Word: art
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...this neighborhood, and as I have already used the word "aesthetics" in regard to it, it is therefore needless to say that I am a disciple of De Quincey. I lay no claim to originality; my sole ambition is to raise a warning voice in defence of that art which derives its dignity, nay, its very birth from my great master. Surely you will sympathize with me in this protest; you must agree with me that the fine art of murder was never more coarsely, more wantonly, more clumsily practised than now. Other times have been unfortunate, some...
...shifting, unsettled, and insincere; can we expect that its art should not be so too? Men of to-day are confused by the magnitude and the number of the questions which Religion, Science, Literature, and Philosophy put to them so sharply and so remorselessly. Is it strange, then, that they are without convictions, and therefore fail in art...
What can be done towards restoring method and completeness to art, towards making our murders more worthy of a civilized and cultivated people? To this question I answer, first, and most important, we can cull from the experience of the past a few simple, but universally necessary principles to guide the murderer in the formation and execution of his design. Such I consider the following to be: The death must be inflicted cleanly; unnecessary cruelty must be avoided; the artist must escape undetected after he has given the last touch to his work...
Secondly, unnecessary cruelty must be avoided. Surely, in these days of compassion it needs not to plead for this principle; it will at once be approved by all true artists. I thought at first that the rule should read "all cruelty"; but it is clear that the art of murder, like that of medicine (in the matter of vivisection), sometimes demands the infliction of pain; cruelty, in this sense, is not always avoidable. For instance, in that admirable and truly Gothic bit of art related by De Quincey, - the killing of the baker, - no inconsiderable amount of distress...
SEVERAL articles on phonography have recently appeared in college journals, all of which advocate the study, and speak of the numerous advantages which students in particular would derive from a practical knowledge of the art. The time required to gain the knowledge is only vaguely spoken of, and the average reader would think that the easiest and most profitable trade to be learned is short-hand...