and to use it as a means only to
the most sublime emotions, we may read signs of an age possessed of a
new sense of values and eager to turn that possession to account. It is
impossible to visit a good modern exhibition without feeling that we are
back in a world not altogether unworthy to be compared with that which
produced primitive art. Here are men who take art seriously. Perhaps
they take life seriously too, but if so, that is only because there are
things in life (aesthetic ecstasy, for instance) worth taking seriously.
In life, they can distinguish between the wood and the few fine trees.
As for art, they know that it is something more important than a
criticism of life; they will not pretend that it is a traffic in
amenities; they know that it is a spiritual necessity. They are not
making handsome furniture, nor pretty knick-knacks, nor tasteful
souvenirs; they are creating forms that stir our most wonderful
emotions.

It is tempting to suppose that art such as this implies an attitude
towards society. It seems to imply a belief that the future will not be
a mere repetition of the past, but that by dint of willing and acting
men will conquer for themselves a life in which the claims of spirit and
emotion will make some headway against the necessities of physical
existence. It seems, I say: but it would be exceedingly rash to assume
anything of the sort, and, for myself, I doubt whether the good artist
bothers much more about the future than about the past. Why should
artists bother about the fate of humanity? If art does not justify
itself, aesthetic rapture does. Whether that rapture is to be felt by
future generations of virtuous and contented artisans is a matter of
purely speculative interest. Rapture suffices. The artist has no more
call to look forward than the lover in the arms of his mistress. There
are moments in life that are ends to which the whole history of humanity
would not be an extravagant means; of such are the moments of aesthetic
ecstasy. It is as vain to imagine that the artist works with one eye on
The Great State of the future, as to go to his art for an expression of
political or social opinions. It is not their attitude towards the State
or towards life, but the pure and serious attitude of these artists
towards their art, that makes the movement significant of the age. Here
are men who refuse all compromise, who will hire no half-way house
between what they believe and what the public