holastic trammels. 'Ye shall know
the _truth_, and it shall make you free,' is a proposition not only of
moral, but of universal artistic application.

Disgusted by the idle pretensions and stilted pedantry of the men of the
schools, can we wonder if good and earnest men still refuse to
acknowledge the high worth and dignity of art, which, in accordance with
such definitions, would be nothing but a manifestation and studied
application of the rules and laws of the limited and pedantic human
understanding? To prove art essentially _moral_, in exact correspondence
with the triune being of man addressing itself _through_ his senses, in
accordance with the requisitions of his understanding, _to_ his
soul--and that it is only delightful to the soul created for the
enjoyment of God, in so far as it is successful in manifesting or
suggesting some portion of the Divine attributes--are the chief objects
of the book here offered to the reader. If art were indeed to be
degraded into nothing higher than the exponent or incarnation of the
logical data and rigid formulae of the limited understanding of man, the
writer would be frozen to death in the attempt to plant its chilling
banner. She too would regard it but as a solemn trifling with time and
the fearful responsibilities of eternity.

Having failed to obtain any elevated or satisfactory definition of Art
and Beauty from the men of the senses, or the men of the schools; as the
supporters of a government founded upon a belief in the virtues of the
people, we turn to them in our despair to ask for deeper insight into
these important subjects. Alas! they are as yet too busy and too
ignorant to formulate for us a definite reply! But from them must come
the sibylline response, for the true artist has no home upon earth save
the heart of humanity! The kingdom of the Beautiful belongs not
exclusively to the luxurious, nor to any aristocracy of the refined and
cultivated, but, like the blue depths of God's heaven arch, spans the
world, everywhere visible, and everywhere beneficent!

As they may not formulate for us a definite reply, let us place our ears
close to the throbbing heart of the masses, that we may hear what effect
the Beautiful, as manifested in art, has upon the electric pulses. And
now our despair passes forever, for men made in the image of God, when
not degraded by a corrupting materialism, nor lost in the bewildering
mazes of a luxurious sensualism, nor puffed up with