VENUS VERSUS ADONIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5370, 1 February 1879, Page 6

VENUS VERSUS ADONIS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sin,—A great deal has been said and written about the statues lately placed in the Museum. Permit me to take a new view of ti.crn, and institute a comparison, in the interests of education, between the most womanly of the female figures and the must effeminate of the male. What we possess of the Venus is a plaster cast, and therefore hut a pale rellex of the marble statue now standing in the Medicean Gallery in the city which we call Florence, but which we ought to call Firenza. Stiil even from plaster we can gain some idea of the dazzling beauty of the original, and the first thing that would strike an observer on entering the Museum is that all other objects there, however perfect and wonderful in themselves, are thrown into the shade, and we confess at once that the nude human figure—whether passionless or in the very throes of passion ; whether male or female —is the highest, the supreme expression of the beauty of form. We are Chained to the chariot of triumphal Art, and acknowledge with a spiritual revelation that " God mado man in His own image." The ancient Greek, not

far off from the fountain*head of nation—the old Aryan stock—and removed only by tho yEgeau Sea from the cradle of tbe human was accustomed hourly to g»ze upon perfect specimens of humanity. But lightly cumbered with garments, and those easily thrown aside, the daily b*th, the anointiog, the running, the wrestling, the throwing of the dißcus, the frequent exercise of war, the magnificent climate of tho»e sea* locked shores, all combined towards the physical and intellectual development of the Greek. These forms that we see and wonder at—the Venus and Adonis—were not the

ideal form* of his fancy* bat the living and j breathing beings by whom he was surrounded. Looked at anatomically, the Venus is considered to be perfect. She ai pearsmall from tbat very circumstance, but is not really so, and she is every inch a woman. There is nothing of the goddess in the fair, downcast face, iu the pose of the arms, in the tread of the arched foot, save their fragile and , delicate loveliness. Now, glance at the lAd mis. Compare the lithe and supple limbs, the lately dignity of the pose, the advancing attitude, the full brow covered by the c>isp cutis, with the shrinking, seductive slenderners of yon«ler beautiful vision. I do not say, compare the Demosthenes, the running Gladiator, or either of the Discoboli; but 1 say, take Venus and Adonis, bring th« m down from their pede&tal*, turn them into an ordinary youth and girl, set them to either physical or meutal labour, and sp« which would have the advantage. The Vuiiu* could not contend with the Adonis for a day. And now, all you who have tho management and coutiol of our youth, I want you to take a lesson from tho statues as to the eternal fitness of things, and as to the everlasting barriers which divide the dominant powers of a man and the dominant powers of a woman. For the Greek* knew. were no humbie seekers after knowledge, but them selves the great mast rs and creatois of all art an<t of all science. I should rather say the re-cr« ators, for the revelation of beauty and sublimity in them was as truly a Divine revelation—a gift from the All-Father—as the revelation of the Jaw was to Moses. The Titans of tho world, we, their remotest brethren, still of the same Aryan stock, are beholden to ih« j tn, the fathers, for nearly all we know. There is a kind of passion—a kind of mania just now—for educating girls be.ond the powers of ordinary men, —in fact, 10 makn them all ttaehelorn of Art, — and I am ti-ld seriously that a large class of girls are now studying for University degiees. Alas! alas! to how few of tbe many studyiug will the University degree come, and to how many will come with it broken health, a woru-out constitution, a wrecked life ! Only here and there, few and far butw- en, comes the woman who, like Miss with ease and comfort to herself, can take the University decree. One-half the boys iu New Zualaud might take it if they liked, or had the chance. To the boys' conformation of the brain it would be but light and , leasant work—to the girls', with hero ar.d there a solitary exception, only Hbour and sorrow. It is one thing to yive a girl a high-class education to aid the dawning development of genius (for I do not say that women have not geniu-) with thas cesthetic culture which alone can make it live ; it is quite another thing to take tbe crude aud raw material, and of it fashion a wouian crammed and chokcd with a UniverSit}* decree These ideas of mine are not new; they have been carefully considered at Home, aud all the leading publications condemu as visionary, and in the highest degree injurious to the physical well being of a woman, her admittance to the Universities, or her prolouged study of the highest bra< ch s of science. Such is not a woman's mission, nor the purpose for which she was seut iuto the world. She was given, I devoutly believe, to refine, to purify, to com fort, to elevate a man ; to be his pride and joy; "when pain aud siekuess wring his brow" to be his ministering angel, but not, ah i not, the sharer of his University degrees.—l am, &c., Fkakces Siiayle George.