. He ought to believe that if he
is faithful to the best that he can apprehend, a door may be opened to
him which may lead him into regions which are at present closed to him.
To accept the artistic conscience, the artistic aim, as the highest
ideal of which the spirit is capable, is to be a Pharisee in art, to be
self-sufficient, arrogant, limited. It is a kind of spiritual pride, a
wilful deafness to more remote voices; and it is thus of all sins, the
one which the artist, who lives the life of perception, whose mind
must, above all things, be open and transparent, should be loth to
commit. He should rather keep his inner eye--for the artist is like
the great creatures that, in the prophet's vision, stood nearest to the
presence, who were full of eyes, without and within--open to the
unwonted apparition which may, suddenly, like a meteor of the night,
sail across the silent heaven. It may be that, in some moment of
fuller perception, he may even have to divorce the sweeter and more
subtle mistress in exchange for one who comes in a homelier guise, and
take the beggar girl for his queen. But the abnegation will be no
sacrifice; rather a richer and livelier hope.

XIV

Young Love

We had a charming idyll here to-day. A young husband and wife came to
stay with us in all the first flush of married happiness. One realised
all day long that other people merely made a pleasant background for
their love, and that for each there was but one real figure on the
scene. This was borne witness to by a whole armoury of gentle looks,
swift glances, silent gestures. They were both full to the brim of a
delicate laughter, of over-brimming wonder, of tranquil desire. And we
all took part in their gracious happiness. In the evening they sang
and played to us, the wife being an accomplished pianist, the husband a
fine singer. But though the glory of their art fell in rainbow showers
on the audience, it was for each other that they sang and played. We
sat in the dim light of a little panelled room, the lamps making a
circle of light about the happy pair; seldom have I felt the revelation
of personality more. The wife played to us a handful of beautiful
things; but I noticed that she could not interpret the sadder and
darker strains, into which the shadow and malady of a suffering spirit
had passed; but into little tripping minuets full of laughter and
light, and into melodies that spoke of a pure passion of sweetness