I should like to see ordinary
people capable of perceiving what is good art, and not so wholly at
the mercy of conventional and melodramatic art. But Herries does
not care twopence about that. He is like the Calvinist who is sure
of his own salvation, has his doubts about the minister, and thinks
every one else irreparably damned. As I say, it is a lofty sort of
ideal, but it is not a good sign when that sort of thing begins.
The best art of the world--let us say Homer, Virgil, Dante,
Shakespeare--was contributed by people who probably did not think
about it as art at all. Fancy Homer going in for questions of form!
It is always, I believe, a sign of decadence when formalism begins.
It is just like religion, which starts with a teacher who has an
overwhelming sense of the beauty of holiness; and then that
degenerates into theology. These young men are to art what the
theologians are to religion. They lose sight of the object of the
whole thing in codification and definition. My own idea of a great
artist is a man who finds beauty so hopelessly attractive and
desirable that he can't restrain his speech.
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