The house is in the village of Elderslie, now a Glasgow
exurb,
Wallace appears in the panels with a heroic musculature, always with
the torso exposed.
Virtus refers not only to manliness, physical strength,
vigor, and bravery, but to moral qualities of goodness and high character.
Virtue, in a word.

All of Stoddart's historical statues and nearly all
of his busts are of males.

....post-modern culture generally allergic to
virile, heroic, and monumental qualities in art.

....moral significance of manhood is central to his
artistic outlook.

Stoddart does not believe the historic predominance
of males in the visual arts is a matter of coincidence or social construct. "In
men as opposed to women," he said as we drove to Edinburgh on a bright, bitterly
cold January morning to look at his statue of the Enlightenment philosopher
David Hume there, "there is a possibility of the dissolution of the self. It is
rarely encountered in mankind, but when it happens, it happens more in the male
than in the female. I think of renunciation as a male
characteristic."

A lively conversationalist, Stoddart is not
physically imposing. Bespectacled, and of medium build, he has always been
artistically inclined. His youthful ambition was to be a pianist, and he still
finds time to play the piano every day. "Sandy," as he is known, lives in an
Italianate villa outside Paisley with Catriona and their three daughters, Clara,
14, Sophie, 12, and Iona, 9.
But the Witherspoon's most striking feature is
not its realism, which is restrained, but its virility--its embodiment of virtue
and authority. This august figure has no doubt whatsoever as to what the meaning
of "is" is.

"The primary part of our heresy," Stoddart says of
the classical camp, "is that we represent the past, the dead. We're up against a
belligerent revolutionist view stuck entirely in the twentieth century. God is
dead, living is everything, and the dead are disenfranchised.

Stoddart's temperamental pessimism is abetted by
the fact that despite his Baptist upbringing, he is "becoming increasingly
atheistic"--mainly under the influence of the German philosopher Schopenhauer,
whom he has been reading since his art school days. Like Schopenhauer, he sees
the world as dominated by undirected forces of nature, ranging from gravity,
magnetism, and heat to carnal lust.

"I think the war between man and nature redounds
greatly to man's credit," he said during the drive to Edinburgh. "Man is the
only element in nature that has the aesthetic faculty, and this faculty tends to
restrain the raging aspect of nature. I see art as nature turning back on
itself, the weapon of man's war against nature ... Art is the consolation of man
and the redemption of nature."

Stoddart therefore abhors the unbridled naturalism
of a great deal of ersatz-traditional art produced these days, exemplified by
the transcription of voluptuous female models with libido-inflaming literalness.
"When we see the statue of the Venus de Milo"--a great Hellenistic work in the
Louvre well known for its idealized beauty--"we don't want to have sex with it.
A statue you want to have sex with is a betrayal of art," Stoddart
maintains.

Since September 11, many Americans have rediscovered the
virtues of manliness in office. The Democrats have a job to do if they're to
challenge the "daddy party" in this respect.
Again, the Democrats will have
to acquire a bit more testosterone if they're to compete with the GOP. This is,
indeed, no time for "pitty-patty." As for the Republicans, if they had any more
testosterone, they'd be The Incredible Hulk. House Speaker Denny Hastert was a
wrestling coach, for crying out loud. That's almost overkill!

The gender activists who fill our schools and government
agencies will continue with their efforts to make boys more docile and
emotional. But fewer and fewer Americans will support them. Maleness is back in
fashion. And one reason is that Americans are increasingly aware that
traditional male traits such as aggression, competitiveness, risk-taking and
stoicism--constrained by virtues of valor, honor and self-sacrifice--are
essential to the well-being and safety of our society.

Like many activities and traits identified with men,
and particularly men who live in rural areas, hunting is under attack on a
number of fronts. Environmentalists say they don't like the way hunters invade
the wilderness. Animal rights activists don't like the way hunters treat
animals. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger has opined that hunting is a "socially
accepted" form of sadism, with hunters under the sway of an "erotic sadistic
motivation." Dr. Joel Saper also worries about the sexual aspect of hunting,
stating that hunting "may reflect a profound yet subtle psychosexual
inadequacy." Maybe it's because guns are so, well, phallic, but this theme is a
constant in the anti-hunting literature. Clinical psychologist Margaret
Brooke-Williams has postulated that "Hunters are seeking reassurance of their
sexuality. The feeling of power that hunting brings temporarily alleviates this
sexual uneasiness." No wonder lots of rifle-toting men have grown decidedly
defensive about their hobby.

If you don't hunt, you might not understand people
who do. But, then, most hunters can't really explain or justify why they do it,
either. If you listen to what hunters say, they hunt just because they enjoy
hunting. That's a bit circular, but it satisfies most male practitioners. Tim
Renken, long-time outdoors writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has thought
about this subject more than most people, and he describes his own urge to hunt
this way: "It's instinctive. The whole drill--getting ready, going out, calling
the dogs, picking up the gun, gathering with the guys--it fulfills an urge, one
that some people feel more strongly than others. Our species existed for
thousands and thousands of years in a lifestyle that required that men go out in
groups and bring back the necessities of life.... It's the same feeling a person
gets picking up a baby, holding the hands of a child, and seeking women. Nature
arranges that we feel pleasure in doing the things we must do."

That hunting is in our bones may help explain what
surveys have long shown. Compared to people who engage in other outdoor
activities like hiking, hunters are less likely to "achieve their goals" or be
"successful" on their trips. The fact is, hunters often come home empty-handed.
Yet polling shows that hunters are the most satisfied with their outdoor
excursions, regardless of success.

Of course critics of hunting are not persuaded by
the argument that "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." They will point out
that certain instincts are no longer productive.

The French model "is more radical, centralized, and gives
birth to socialism," Mathy says. It places its hopes on ideal notions of
humanity--the French "want to completely reform humankind on the basis of
abstract reasoning." It is also strictly secular.
The American version, in
contrast, gives a role to religion, stresses pragmatism, and emphasizes
decentralization. It is suspicious of human engineering.