JUDGE ALEXANDER SIMPSON
of human nature, guided by God's Word. His chief characteristic is decision, based upon a comprehensive knowledge of truth. His faith is unlimited. Writing of the "back-washes" of the recent conflict in Europe, he says "I cannot, however, get up even a measure of alarm over it, so far as England is concerned; her people are so staid and sensible; their instincts are so just and right; their traditions and their modern performances are so inspiring, that I look to see a gradual adjustment through a number of years, perhaps fewer than now seem possible, and then a settling down to the handling of her imperial problems as only English-thinking people can handle them."
Unlike another great American jurist, who possessed one similar taste, Judge Simpson is very human. In the gratification of his taste for Art he considers both his compatriots and his contemporaries; he collects modern pictures by Americans. To collect a few fine examples of ancient painting for the decoration of houses, like Mr. Frick's, in New York, or Mr. Widener's, in Philadelphia, is no doubt justifiable on grounds more or less personal; but to gather together a mass of canvases of considerable æsthetic value and pack them away out of sight denotes a mind of inferior sensibility. It may meet the approbation of a few American artists, both sculptors and painters, if it be urged that it is the office of museums to collect old Art, and a duty incumbent upon individuals to patronize living artists. That we owe the existence of the great masterpieces of ancient Art to contemporary patronage is merely to state the obvious.
It is to the deep and steady undercurrent of thought flowing from the minds of men like Judge Simpson that America owes her position to-day as a power for good.
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