--an accretion which can and must be
excised before the beautiful can show itself as it was originally
made, morally as well as formally perfect. How we all wish the
sensual, indecent, and brutal, away from Hogarth, so that we might
show him to the purest virgin without fear or blushing.

_Sophon._ And as well from Shakspere. Rotten members, though small in
themselves, are yet large enough to taint the whole body. And those
impurities, like rank growths of vine, may be lopped away without
injuring any vital principle. In perfect art the utmost purity of
intention, design, and execution, alone is wisdom. Every tree--every
flower, in defiance of adverse contingencies, grows with perfect will
to be perfect: and, shall man, who hath what they have not, a soul
wherewith he may defy all ill, do less?

_Kosmon._ But how may this purity be attained? I see every where
close round the pricks; not a single step may be taken in advance
without wounding something vital. Corruption strews thick both earth
and ocean; it is only the heavens that are pure, and man cannot live
upon manna alone.

_Christian._ Kosmon, you would seem to mistake what Sophon and I
mean. Neither he nor I wish nature to be used less, or otherwise than
as it appears; on the contrary, we wish it used more--more directly.
Nature itself is comparatively pure; all that we desire is the
removal of the factitious matter that the vice of fashion, evil
hearts, and infamous desires, graft upon it. It is not simple
innocent nature that we would exile, but the devilish and libidinous
corruptions that sully nature.

_Kalon._ But, if your ideas were strictly carried out, there would be
but little of worth left in the world for the artist to use; for, if
I understand you rightly, you object to his making use of any
passion, whether heroic, patriotic, or loving, that is not rigidly
virtuous.

_Christian._ I do. Without he has a didactic aim; like as Hogarth
had. A picture, poem, or statue, unless it speaks some purpose, is
mere paint, paper, or stone. A work of art must have a purpose, or it
is not a work of _fine_ art: thus, then, if it be a work of fine art,
it has a purpose; and, having purpose, it has either a good or an
evil one: there is no alternative. An artist's works are his
children, his immortal heirs, to his evil as well as to his good; as
he hath trained them, so will they teach. Let him ask himself why
does a parent so tenderly rear his children. Is it no