are of consequence only in so far as they affect
the things that matter--the raptures of art and religion, that is to
say, and abstract thought and personal relations.

It is not reasonable to expect us to turn our backs on absolute good and
consider exclusively what may be a means to good. Besides, we could not
do so if we would. The artist must think more about art, the philosopher
more about truth, the mystic more about God, the aesthete more about
beauty, and the lover, they tell me, more about the beloved, than about
anything else. The fact is, we are not practical people; we cannot
adjust ourselves to circumstances, so we must be content to appear
imprudent and unpatriotic. We are not masters of our fate; not only
have we got hold of what we believe to be the greatest thing in the
world, the greatest thing in the world has got hold of us.

A crisis has divided the sheep from the goats--I care not on which hand
I am marshalled--and now we know who are the people that love art
because they must and who love it because they think they ought to. I am
making no moral judgment; I am pointing out merely that those who say
"This is no time to think about art" admit that for them thinking or not
thinking about art is a matter of choice. I have always supposed that it
was perfectly well with one who had lost himself in an ecstasy of
creation or contemplation. How can he be better off who has already
attained beatitude? To invite such a one to relinquish the best and
bestir himself about what may be a means to good seems to me absurd.
That has always been my opinion and I cannot conceive the circumstances
that would compel me to change it. Those who reject it, those who deny
that certain states of mind, amongst which is the state of aesthetic
contemplation, are alone good as ends, will find themselves in an
intellectual position which appears to me untenable: I shall not quarrel
with them, however, so long as they leave us alone and refrain from
cant. According to them there are better things than Beauty or Truth or
the contemplation of either. I simply disagree: it is only when I catch
them wringing their hands over the ruins of Reims that I protest.

Take not the name of art in vain: at least be ashamed to use it for
political purposes. Any stick may be good enough to beat Germans with.
Beat them if you can: I shall have no tears for them and their strong
military government. It is not people like me who will weep for Pru