44 to what I have already pointed out in the useful arts then takes place in the fine arts; the productions of artists are more numerous, but the merit of each production is diminished. No longer able to soar to what is great, they cultivate what is pretty and elegant; and appearance is more attended to than reality. In aristocracies a few great pictures are produced; in democratic countries, a vast number of insignificant45 ones. In the former, statues are raised of bronze; in the latter, they are modelled in plaster.
When I arrived for the first time at New York, by that part of the Atlantic Ocean which is called the Narrows, I was surprised to perceive along the shore, at some distance from the city, a considerable number of little palaces of white marble, several of which were built after the models of ancient architecture. When I went the next day to inspect more closely the building which had particularly attracted my notice, I found that its walls were of whitewashed46 brick, and its columns of painted wood. All the edifices47 which I had admired the night before were of the same kind.
The social condition and the institutions of democracy impart, moreover, certain peculiar48 tendencies to all the imitative arts, which it is easy to point out. They frequently withdraw them from the delineation49 of the soul to fix them exclusively on that of the body: and they substitute the representation of motion and sensation for that of sentiment and thought: in a word, they put the real in the place of the ideal. I doubt whether Raphael studied the minutest intricacies of the mechanism50 of the human body as thoroughly51 as the draughtsmen of our own time. He did not attach the same importance to rigorous accuracy on this point as they do, because he aspired52 to surpass nature. He sought to make of man something which should be superior to man, and to embellish53 beauty's self. David and his scholars were, on the contrary, as good anatomists as they were good painters. They wonderfully depicted54 the models which they had before their eyes, but they rarely imagined anything beyond them: they followed nature with fidelity55: whilst Raphael sought for something better than nature. They have left us an exact portraiture56 of man; but he discloses in his works a glimpse of the Divinity. This remark as to the manner of treating a subject is no less applicable to the choice of it. The painters of the Middle Ages generally sought far above themselves, and away from their own time, for mighty57 subjects, which left to their imagination an unbounded range. Our painters frequently employ their talents in the exact imitation of the details of private life, which they have always before their eyes; and they are forever copying trivial objects, the originals of which are only too abundant in nature.
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1
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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2
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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7
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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8
segregates
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| （使）分开( segregate的第三人称单数 )； 分离； 隔离； 隔离并区别对待（不同种族、宗教或性别的人） | |
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9
corporate
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| adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的 | |
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guild
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| n.行会，同业公会，协会 | |
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despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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12
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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13
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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14
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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21
covets
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| v.贪求，觊觎( covet的第三人称单数 ) | |
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patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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23
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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24
expeditious
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| adj.迅速的，敏捷的 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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30
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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31
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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32
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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33
condemns
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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34
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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mimic
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| v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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39
imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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40
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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41
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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42
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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43
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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44
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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45
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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46
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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48
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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49
delineation
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| n.记述；描写 | |
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50
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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51
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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52
aspired
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
embellish
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| v.装饰，布置；给…添加细节，润饰 | |
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54
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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55
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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56
portraiture
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| n.肖像画法 | |
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57
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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