speak of it as an affectation, but apply to | instinctively follows some one model of it some stronger term of opprobrium. style. Where the imitation is seen to Moreover, though we are accustomed to arise from a natural affinity of mind, it is regard as affectations mere exaggerations not said to be affected. Not only so, even in the expression of certain feelings, such conscious imitation of style does not as those we have been describing, we always amount to affectation. It is unshould sometimes speak of a wholly illu- reasonable to expect that every writer sory profession of the same sentiment as should always abstain from introducing an insincere or false. If a lady is rather too echo of some previous master's melody. voluble in the expression of her regrets, The field of perfect originality in art is not she is said to be affected; if we have rea-large enough to allow us to make such a son to believe that she feels no regret at all, we rather call her hypocritical. This shows that the term affectation, as applied to feeling, implies only a slight or harmless kind of simulation a petty species of pretence which is rather comical from its patent hollowness, as well as from the silliness and vanity of its motive, than morally reprehensible. It is also worth noting, perhaps, that in the case of sentiment, as in that of mere external behaviour, we recognize such a thing as second nature that is, a fixed habit of expressing a feeling on a certain occasion without any reflection at the moment. The rules of a rigid courtesy demand, for example, that we should always manifest a certain friendly interest in anything which our guest happens to be talking to us about; and so long as we do not exceed this quantity we are not likely to be accused of affectation. On the other hand, if we lay ourselves out to be specially sympathetic towards a person with whom we really have no particular interests in common, our conduct is rightly said to be affected; unless indeed it has some ulterior purpose besides that of simply making an impression on our guest's mind, in which case it will probably be characterized by some stronger epithet.

We may now pass to the second great region of affectation, that of literary and artistic style. When we accuse a writer of having an affected mannerism, we clearly liken him to those who show themselves affected in personal behaviour and in the profession of sentiment. The clearest case of affectation in art is where there is conscious imitation of another's manner. The usual form which this naturally takes is an attempt to array oneself in the fine plumage of more brilliant birds. The group of young aspirant poets and poetesses who uniformly follow in the wake of a leading popular poet, eagerly catching at all his peculiarities of manner, are rightly said to be affected. There is of course a vast deal of unconscious imitation of style in art, and it would be absurd to term every musician, for example, affected who

demand. If only the selection of the particular model is seen to be made with an intelligent purpose, from a conviction that the manner selected is most suitable for the object in hand, it has nothing unseemly. In short, only such imitation of another's style is affected as is consciously executed, and, moreover, springs from mere mental impotence and a silly propensity to try to appear more than one really is. The style of a writer or a painter may, however, be affected without being imitative. J Just as an original eccentricity of behaviour becomes affected as soon as it is studied, so oddities of artistic manner grow into affectations when consciously cultivated for their own sake, and without any reference to their fitness or utility. Hence it is sometimes permissible to call an eccentricity of literary manner affected after it has been distinctly brought before the author's notice by adverse criticisms, though before this it may have been a wholly unconscious habit of mind. Nobody, for instance, can doubt that some of the later uncouthnesses of Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Browning are correctly styled affectations. It is absurd to suppose that a writer can be wholly unconscious of mannerisms which have frequently been thrust as it were under his very eyes; and when one sees an author persevering in such eccentricities after these criticisms with rather more energy than before, and in cases where no other eye than his own, however kindly, can discover any advan tage in their employment, it seems a fairly safe inference that the writer is obstinately affected. Yet it is no less clear that it is always more or less hazardous to predicate this quality of any man's style. For, after all, a man may bring himself to believe that his favourite mannerism is not only useful but essential to his art. In speaking, then, of artistic style as affected, we assume that the selection of all details of style should be a half-unconscious process guided only by the exigencies of the subject in hand. This idea is clearly indicated in the common expression "naturalness of style." A literary style is natural

A man

when it springs from the author's individ- | sides in its unconsciousness. ual nature, and is directed exclusively to whose every action was directed by delibthe best expression of the idea of the mo-erate purpose and reflection would be inment. It is artificial and affected when it tensely wearisome to the aesthetic eye, is made a distinct object of pursuit for its which loves before all other things in huown sake, whether it be the original prod- man character and conduct spontaneity There is, too, in all affected uct of the person who uses it or consciously and ease. borrowed from another. So that, in this conduct a further repulsiveness which is class of cases also, affectation connotes connected with a recognition of illusion Contradiction is always the presence of consciousness and delib- and pretence. erate volition with respect to a thing which unsightly, and the deliberate simulation of ought, so to speak, to take care of itself a natural quality strikes us as an æsthetic At the same time there are by means of an instinctive or mechanical dissonance. many examples of affectation which do not process. so much displease our sense of fitness and harmony as awaken our feeling for the ludicrous. This holds good especially of all the attempts of people to robe themselves in the unsuitable manners of their superiors. Of course this interpretation applies only to the term as employed with a certain degree of precision by thoughtful Unfortunately, however, these are very few, and the greater number of people who use the term do so in the most It naturally follows that slovenly manner. these same people are utterly careless in making sure that the persons they thus vaguely characterize have the quality attributed to them. It will be seen from what we have said that it is often a matter of great delicacy of insight to decide whether a particular ingredient of a man's behaviour or an oddity of style is really an affectation.

In the affectations of art as well as in those of social life we may see the distinction between a comparatively harmless and a culpably insincere profession. Thus with respect to artistic imitation we draw a sharp line between affectation, or the adoption of another's style, and plagiarism, or the adoption of another's ideas. The latter term conveys a grave accusa-persons. tion of intellectual dishonesty, while the former is only in a very slight degree condemnatory. This difference is probably explained by the consideration that the borrowing of ideas is never, like the borrowing of style, to be excused on the ground of the limitation of the individual mind, for nobody has any business to write who has no ideas of his own to convey; also that the filching of an author's ideas is much more likely to impose on readers, and far more difficult to detect, than the adoption of an element of his style which lies patent, diffused, so to speak, over the whole surface of his writings.

We conclude, therefore, that the term affected has only a very slight amount of ethical force. In some cases it does no doubt imply the presence of some amount of falsification or simulation, but this is not of a serious character calling for stern disapprobation. On the other hand, people certainly do very often mean to express their strong dislike by this word, and we may reasonably infer that, as employed by the more refined and discerning, it strikes, so to speak, at a certain quality of deformity in the behaviour or action so described. In other words, an affectation is something which offends our aesthetic sentiment. This inference is fully borne out by a consideration of the essential qualities of affected actions. We have seen that they are such as possess a certain unnaturalness, being the result of conscious study and voluntary endeavour, instead of the spontaneous outflow of native The aesthetic or acquired disposition. charm of a good deal of human action re

From The Pall Mall Gazette. ART NEEDLEWORK. AMONG the artistic works which will shortly be despatched from this country to the Philadelphia Exhibition, few will be more attractive than the embroideries made by the ladies of the Kensington School of Art Needlework. The fabrics to be sent to the exhibition are gradually, as they are completed, being placed for a short time in the public room of the school, so that those interested in such matters may inspect them. Embroideries applied to articles of domestic use, such as doilies, tablecloths, panels for furniture, curtains, wall-hangings, etc., are shown. These works often show an amount of taste and skill which reflects credit upon But, though new life the institution. seems to have been given to artistic needlework, perfection is far off yet. The specimens often please on account of their novelty and freshness, but if we re

call the simple and perfectly executed em- | kindness of Mrs. Percy Wyndham an broidery on Oriental cloths we cannot but elaborate bookcase curtain, executed after be struck with the unsuitable and rough a design by Mr. Morris, will be sent to character of the worsted long and feather Philadelphia on loan. But here, again, stitching of these modern English fabrics. we must take exception to the clumsiness On most of them the ornament is com- of the workmanship, which gives a barposed of bunches of flowers worked in baric character to the design. The delong and short stitches, and these pull to- tails are thoroughly subservient to the gengether and cockle the ground on which eral effect of the colour. They consist of they are worked. This is particularly straying unconventionalized vine-leaves faulty in the case of cloths, which should and bunches of grapes, here and there ineither hang in natural folds or lie flat if tercepted by peacocks with half-spread spread out. Oriental embroiderers have tails; and the drawing of them calls for given a preference to a tent-stitch or cross- no special commendation. stitch, worked closely. It causes no undu- Of a different class both of design and lations, and leaves the cloth free to fall in workmanship is the portière which is to natural folds. The introduction of em- be hung at the entrance of the exhibition broidered panels into ebonized furniture court set apart for the productions of the makes a pretty effect, and examples of needlework school. Mr. Pollen has supthis work have been wrought after de- plied the drawings from which this work signs by Mr. Walter Crane. A set of has been executed. The prominent porwall-hangings designed by this artist dis- tions of the embroidery are appliqué velplays his style of design on a much larger vet forms of glaring umber colour, which scale. Hitherto, Mr. Crane has been best completely eclipse the slight floral polyknown by his excellent illustrations of chromatic arrangements apparently growfairy-stories and nursery-rhymes; but de- ing out of pungent gold couchings. To signing for books is a different art from pass from Mr. Morris's grapes and peathat of designing for wall-hangings and cocks to Mr. Pollen's pseudo-Venetian embroideries. The designer for these decoration is like going from repose to last should be well acquainted with the confusion. Mr. Bodley's curtains show the materials to be used and the method of designer's knowledge of decorative neetheir use. He should be competent to dlework. The main part of the curtains prescribe the stitches to be employed and is of cream-coloured Chinese silk edged provide the needleworkers with full and with bands of salmon-coloured silk. On complete instructions. In the wall-hang- the junctures of the salmon and creamings now under notice, flat surfaces of coloured silks is traced, in embroidery pink worsted stitched into regular layers, stitch, a delicate mediæval pattern of roses resembling in texture rather nicely-knitted and leaves intertwined. The outside borstockings, serve to represent the flesh of ders are of broad bands of dull red-figMr. Crane's female figures. An adapta-ured silk to which is applied a cut velvet tion of a close chain-stitch would have conventional pattern of deeper red. The been best. In one of Mr. Crane's hang- whole of this velvet appliqué is effectings, two female figures are the chief sub-ively outlined with sombre green cord jects. The work is done in variously coloured crewels on white "sateen," a kind of damask. The figures are clad in flowing white garments; the lines of the folds are indicated by brown worsted, while the shadows are rendered in thin blue lines. Above the ornamental framework worked around these figures is a valance, the sub-green leaves. But the most refined piece ject of which is a graceful composition of of work is the panel of "Music," designed Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos at their by Mr. Burne Jones. The masterly drawnever-ending occupations. On each side ing of the figures, the excellent balance of of the whole of the work above-men- quantities in the composition, the modesty tioned are pilasters - the ground of which of the materials used, and the simplicity is a figured silken material having a gold- of the stitch, all combine to render this en effect. On this ground is worked in piece of needlework artistic in the highsombre tints of their natural colours an est sense. The groundwork is of pale original and very decorative arrangement brownish linen, and the embroidery on it of fruits, garlands of flowers, peacocks, is of darker brown crewels. Apollo is monkeys, mermaids, etc. Through the represented playing his lyre and seated on

twisted with gold. Another successful curtain border is that designed by Mr. Aitchison. It has been worked in col oured silks upon a rich dark-green velvet ground, which sets off the the gold thread outlines of the fanciful pink and yellow flowers interspersed among the delicate

In conclusion, we may remark upon the advantage which the school enjoys in securing original designs from really good artists. By carefully studying and imitating stitching of the best periods the ladies at the school may look forward to acquiring distinction as art needlewomen. At present they should not rest contented with a success due rather to the novelty than the merit of their efforts.

a pedestal beneath outspreading fruit- not to be a difficult matter for those with trees. Below him are females performing whom a man's life is spent to notice when on cymbals and harps. We understand he is placing himself in danger; and it is that this is the first work of its kind made a pity that they often fail to read signs at the school, and in all respects it is suc- and nip bad habits in the bud ere they cessful. Another class of embroideries have become second nature. If they which will excite interest is that of the were not obtuse, and were willing to do reproductions of old work. Foremost of their duty, they might, in many a case, these is a white satin quilt or portière em- supply what would be a successful antibroidered in the richest manner with gold dote to the poison which their patients couchings relieved by outlines of red silk. imbibe abroad. For instance, it would be The original of this copy was shown by an easy matter for them to nullify some of the Countess Brownlow at the special the most important evil effects which a Loan Exhibition of Art Needlework held young man who is just entering upon life in 1873. Unfortunately, the quality of receives from the mixed crowd with which the modern gold thread - perhaps as he is compelled to mingle. His partiality good as could be procured-is far infe- for low pleasures and discreditable comrior in actual manufacture to that of the pany and his indifference to the unruffled old, and in consequence, no doubt, the atmosphere of home are not the growth of a embroiderers found it impossible to repro- moment, and could be stayed by judicious duce the refined precision of the old treatment. But being unnoticed in their couchings. earlier stages, they are too frequently unwittingly fostered until they reach such a pitch that it is almost impossible to contend successfully with them. In illustration of all this a typical case may be cited. A is an average young man of respectable position, who is in an office, his duties not being of a particularly onerous or attractive character. Consequently he has the opportunity, as he has the inclina tion, to "kill time" in as agreeable a manner as may be devised. The most pleasant way of whiling away dreary hours in a business centre appears to be to haunt restaurants, drinking-bars, and smoking-saloons, which are presided over by divinities whose manners are of the free-and-easy sort, so our hero naturally finds his way to these resorts. Here he encounters kindred souls who are one stage further on the road to the "bad" than he is, and by them is induced to advance yet another step. In due course, he is taught to sneer at virtue and to think it a fine thing to indulge in excesses of various kinds. When he has reached this point his home-which at its best, perhaps, is a cheerless, unsympathetic sort of place, in which he can find little to interest him becomes distasteful, and so at night-time he is persuaded to wander afield in search of excitement. During his rambles he falls a victim to the harpies and swindlers - male and female

From The Liberal Review.
GOING TO THE BAD.

"GOING to the bad!" This phrase, which is significant though slangy, is often applied to many of those who are moving about in our midst. Generally, however, it is used in reference to people who have already gone, rather than to persons who are going, to the "bad;" for by the time that the world begins to see that a man is travelling in a wrong direction it is invariably true that his case has become almost hopeless. He must be a very stupid person, indeed, if he cannot, in the earlier stages of his decline, hide his failings from the eyes not only of his immediate friends, who are easily hoodwinked, but also of his intimate acquaintances, who are invariably the first to detect his imperfections and perilous condition. Indeed, he may fall into a very wretched plight, and yet those who love him best may imagine that he is what he should be until, perhaps, some day he is the cause of an unpleasant revelation being made unto them. At the same time, it ought