sent of that stick. The original sin of dogmatists is that they are
not content to feel and express but must needs invent an intellectual
concept to stand target for their emotion. From the nature of their
emotions they infer an object the existence of which they find
themselves obliged to prove by an elaborately disingenuous metaphysic.
The consequence is inevitable; religion comes to mean, not the feeling
of an emotion, but adherence to a creed. Instead of being a matter of
emotional conviction it becomes a matter of intellectual propositions.
And here, very properly, the sceptic steps in and riddles the _ad hoc_
metaphysic of the dogmatist with unanswerable objections. No Cambridge
Rationalist can presume to deny that I feel a certain emotion, but the
moment I attempt to prove the existence of its object I lay myself open
to a bad four hours.

No one, however, wishes to deny the existence of the immediate object
of aesthetic emotion--combinations of lines and colours. For my
suggestion that there may be a remote object I shall probably get into
trouble. But if my metaphysical notions are demolished in a paragraph,
that will not matter in the least. No metaphysical notions about art
matter. All that matter are the aesthetic emotion and its immediate
object. As to the existence of a remote object and its possible nature
there have been innumerable theories, most, if not all, of which have
been discredited. Though a few have been defended fiercely, they have
never been allowed to squeeze out art completely: dogma has never
succeeded in ousting religion. It has been realised always to some
extent that the significance of art depends chiefly on the emotion it
provokes, that works are more important than theories. Although attempts
have been made to impose dogmas, to define the remote object and to
direct the emotion, a single original artist has generally been strong
enough to wreck the spurious orthodoxy. Dimly it has always been
perceived that a picture which moves aesthetically cannot be wrong; and
that the theory that condemns it as heretical condemns itself. Art
remains an undogmatic religion. You are invited to feel an emotion, not
to acquiesce in a theory.

Art, then, may satisfy the religious need of an age grown too acute for
dogmatic religion, but to do so art must enlarge its sphere of
influence. There must be more popular art, more of that art which is
unimportant to the universe but important to the individu