tic and the artist will see in the
normal life of men a thing fettered and bound with sad and small
chains. It is impossible to say which is the higher life--no dogmatism
is possible--all depends upon the quality of the emotion; it is the
intensity of the feeling rather than its nature that matters. The
impassioned lover of human relations is a finer being than the
unimpassioned artist, just as the impassioned artist is a finer being
than the man who loves sensually and materialistically. All depends
upon whether the love, whatever it be--the love of nature or of art, of
things spiritual or divine, the love of humanity, the sense of
brotherly companionship--leads on to something unfulfilled and high, or
whether it is satisfied. If our desire is satisfied, we fail; if it is
for ever unsatisfied, we are on the right path, though it leads us none
can tell whither, to wildernesses or paradises, to weltering seas or to
viewless wastes of air. If the artist rests upon beauty itself, if the
mystic lingers among his ecstasies, they have deserted the pilgrim's
path, and must begin the journey over again in weariness and in tears.
But if they walk earnestly, not knowing what the end may be, never
mistaking the delight of the moment for the joy that shines and glows
beyond the furthest horizon, then they are of the happy number who have
embraced the true quest. Such a faith will give them a patient and
beautiful kindliness, a deep affection for fellow-pilgrims, and, most
of all, for those in whose eyes and lips they can discern the wistful
desire to see behind the shadows of mortal things. But the end will be
beyond even the supreme moment of love's abandonment, beyond the
fairest sights of earth, beyond the sweetest music of word or chord.
And we must, above all things, forbear to judge another, to question
other motives, to condemn other aims; for we shall feel that for each a
different path is prepared. And we shall forbear, too, to press the
motives that seem to us the fairest upon other hearts. We must give
them utterance as faithfully as we can, for they may be a step in
another's progress. But the thought of interfering with the design of
God will be impious, insupportable. Our only method will be a perfect
sincerity, which will indeed lead us to refrain from any attempt to
overbalance or to divert ingenuous minds from their own chosen path. To
accuse our fellow-men of stupidity or of prejudice is but to blaspheme
God.