,,pot-,,boilers  by  ,,clive ,,bell     
,london ,chatto  ,windus ,,mcmxviii     
,printed at the ,complete ,press ,west  
,norwood ,london     ,,contents         
,,page ,,foreword                       
#a  ,,montaigne ,,in ,,facsimile        
#ag  ,,ibsen                            
#bh  ,,miss ,,coleridge                 
#da  ,,peacock                          
#ej  ,,boswell',s ,,letters             
#gd  ,,carlyle',s ,,loves ,,and         
,,love-,,letters                        
#hb  ,,the ,,lysistrata                 
#ii  ,,trelawny',s ,,letters            
#aae  ,,sophocles ,,in ,,london         
#abf  ,,the ,,flight ,,of ,,the ,,dragon
                                        
#ace  ,,william ,,morris                
#adf  ,,persian ,,miniatures            
#aef  ,,countercheck ,,quarrelsome      
#afe  ,,picture ,,shows3   ,i4 ,,the    
,,london ,,salon                        
#agd   ,,ii4 ,,english                  
,,post-,,impressionists                 
#agi   ,,iii4 ,,an ,,expensive          

,,masterpiece                           
#ahh   ,,iv4 ,,marchand                 
#aid   ,v4 ,,the ,,mansard ,,gallery    
#aii  ,,contemporary ,,art ,,in         
,,england                               
#bji  ,,art ,,and ,,war                 
#bca  ,,before ,,the ,,war              
#bdg     ,,foreword   ,,dear ,,geoffrey 
,,whitworth1--,considering for how many 
ages how many clever people have been   
complaining of their publishers1 you    
might have supposed that no device for  
getting one of them into a scrape could 
have been left untried4 ,yet1 so far as 
,i can remember1 no author has had the  
bright idea of denouncing his publisher1
 particularly1 and by name1 as accessory
 before the fact4 ,i am willing to      
suspect my memory rather than my        
profession of being at fault in this    
matter2 but that the practice is        
uncommon is most certain and that1      
surely1 is very strange4 ,no author     
thinks twice of saddling his friend1 his
 wife1 his mother1 or even his mistress 

with the responsibility of having been  
the onlie begetter of some feckless cub 
or monstrous abortion2 but on his       
publisher1 the very man he should wish  
to injure1 who ever thought of fastening
 the offence8 ,yet you cannot deny1 my  
dear ,whitworth1 that this book is your 
fault4 ,i was all for abandoning the    
project after ,i had read ,mr4 ,arnold  
,bennett's volume and recognized how    
much more readable his journalism was   
than mine3 your reader1 ,i suspect1 was 
of like mind3 it was you1 and you alone1
 who1 by enlisting my vanity1 conquered 
my pride4  ,of course in the end my     
vanity might have triumphed without you3
 it is not often or easily beaten4      
,obliged by hunger and request of       
friends1   ,i can imagine myself        
printing under that classic excuse1     
which has the merit of being in the     
grand literary tradition and as         
disingenuous as another2 for in these   
days an author is not more hungry than  
every one else1 and my friends would    

have been the first to pardon my        
silence4 ,you may take it for certain1  
by the way1 that when a man says he is  
publishing at the instance of two or    
three friends he means that he is       
offering the public what he knows that  
the public could have done perfectly    
well without4 ,he means that he is      
printing neither to persuade nor to     
inform nor yet to express the truth that
 is in him1 but simply to gratify an    
itch for such notoriety as the careless 
attention of a few thousand readers may 
be supposed to give4 ,if ,i now contrive
 to escape the consequences of my own   
axiom it is thanks to you1 ,my          
,publisher--or ,publisher's             
representative must ,i say8 7,you are so
 very modest1 my dear ,whitworth1 and so
 exact47 ,naturally1 by so obliging me  
you have made me your friend for life4  
,but that was ex post facto4  ,i said   
just now that when ,i read ,mr4         
,bennett's ,books and ,persons1 ,i was  
for abandoning a project about which1   

you will do me the justice of           
remembering1 ,i was lukewarm from the   
first4 ,i enjoyed immensely his lively  
papers and ,i felt pretty sure that no  
one would so enjoy mine4 ,your reader   
was good enough to point out some       
reasons1 besides the obvious one1 why   
this must be so2 and in self-defence ,i 
am going to remind you of them4 ,when   
,mr4 ,bennett wrote for the ,new ,age he
 was a famous and full-grown author1    
very much at his ease1 very much at his 
liberty1 well aware that if he said what
 he pleased as he pleased his editor    
would be only too happy to print it4    
,when ,i wrote most of the reviews      
reprinted in this volume ,i was         
commencing journalism1 and ,i wrote them
 for the ,athenum4  ,the ,athenum1 the  
editor of which ,i take this opportunity
 of thanking for permission to reprint  
my articles1 is a paper1 was1 at any    
rate1 a paper with ancient and peculiar 
customs2 and of these customs perhaps   
the most peculiar was that1 while       

allowing its contributors extraordinary 
liberty in some matters1 it sustained   
what may perhaps be described as a      
literary policy4 ,like other venerable  
institutions1 the ,athenum had a taste  
for unwritten law2 its policy was       
adumbrated rather than defined1 but few 
contributors1 ,i believe1 were          
unconscious of its existence4 ,not one  
of us1 ,i am sure1 would have expressed 
anything but what he thought and felt1  
but we all hoped that our thoughts and  
feelings would not be too dissimilar    
from those of our presiding genius1     
,athene the wise1 our eponymous goddess2
 because1 if they were1 her high-priest1
 albeit one of the most charming and    
accomplished people in ,fleet ,street or
 thereabouts1 stood ready with the      
inexorable blue pencil to smite once and
 smite no more4 ,in the matter of       
expression1 too1 ,her ,omniscience was1 
to my mind1 something over-exacting4    
,concision is an excellent quality in a 
writer4 ,we all know what ,ben ,jonson  

said about ,shakespeare and we all agree
 with him4 ,still1 when1 by the shape of
 one's paragraphs1 the balance of one's 
sentences1 and the internal rhythm of   
one's clauses1 one fancies that an      
article has been raised almost to the   
perfection of a work of art1 it is      
disappointing to find a line cut out    
here1 two more there1 half a dozen      
missing from the second galley1 and from
 the third a whole paragraph gone for no
 better reason than that they are not   
essential to the argument--especially   
when one is persuaded that they are4  ,i
 have said that the editor of the       
,athenum1 in my time1 was a charming and
 accomplished writer2 he is also my very
 good friend and too generous critic1   
and ,i should be a wretch if ,i did not 
love him4 ,but on the evening when a    
weekly paper goes to press1 when the    
pages are pouring in1 and some one1 as  
likely as not1 is waiting at the ,caf   
,royal1 even the most cultivated and    
considerate of editors will be an       

editor4 ,wherefore ,i must now plague   
you and my readers with a word or two in
 explanation of my method of correction 
and revision4 ,re-reading these         
articles--some of which were written    
nine or ten years ago--,i come on such  
phrases as this is a notable            
achievement1 his equipment is not really
 strong1 and ,i wonder1 of course1 what 
the devil ,i did say4 ,no doubt it was  
something definite and particular1 for  
in those days ,i was a most             
conscientious writer2 but what subtle   
limitation1 what delicately suggested   
reference1 what finely qualifying       
phrase1 what treasure of my critical    
nonage lies buried beneath this getting 
out formula ,i cannot now remember4 ,i  
read the article again and again but ,i 
want the courage and energy to read     
again the book about which it was       
written4 ,and1 if ,i did1 should ,i     
recapture precisely what ,i thought or  
felt and tried1 by means of that lost   
clause or sentence1 not to leave quite  

unexpressed8 ,the idea is gone1 and with
 it1 no doubt1 the complete significance
 of the article4 ,i have botched and    
cobbled1 but at best ,i have but patched
 a rent4 ,i hope1 however1 that ,i have 
not spared many of those trusty veterans
 who1 occasionally even in our best     
weekly and regularly in our morning and 
evening papers1 are expected to do duty 
for sense4  ,wherever the blue pencil or
 standardized phrase has left too deep a
 wound or gross a blemish ,i have had to
 rewrite4 ,and1 as ,i have rarely       
succeeded in recovering the original    
idea1 ,i have had to borrow from my     
later thought4 ,of such patching ,i have
 been as thrifty as possible3 also1 ,i  
have not attempted to square the        
opinions and sentiments of early days   
with my later pronouncements1 so1 ,i    
make no doubt1 some very clever readers 
will have the pleasure of catching me in
 inconsistency4 ,if they are really     
clever they will catch me in worse      
things than that1 in puerility for      

instance1 and affectation1 to say       
nothing of blasphemy and sedition4 ,as  
for consistency1 ,i seem consistently to
 have cared much for four things--,art1 
,truth1 ,liberty and ,peace4 ,i was     
never much in sympathy with my age4     
,with my youthful style ,i should not   
venture to tamper even were ,i conscious
 of any important change in my theory of
 composition or power of expression4    
,and ,i am not4 ,i write more fluently  
nowadays and therefore1 probably1 worse4
 ,it cannot be helped4 ,it charms me to 
notice as ,i read these essays with what
 care and conscience they are done4     
,magna cum cura atque diligentia        
scripsit--they are not far from ,latin  
,grammar days4 ,precisely on account of 
these qualities they have suffered much 
from editorial amendment1 and on their  
account ,i have been conservative in a  
matter where another policy would1 ,i   
dare say1 have been more to the taste of
 some connoisseurs4 ,the matter in      
question is that of the grand editorial 

,we4 ,that1 as you may suppose1 was the 
person in which ,pallas habitually      
addressed her attentive suppliants2 that
 was the person in which these articles 
were written2 and experiment has shown  
that to substitute ,i1 my1 and mine for 
we1 our1 and ours1 destroys invariably  
the texture of the prose4 ,whether this 
early prose of mine was good is not for 
me to decide2 but that it was closely   
knit is indisputable1 and a sensitive   
critic who cared to tease himself with  
trifles could discover1 ,i fancy1 from  
stylistic evidence1 just which passages 
have been interpolated4  ,the articles  
borrowed from the ,burlington ,magazine1
 the ,nation1 the ,new ,statesman1 the  
,international ,journal of ,ethics1 and 
the ,cambridge ,magazine--to the editors
 of which ,i herewith tender customary  
thanks for customary favours--all having
 appeared over my signature were1 of    
course1 all written in the first person 
singular4 ,any one who did me the honour
 of reading my book1 ,art1 so           

attentively as now to notice that to its
 making went certain quarryings from    
these articles1 will have enjoyed it    
enough1 ,i hope1 not to resent being    
occasionally reminded of it4  ,and here 
,i might end a tedious letter3 but      
first1 if you will bear with me1 ,i     
should like to say a word on a subject  
in which both you and ,i are interested4
 ,i have shown so much humility in      
contrasting these reviews with those of 
,mr4 ,bennett that ,i will permit myself
 one comment1 by no means in            
disparagement of ,books and ,persons1   
but in the hope that he1 or indeed any  
one who concerns himself with literary  
criticism1 may profit by it4 ,in one    
respect ,i do fancy myself a better     
critic than ,mr4 ,bennett2 for though1  
doubtless1 ,i lack most of those        
qualities that make his book a positive 
pleasure to read1 ,i lack also his      
indiscrimination4 ,partly1 this comes of
 my not being what he calls himself--a  
creative artist1 just as it results in  

my not using that term when ,i mean an  
intelligent person2 but chiefly it is   
that ,i am1 ,i believe1 almost free from
 that provincialism in time--if ,i may  
coin a phrase--which is what is most    
amiss with ,mr4 ,bennett's critical     
apparatus4 ,it is a great pity ,mr4     
,bennett should be provincial in any    
sense1 for in the common he is not2 on  
the contrary1 he is one who has lived in
 ,france1 even as ,frenchmen live there1
 without being more than a little       
shocked4 ,he has read a good many books1
 both old and new2 he is one who cares  
for literature manifestly3 then why does
 he call ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells a great    
imaginative artist8 ,i will not swear to
 the epithets--,i have not his book by  
me--but ,i am sure he is too candid to  
deny that if he has not used them he has
 used their equivalents4 ,this much ,i  
know he has said--for ,i made a note    
when ,i read the essay--astounding width
 of observation1 a marvellously true    
perspective1 an extraordinary grasp of  

the real significance of innumerable    
phenomena utterly diverse1 profound     
emotional power1 dazzling verbal skill4 
,now1 my dear ,whitworth1 if ,i were to 
say that sort of thing about ,marivaux  
you would raise your eyebrows--you know 
you would4 ,yet ,i suppose no competent 
judge of literature will pretend that   
the novels of ,marivaux--to say nothing 
of the comedies--are inferior to those  
of ,mr4 ,wells4 ,pray read again ,le    
,paysan ,parvenu--all except the eighth 
and last part1 about which ,i can't help
 thinking there is some mystery--and    
then try ,mr4 ,britling4 ,but if by ,mr4
 ,bennett's standards we are to give    
,marivaux his due1 what is there left to
 say about ,shakespeare8  ,provincialism
 in time is as fatal to judgment as the 
more notorious sort1 and a defective    
sense of proportion is at the root of   
both4 ,consider ,english novelists of   
the last hundred years4 ,who but a fool 
dare predict confidently for any living 
,englishman1 save ,hardy1 so much       

immortality as belongs to ,galt's       
,annals of the ,parish1 or ,mrs4        
,oliphant's ,beleagured ,city8 ,now what
 figure1 think you1 would a critic cut  
who besprinkled these writers with such 
compliments as ,mr4 ,bennett peppers his
 contemporaries withal8 ,you need not   
answer4 ,mr4 ,bennett is a friend of the
 firm4  ,had ,mr4 ,bennett lost his head
 about contemporaries who were          
attempting to solve new artistic        
problems ,i could understand it4 ,young 
writers wax over-enthusiastic about     
,laforgue and ,charles-,louis           
,philippe--both of whom1 by the way1    
died some years ago--and are not much to
 blame on that account2 neither should  
,i have the least difficulty in         
forgiving myself were it to turn out--as
 it will not--that ,i had said too much 
in praise of ,matisse or ,picasso4 ,the 
artist who even appears to have         
discovered or rediscovered an instrument
 of expression or to have extended by   
one semitone the gamut of sthetic       

experience is bound to turn the best    
heads of his age4 ,were it possible to  
overrate ,czanne1 not to do so would be 
a mark of insensibility4 ,i was never   
much impressed by those superior persons
 of an earlier age who from the first   
saw through ,wagner2 there was a time   
when to dislike ,wagner was1 in         
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred1 a   
sign not of superiority but of          
stupidity4 ,the artists1 however1 whom  
,mr4 ,bennett belauds so uncritically1  
are not of this sort4 ,in my judgment1  
,mr4 ,wells1 ,mr4 ,george ,moore1 and   
the late ,sir ,john ,galsworthy are not 
artists at all3 be that as it may1 past 
question they are artistically          
conventional and thoroughly in the      
tradition of ,british fiction4 ,of      
course they write of motor-cars and     
telephones where an older generation    
wrote of railway-trains and telegrams1  
and of the deuximes1 troisimes or       
quatre-vingt-diximes where their        
grandmothers wrote of les premiers      

amours2 also1 they can refer to the     
,almighty in the third person without   
bursting into capitals4 ,but in this    
there is no more artistic novelty than  
there would be in a picture of an       
aeroplane painted in the manner of      
,ingres4 ,neither is there any          
discredit2 very much the same might be  
said of our three best living           
novelists--,hardy1 ,conrad1 and         
,virginia ,woolf1 all of whom are more  
or less traditional1 as is ,anatole     
,france1 perhaps the best novelist      
alive4 ,a first-rate unconventional work
 of art is not a straw better than a    
conventional one1 and to become slightly
 light-headed about either is not only  
permissible but seemly4 ,nevertheless1  
to go silly over a mediocre innovation  
is far more excusable than to be taken  
in by its equivalent in a familiar      
style4 ,while to rave about ,messrs4    
,wells1 ,moore and ,galsworthy seems to 
me shocking4 ,surely there can be no    
difficulty about treating these writers 

as ordinary citizens of the ,republic of
 ,letters--a state1 let us try to       
remember1 that not only extends in space
 beyond the horizons of ,tooting but in 
time beyond the ,edwardian and even the 
,victorian era4  ,a critic1 ,i submit1  
should judge a work of art1 not in      
relation to the age and circumstances in
 which it was produced1 but by an       
absolute standard based on the whole    
corpus of that art to which the         
particular work belongs4 ,we do not want
 to hear how good ,tono-,bungay seems by
 comparison with ,mrs4 ,ward's last     
production4 ,marvellous1 no doubt3 so1  
no doubt1 are ,mrs4 ,ward's intellectual
 gifts by comparison with those of a    
walrus4 ,but we want to have ,mrs4 ,ward
 judged as a specimen of ,humanity and  
,tono-,bungay as a specimen of          
,literature4 ,it must be tried by the   
standards we try ,tristram ,shandy and  
,la ,princesse de ,clves by4 ,how1 then1
 does it stand8 ,with ,liaisons         
,dangereuses8 ,hardly4 ,well1 is it of  

the class of ,evelina or of ,adolphe1 or
 of ,consuelo even8 ,mr4 ,bennett can be
 as sharp as a special constable with   
,thackeray3 is it as good as ,pendennis8
 ,and1 unless it be infinitely better1  
what sense is there in despising        
,thackeray and extolling ,mr4 ,wells8   
,pray1 ,mr4 ,bennett1 how good is this  
book8 ,let us see2 ,i think ,i have a   
note on the subject3 his scientific     
romances are on the plane of epic poetry
 and in ',tono-,bungay' he has achieved 
the same feat1 magnified by ten--or a   
hundred2 there are passages toward the  
close of the book which may fitly be    
compared with the lyrical freedoms of no
 matter what epic1 and which display an 
unsurpassable dexterity of hand4 ,and   
now what are we to say of ,manon        
,lescaut8 ,that it is a million times   
better than ,milton and knocks spots off
 ,homer8 ,but all this though           
distressing is not conclusive2 it proves
 provinciality but it proves nothing    
worse4 ,mr4 ,bennett may really have    

been thinking all the time of ,robert   
,elsmere and ,the ,epic of ,hades4      
,about another of his favourites1       
however1 he is more precise3 ,i re-read 
',a ,man of ,property1' he says1        
immediately after re-reading            
,dostoievsky's ',crime and ,punishment1'
 and immediately before re-reading      
,bjrnson's ',arne4' ,it ranks well with 
these ,european masterpieces4 ,i repeat 
that in one respect ,i am a better      
critic than ,mr4 ,bennett4  ,this       
question of criticism fascinates me4 ,it
 interests ,mr4 ,bennett1 too1 and he   
has written several competent and       
surprisingly confident articles on the  
subject4 ,i could almost wish to discuss
 one of them with him4 ,i would help him
 to understand ,coleridge and tell him  
about ,dryden's essays and ,johnson's   
,lives of the ,poets1 and ,i would      
assure him1 too1 it was not ,i who wrote
 that unfortunate review of ,conrad that
 gets such an exemplary drubbing at his 
hands for its self-complacent           

imbecility4 ,he ought to know that1 or  
he will think that ,i speak out of      
malice4 ,he says that ,england has need 
of a literary critic4 ,i agree4 ,and ,i 
agree that this critic must not be of   
that professorial breed with which he   
deals so faithfully1 not one who will   
date you every line in ,shakespeare on  
internal evidence and then obligingly   
pronounce ,sir ,arthur ,conan ,doyle our
 greatest living writer4 ,he will need  
the intelligence1 the first-hand views1 
the open mind1 the genuine taste for    
books1 the respect for art and          
irreverence for persons of ,mr4 ,bennett
 himself2 and1 as ,i have hinted1 he    
will need one or two qualities for which
 ,mr4 ,bennett is not so well off4 ,he  
must be a resolute critic of literature 
and not an authority on current         
reputations2 he must have enough natural
 taste to recognize a work of art in odd
 company1 new clothes1 or fancy dress2  
he must be the sort of person who would 
have seen at a glance that ,kipling or  

,paul ,bourget was not the real thing2  
he must be a scholar and a man of the   
intellectual world3 and he must be as   
incapable of calling ,mr4 ,george ,moore
 a great artist or speaking of a        
first-rate beautiful thing by that      
gentleman as ,mr4 ,bennett is of eating 
peas with his knife4  ,the critic of our
 dreams--,mr4 ,bennett's and mine--has  
yet to be found4 ,you will not imagine1 
surely1 that ,i am putting myself       
forward as a candidate8 ,here you will  
find very few of the virtues and some1  
,i suspect1 of the critical vices to    
which ,i have alluded in this letter4   
,but you need not fear1 my dear         
,whitworth1 that ,i am now going to tax 
your good nature by an elaborate defence
 of these essentially insignificant     
papers4 ,they are an odd lot1 and ,i    
think there are but two--the two        
last--that ,i am not a little ashamed of
 reprinting4 ,clearly1 were ,i now to   
write on the same themes ,i should have 
something very different to say and     

should say it differently4 ,honestly1 ,i
 believe these things are worth reading2
 ,i can say no more for them and ,i     
shall hold him generous who says as     
much4 ,but the pleasure ,i shall derive 
from seeing them printed and off my     
hands will be as great almost as that   
which ,i felt when1 four years ago1 you1
 or your firm rather1 did me the honour 
of publishing a book to which ,i        
attached1 and continue to attach1 a good
 deal of importance4 ,here ,i am        
harvesting my wild oats2 and that deed  
done1 ,i expect to feel what a regular  
but rather humdrum sinner must feel as  
he returns from ,confession4 ,quit of my
 past1 ,i shall be ready to turn over a 
new leaf4 ,i shall be able1 if ,i       
please1 to approach life from a new     
angle and try my luck in unexplored     
countries1 so far1 that is1 as the      
,european situation permits4  ,c4 ,b4   
,february #aiah4     ,,montaigne ,,in   
,,facsimile#a   ,sidenote3 ,athenum     
,jan4 #aiac  ,let it be understood at   

once that the appearance of this        
magnificent work is a bibliophilic      
rather than a literary event4 ,the      
literary event was the publication by   
,m4 ,fortunat ,strowski1 in #aiji1 of   
,l',edition ,municipale1 an exact       
transcription of that annotated copy of 
the #aehh quarto known to fame as       
,l',exemplaire de ,bordeaux4 ,what the  
same eminent scholar gives us now is a  
reproduction in phototype of            
,l',exemplaire4 ,any one1 therefore1 who
 goes to these volumes in search of     
literary discoveries is foredoomed to   
disappointment4 ,indeed1 the same might 
have been said of ,l',edition           
,municipale2 for the ,motheau et        
,jouaust edition1 reprinted by ,,mm4    
,flammarion in their ,bibliothque       
classique1 was complete enough to       
satisfy all but the most meticulous     
scholars1 while for general literary    
purposes the edition published in #aeie1
 three years after the author's death1  
by his niece1 ,mlle4 de ,gournay1 is    

sufficient and adequate4  ,though five  
editions of the ,essais were printed    
during their author's life--#aehj and   
#aehb at ,bordeaux1 #aehd 7probably7 and
 #aehg at ,paris1 #aehh at ,bordeaux--to
 critics in search of dramatic spiritual
 changes a comparative study will afford
 but meagre sport4 ,to be sure1 the     
editions of '#hd and '#hg were nothing  
more than what we should now call       
reprints2 but the edition of #aehh1 of  
which ,l',exemplaire de ,bordeaux is a  
copy1 represents so thorough an         
overhauling and so generous an enlarging
 of the old book that some have been    
tempted to reckon it a new one4 ,yet1   
though it garners the fruit of eight    
fertile years of travel and public      
service1 it reveals no startling change 
in the outlook1 nor in what is more     
important1 the insight1 of its author4  
,we need feel no surprise4 ,had         
,montaigne been the sort of man whose   
views and sentiments are profoundly     
affected by travel or office1 he would  

not have been the object of that cult of
 which the three volumes before us are  
the latest1 and perhaps the most        
significant1 monument4 ,that is a       
peculiar man whose crossings and        
dottings and deletions are judged worthy
 of photographic record by the          
authorities of a great industrial city4 
,montaigne was thoroughly normal1 not to
 say commonplace1 in his ability to pass
 through foreign countries without      
suffering anything so alarming as a     
conversion4 ,he left home on his travels
 in ,germany1 ,switzerland1 and ,italy1 
a learned and extremely intelligent man 
of affairs1 who had taken1 rather late  
in life perhaps1 to playing the part of 
a ,french country gentleman2 he returned
 with a store of acute observations and 
pleasant anecdotes1 a little older1 a   
little mellower1 otherwise unchanged4   
,of those magically expanded views1     
those sudden yawnings of sympathetic    
depths1 that nowadays every one may     
count on winning1 if not by a week in   

,brittany1 at any rate by a month in    
,manitoba1 we find scarcely a trace4 ,in
 the sixteenth century that sort of     
thing was unusual4 ,even in those days  
there were people of extraordinary      
sensibility for whom life was a         
succession of miracles1 who with        
difficulty recognized themselves from   
year to year1 to whom going abroad was  
an emotional adventure1 a supreme       
revelation3 but of these ,montaigne was 
not one4 ,him1 like some others1 change 
seems merely to have confirmed in his   
native predispositions and prejudices4  
,as he grew older he grew vainer1 rather
 more garrulous1 fonder of his favourite
 authors1 and a little less open-minded2
 and his travels were nothing more than 
a long and agreeable stage on the       
longest journey4 ,there are people for  
whom travel provides nothing but        
supplementary evidence in a cause that  
has already been judged4 ,those who can 
find nothing good at home will smack    
their lips over the sourest wines       

abroad2 and ,old ,meynell need not have 
left his garden to arrive at that       
conclusion commended by ,dr4 ,johnson3  
,for anything ,i see1 foreigners are    
fools4 ,montaigne was not of these1     
either2 too normal to be above          
patriotism1 he was too proud and too    
intelligent to be blindly patriotic4    
,montaigne was the ideal                
man-in-the-street4 ,we do not mean that 
he was typical2 but if there are        
men-in-the-street in heaven1 they will  
resemble ,montaigne4 ,and though we rank
 a third-rate saint or artist a great   
deal higher than a first-rate good      
fellow1 we recognize that there is      
something about any kind of perfection  
that dazzles even those who are most    
alive to its essential inferiority4     
,montaigne is the exemplar of good      
feeling and good sense2 in him we see   
those qualities chatting on terms of    
familiarity with genius and inspiration4
 ,he held the views that all sensible   
people would hold if only all were as   

intelligent and benevolent as they      
honestly believe themselves to be2 he   
expressed them in a form appropriate to1
 and therefore limited by1 his subject1 
but1 within those limits1 perfect4  ,the
 form in which ,montaigne expressed     
himself was new to ,french literature4  
,in the sixteenth century there was a   
recognized literary style based on the  
,latin period4 ,sentences were long1    
sonorous1 and circuitous4 ,it was a     
language well suited to those who       
followed the profession of letters1 but 
unserviceable to one who would          
communicate his thoughts and feelings to
 others4 ,montaigne was not a           
professional author2 he was a country   
gentleman with something of his own to  
say4 ,the literature of the             
professionals was an ingenious and      
abstract superstructure built up over an
 idea or an emotion4 ,montaigne wished  
to set down the original thought or     
feeling as it sprang1 hot1 from the     
mind2 and1 as original thoughts and     

feelings present themselves always with 
the force of sensations1 he gave them   
the forms of sensations--that is to say1
 he wrote in images4 ,he expressed his  
philosophy of good sense in short1 hard1
 coloured sentences1 keeping them as    
close as possible to the naked thoughts 
they conveyed4 ,that in print they      
appear as long as those of his          
contemporaries is a mere accident of    
typography2 for almost every semicolon  
in the ,essais one may substitute a full
 stop3 very rarely is the long sentence 
in ,montaigne a period4  ,like most     
sensible men1 ,montaigne had an         
unreasonable fondness for reason2 unlike
 most1 he possessed an intellect that   
showed him the final consequences of his
 fancy4 ,not only have we no sufficient 
reason for believing that we know       
anything1 we have none for affirming    
that we know nothing4 ,by sheer         
reasonableness we are reduced to a state
 of pure ,pyrrhonism1 where1 like the   
poor donkey1 we must die of starvation  

midway between two equally large and    
equally appetizing bundles of hay4 ,an  
affectation of superior ignorance has   
been a favourite literary device from   
the days of the ,preacher to those of   
,anatole ,france4 ,montaigne loves to   
tease and confound us with a ,que       
say-ie1 he has the common literary taste
 for humiliating unsympathetic readers2 
but he has also a taste for honesty not 
so common1 even in literature4 ,doubt is
 a mark of good sense3 honest doubt is a
 mark of genius almost4 ,in his         
reflective moments the reasonable man   
inclines to believe that reason can     
prove nothing--except what he believes4 
,how fearlessly did those               
nineteenth-century apostles of ,reason  
make havoc in the parlours of meek      
curates and spinsters1 thundering       
against the altogether insufficient     
grounds on which were accepted the      
surprising adventures of ,noah and his  
,ark6 ,but when they were told that     
,reason was as unfriendly to their moral

 code and the methods of science as to  
the ,book of ,genesis1 they clapped her 
in jail without more ado4 ,reason       
affords no solid grounds for holding a  
good world better than a bad1 and the   
sacred law of cause and effect itself   
admits of no logical demonstration4     
,prison or the ,mad ,house1 cried the   
men of good sense2 ,montaigne was more  
thorough--,tolerance1 said he4  ,like   
the man-in-the-street1 ,montaigne found 
refuge from reason in conviction4 ,until
 we have formulated a proposition reason
 has no excuse for interference2 and    
emotional convictions precede           
intellectual propositions4 ,only1 as we 
have no means of judging between        
convictions1 we must remember that the  
firm and disinterested convictions of   
others are as respectable as our own3   
again we must tolerate4 ,to credit      
,montaigne with that sublime liberality 
which is summed up in the most sublime  
of all ,christian aphorisms--,judge not1
 and thou shalt not be judged--would be 

absurd4 ,montaigne was a ,pagan1 and his
 high conception of tolerance and       
humanity was derived entirely from the  
great pagan philosophers4 ,of them he   
was a profound and sincere disciple1 so 
it is not surprising that his ideas were
 far in advance of those of his age1 and
 of ours4 ,for instance1 he hated       
brutality4 ,both his own nature and that
 fine ,athenian humanity which by study 
he had made his own were revolted by    
barbarous punishments4 ,that there may  
be men too vile to live seemed to him1  
doubtless1 a tenable opinion--he could  
forget all about the fallibility of     
human judgments--but ,quant  moy1 he    
says1 en la iustice mesme1 tout ce qui  
est au del de la mort simple1 me semble 
pure cruaut4 ,to hurt others for our own
 good is not1 he dimly perceived1 to cut
 a very magnanimous figure4 ,to call it 
hurting them for their own1 he would    
have thought damnable2 but that piece of
 hypocrisy is the invention of a more   
enlightened age4 ,torture he abhorred4  

,assuredly ,montaigne would have been   
more at home in the streets of          
,periclean ,athens than in those of     
sixteenth-century ,bordeaux or          
twentieth-century ,london4  ,nothing    
illustrates better ,montaigne's         
essential paganism than his passionate  
admiration for magnanimity4 ,that was   
the virtue he loved4 ,high courage and  
fortitude1 dignity1 patience1 and       
generosity--these are qualities1        
examples of which never fail to strike a
 spark of enthusiasm from his calm      
nature4 ,he is never tired of extolling 
the constancy of ,socrates and ,cato1   
the courage of ,csar1 the generosity of 
,alexander1 the great and grandiose     
actions of the heroes of antiquity4     
,indeed1 this admiration for courage and
 dignity so transports him that once1 at
 any rate1 he surpasses most pagan      
philosophers1 and joins hands with the  
latest and most ,christian of ,christian
 moralists3        ,a quoy faire nous   
allons nous gendarmant par ces efforts  

de la      science8 ,regardons  terre1  
les pauvres gens que nous y voyons      
espandus1 la teste panchante apres leur 
besongne3 qui ne savent ny              
,aristote ny ,caton1 ny exemple ny      
precepte4 ,de ceux-l1 tire ,nature      
tous les iours1 des effects de constance
 et de patience1 plus purs      et plus 
roides1 que ne sont ceux que nous       
estudions si curieusement      en       
l'escole4 ,combien en vois ie           
ordinairement1 qui mescognoissent       
la pauvret3 combien qui desirent la     
mort1 ou qui la passent sans      alarme
 et sans affliction8 ,celui l qui fouit 
mon iardin1 il a ce      matin enterr   
son pere ou son fils4 ,les noms mesme1  
dequoy ils      appellent les maladies1 
en addoucissent et amollissent l'aspret4
      ,la phthysie1 c'est la toux pour  
eux3 la dysenterie1 devoyment           
d'estomach3 un pleuresis1 c'est un      
morfondement3 et selon qu'ils      les  
nomment doucement1 ils les supportent   
aussi4 ,elles sont bien      griefves1  

quand elles rompent leur travail        
ordinaire3 ils ne      s'allitent que   
pour mourir4   ,this passage is         
exceptional2 it is not the less sincere4
 ,of its sincerity no one who reads and 
feels can doubt4 ,but generally the     
instances of eximious virtue are what   
,montaigne delights to honour4 ,nothing 
in him is more lovable than this        
passionate hero-worship2 and what       
quality is more lovable or more common  
in the ordinary man8  ,le plus sage des 
,franais1 ,sainte-,beuve called him2 the
 judgment is typical of the critic and  
his age4 ,we need not stay to quarrel   
with it4 ,we can hold that there is a   
higher wisdom than the quest of golden  
mediocrity without disparaging either   
,horace or his disciple4 ,if the        
man-in-the-street be one who approaches 
the obvious in the spirit of a pioneer1 
we must admit that ,montaigne rises     
superior to his class1 for he not only  
explored that country1 but possessed and
 cultivated it too1 and forced it to    

yield an ampler harvest of good sense   
and humanity than any other husbandman  
before or since4 ,france has ever been  
rich1 and is as rich as ever1 in men who
 have known how to sacrifice the shadow 
to the substance2 in fanatics who have  
pursued without pause or divagation     
dreams of impossible ,utopias and       
unattainable good2 in idealists who have
 joyfully given all to love1 to art1 to 
religion1 and to logic4 ,it is not      
inappropriate1 therefore1 that ,france  
should have produced in an age of       
turmoil and terrible madness the man who
 exalted the cult of moderation to the  
heights of sublime philosophy4          
,,footnote3  #a ,reproduction en        
,phototypie de l',exemplaire1 avec      
,notes manuscrites marginales1 des      
,essais de ,montaigne appartenant  la   
,ville de ,bordeaux4 ,publie1 avec une  
,introduction1 par ,fortunat ,strowski4 
#c vols4 7,paris1 ,hachette47           
,,ibsen#b   ,sidenote3 ,athenum ,june   
#aiab  ,was it chance made ,mr4 ,ellis  

,roberts mention ,czanne on the fourth  
page of a book about ,ibsen8 ,one cannot
 think so4 ,similarities in the work and
 circumstances of the two men can hardly
 have escaped him4 ,born within a dozen 
years of each other 7,ibsen was born in 
#ahbh71 both matured in a period when   
the professions of writing and painting 
were laboriously cultivated at the      
expense of art4 ,each1 unguided except  
by his own sense of dissatisfaction with
 his surroundings1 found a way through  
the sloughs of romance and the deserts  
of realism1 to the high country beyond  
them4 ,both sought and both found the   
same thing--the thing above literature  
and painting1 the stuff out of which    
great literature and painting are made4 
,the ,romantics and ,realists were like 
people coming to cuffs about which is   
the more important thing in an orange1  
the history of ,spain or the number of  
pips4 ,the instinct of the romantic1    
invited to say what he felt about       
anything1 was to recall its             

associations4 ,a rose made him think of 
quaint gardens and gracious ladies and  
,edmund ,waller and sundials1 and a     
thousand pleasant things that1 at one   
time or another1 had befallen him or    
some one else4 ,a rose touched life at a
 hundred pretty points4 ,a rose was     
interesting because it had a past4 ,on  
this the realist's comment was ,mush6 or
 words to that effect4 ,in like         
predicament1 he would give a detailed   
account of the properties of ,rosa      
setigera1 not forgetting to mention the 
urn-shaped calyx-tube1 the five         
imbricated lobes1 or the open corolla of
 five obovate petals4 ,to an ,ibsen or a
 ,czanne one account would appear as    
irrelevant as the other1 since both     
omitted the thing that mattered1 what   
philosophers used to call the thing in  
itself1 what now they would call the    
essential reality3        ,,solness4 444
 ,do you read much8       ,,hilda4 ,no1 
never6 ,i have given it up4 ,for it all 
seems so      irrelevant4               

,,solness4 ,that is just my feeling4    
,it was just what the books left out    
that ,ibsen wanted to express4  ,he soon
 worked through the romantic tradition4 
,it hampered him long enough to prevent 
,peer ,gynt from becoming a great poem2 
after that he found himself on the      
threshold of a world where everything   
mattered too much in itself for its     
associations to be of consequence4      
,attempting to analyse ,ibsen's         
characters used to be a pastime for     
fools2 to-day1 we all know that they    
come from that world where everything   
has been reduced to an essence that     
defies analysis4 ,there ,ibsen was never
 so completely at home as ,czanne2 he   
lacked the imagination by which alone   
one arrives and remains in the world of 
reality4 ,his vision was more uncertain 
and so his faith was weaker4 ,he was a  
less ferociously sincere artist4 ,when  
vision began to fail he took refuge in a
 catalogue of facts or in unconvincing  
symbolism3 ,czanne tossed his picture   

into a bush4 ,perhaps that is why a new 
generation1 hungry for great            
contemporary art1 turns more hopefully  
to painting than to literature4  ,thirty
 years ago it would have been misleading
 to say1 what is undoubtedly true1 that 
it is as an artist that ,ibsen is great4
 ,to call a man a good artist came to   
much the same thing as calling him a    
good ping-pong player3 it implied that  
he was proficient in his own business2  
it did not imply that he was a great man
 who affected life greatly4 ,therefore  
many people who understood ,ibsen and   
were moved by his plays preferred to    
call him a political thinker or a social
 reformer2 while their enemies1 the     
sthetes1 were very willing to call him a
 great artist1 since by doing so they   
excused themselves from paying the least
 attention to anything that he said4    
,ibsen was a reformer in the sense that 
all great artists are reformers2 it is  
impossible to speak of reality without  
criticizing civilization4 ,in the same  

way he was a politician2 it is          
impossible to care passionately about   
art without caring about the fate of    
mankind4 ,but ,mr4 ,roberts is certainly
 right in holding that to appreciate    
,ibsen we must consider him as an       
artist4  ,ibsen approached humanity in  
the spirit of an artist4 ,he sought that
 essential thing in men and women by    
which we should know them if the devil  
came one night and stole away their     
bodies2 we may call it character if we  
choose4 ,he imagined situations in which
 character would be revealed clearly4   
,the subjects of his plays are often    
problems1 because he was interested in  
people who only when problems arise are 
seen to be essentially different from   
one another1 or1 indeed1 from the       
furniture with which they live4 ,there  
is no reason to suppose that ,ibsen had 
any love for problems as such2 and we   
are tempted to believe that some modern 
problems are nothing more than          
situations from ,ibsen's plays4 ,ibsen's

 method is the true artist's method4    
,the realist writing about people tends 
to give an inventory of personal        
peculiarities1 and a faithful report of 
all that is said and done4 ,the romantic
 hopes1 somehow1 to create an atmosphere
 by suggesting what he once felt for    
something not altogether unlike the     
matter in hand4 ,ibsen sets himself to  
discover the halfpennyworth of          
significance in all this intolerable    
deal of irrelevance4 ,which is the word1
 which the gesture1 that1 springing     
directly from the depths of one         
character1 penetrates to the depths of  
another8 ,what is the true cause of this
 hubbub of inconsequent words and       
contradictory actions8 ,nothing less    
remote than the true cause will serve1  
nothing else is firmly rooted in        
reality4 ,is that man expressing what he
 feels or is he paying out what he      
thinks he is expected to feel8 ,have ,i 
pushed simplification as far as it will 
go8 ,are there no trappings1 no         

overtones1 nothing but what is essential
 to express my vision of reality8 ,and1 
above all1 is my vision absolutely sharp
 and sure8 ,these were the questions    
,ibsen had to answer4 ,when he succeeded
 he was a great artist1 not1 as ,mr4    
,roberts suggests1 in the manner of     
,shakespeare1 but in the manner of      
schylus4  ,there is no more obvious     
proof of the greatness of ,ibsen's art  
than the perfection of its form4 ,to    
assert that fine form always enfolds    
fine thought and feeling would imply a  
knowledge of literature to which it     
would be effrontery in a critic to      
pretend4 ,he may be allowed1 however1 to
 advise any one who is ready with an    
instance of great form enclosing a void 
to verify his impressions3 it was thus  
that one critic at any rate came to     
appreciate ,goldoni and ,alfieri4 ,be   
that as it may1 this is certain3 a      
perfectly conceived idea never fails to 
express itself in perfect form4 ,ibsen  
did not shirk the labour of making his  

conceptions as hard1 and definite1 and  
self-supporting as possible4 ,no matter 
how autobiographical some of his best   
plays may be1 he is too good an artist  
to allow them to lean on his personal   
experience2 they have to stand firmly on
 their own feet4 ,ibsen1 therefore1     
worked his conceptions to such a degree 
of hardness and self-consistency that he
 could detach them from himself and     
study them impersonally4 ,that is why   
his plays are models of form4 ,and if   
there be an ,academy of ,letters that   
takes its duties seriously1 ,rosmersholm
 and ,ghosts are1 we presume1 in the    
hands of every young person within its  
sphere of influence4 ,the students are  
shown1 we hope1 that ,ibsen's form is   
superb1 not because ,ibsen paid any     
particular attention to the precepts of 
,aristotle1 but because1 like           
,sophocles1 who had the misfortune to   
predecease the ,stagirite1 he knew      
precisely what he wanted to say1 and    
addressed himself exclusively to the    

task of saying it4 ,to achieve great    
form is needed neither science nor      
tradition1 but intense feeling1 vigorous
 thinking1 and imagination4             
,formlessness is not a sign of spirited 
revolt against superstition2 it is a    
mere indication of muddleheadedness4    
,the subject-matter of ,ibsen's plays is
 reality2 unfortunately1 his imagination
 was not always strong enough to keep a 
sure hold on it4 ,when the vision faded 
he took refuge in symbolism or          
literality4 ,there was a commonplace    
background to his mind1 of which we see 
too much in such plays as ,an ,enemy of 
the ,people and ,pillars of ,society4   
,it is this commonplace and rather      
suburban quality that tempts us         
occasionally to explain ,ibsen's        
popularity by the fact that he          
represented the revolt of the supremely 
unimportant1 of whom there happen to be 
quite a number in the world4 ,with the  
symbolism of ,the ,master-,builder no   
fault can be found4 ,it is a legitimate 

and effective means of expressing a     
sense of reality4 ,the theme is never   
lost4 ,the artist who sacrifices his    
human relations1 but dare not give all1 
dare not give his vanity or his life to 
the ideal1 moves steadily to his        
inevitable doom4 ,whether he move in the
 form of ,halvard ,solness1 the cowardly
 architect of genius1 fearless of ideas 
but fearful of action1 or in the form of
 the symbolical master-builder1 the     
artist who tries to have the best of    
both worlds1 matters not a straw4 ,the  
medium of expression changes1 but the   
theme is constant3 the conception is    
whole4 ,that is more than can be said of
 ,the ,lady from the ,sea1 where the    
symbolism comes perilously near padding2
 or of ,when ,we ,dead ,awaken1 where it
 often expresses nothing relevant1      
merely standing picturesquely for       
commonplaces1 and filling gaps4  ,to    
read one of ,ibsen's great plays is     
always thrilling2 to read one for the   
first time is an event4 ,if a savage who

 took locomotives and motor-cars for    
granted1 as inexplicable creatures of   
whim and fancy1 suddenly were shown1 not
 by vague adumbration1 but by           
straightforward exposition1 that they   
were expressions of intelligible laws   
controlled by comprehensible machinery1 
he could not be more amazed than was the
 nineteenth century by ,ibsen4 ,for     
,ibsen took nothing for granted4 ,he saw
 little on the surface of life that     
corresponded with reality2 but he did   
not cease to believe in reality4 ,that  
was where he differed both from the     
,philistines and from the elect4 ,he saw
 that the universe was something very   
different from what it was generally    
supposed to be3 he saw the futility of  
popular morals and popular metaphysics2 
but he neither swallowed the conventions
 nor threw up his hands in despair1     
declaring the whole thing to be an      
idiotic farce4 ,he knew that truth and  
goodness had nothing to do with law and 
custom2 but he never doubted that there 

were such things2 and he went beneath   
the surface to find them4 ,it was       
,ibsen's revelation of a new world1 in  
which moral values were real and        
convincing1 that thrilled the nineteenth
 century1 and thrills us yet4 ,can any  
one read sedately that scene in ,ghosts 
in which ,mrs4 ,alving shows with       
bewildering simplicity that1 however    
respectable the ,pastor's morality may  
be1 it is pure wickedness8              
,,pastor ,,manders4 ,you call it        
cowardice to do your plain duty8 ,have  
you forgotten that a son ought to love  
and honour his father and      mother8  
,,mrs4 ,,alving4 ,do not let us talk in 
such general terms4 ,let us ask3        
,ought ,oswald to love and honour       
,chamberlain ,alving8       ,,manders4  
,is there no voice in your mother's     
heart that forbids you      to destroy  
your son's ideals8       ,,mrs4         
,,alving4 ,but what about the truth8    
,,manders4 ,but what about the ideals8  
,,mrs4 ,,alving4 ,oh--ideals1 ideals6   

,if only ,i were not such a coward6     
,ibsen's social and political ideas     
follow necessarily from the nature of   
his art4 ,he knew too much about the    
depths of character to suppose that     
people could be improved from without4  
,he agreed with our grandmothers that   
what men need are new hearts4 ,it is    
good feeling that makes good men1 and   
the sole check on bad feeling is        
conscience4 ,laws1 customs1 and social  
conventions he regarded as ineffectual  
means to good4 ,there is no virtue in   
one who is restrained from evil by fear4
 ,he went further3 he regarded external 
restraints as means to bad1 since they  
come between a man and his conscience   
and blunt the moral sense4 ,so long as  
,i keep to the rules1 says the smug     
citizen1 ,i am of the righteous4 ,ibsen 
loathed the ,state1 with its negative   
virtues1 its mean standards1 its        
mediocrity1 and its spiritual squalor4  
,he was a passionate individualist4     
,perhaps no one has seen more clearly   

that the ,state1 at its best1 stands for
 nothing better than the lowest common  
factor of the human mind4 ,what else can
 it stand for8 ,state ideals must be    
ideals that are not beyond the intellect
 and imagination of the average citizen2
 also1 since average minds are not      
pervious to reason1 the reasoning of    
statesmen must be rhetoric4 ,state      
morals--law and custom that is to       
say--are nothing more than excuses for  
not bothering about conscience4 ,but    
,ibsen1 being an artist1 knew that he   
who would save his soul must do what he 
feels to be right1 not what is said to  
be so4 ,feeling is the only guide1 and  
the man who does what he feels to be    
wrong does wrong1 whatever the ,state   
may say4  ,the plain1 though by no means
 frank1 determination of society to     
suppress the individual conscience lest 
it should clash with the interests of   
the community seems positively to have  
shocked him4 ,to be fine1 he believed1  
men must think and feel for themselves  

and live by their own sense of truth and
 beauty1 not by collective wisdom or    
reach-me-down ideals4        ,what sort 
of truths do the majority rally round8  
,truths so      stricken in years that  
they are sinking into decrepitude4 ,when
 a      truth is so old as that1        
gentlemen1 it's in a fair way to become 
a      lie 7,laughter and jeers74   ,how
 could ,ibsen help being something of a 
politician8 ,he seems really to have    
wished his fellow-creatures to be fine1 
and to have been angry with them because
 they wished to be nothing of the sort4 
,he did not understand that this        
passionate individualism1 this sense of 
personal responsibility1 this claim to  
private judgment1 is what no modern     
,state1 be it democratic1 bureaucratic  
or autocratic1 can tolerate4 ,men long  
for the ease and assurance of conformity
 and so soon as they are sufficiently   
organized enforce it4 ,truth is the     
enemy--crasez l'infme6 ,poor1 silly old 
,stockmann in ,an ,enemy of the ,people 

blurts it out1 blurts out that the      
water-supply is contaminated and his    
native health-resort no better than a   
death-trap1 for no better reason than   
that he feels it is what he ought to do4
 ,he fails to consider the feelings and1
 what is even more important1 the       
financial interests of his neighbours1  
and the neighbours make short work of   
him1 as they generally do of people who 
think and feel and act for              
themselves--of saints and artists in    
fact4 ,thus it comes about that the     
prophets are stoned and the best plays  
censored1 while people such as ,ibsen   
loathe the ,state with its              
herd-instincts1 now decently baptized   
however1 and known as ,morality and     
,idealism4  ,whether ,ibsen was in the  
right is not for a reviewer to decide4  
,mr4 ,roberts has strong views on the   
subject1 which he is at no pains to     
conceal4 ,for this we are far from      
blaming him4 ,indeed1 we feel that the  
personal note imported by the author's  

intellectual bias gives some flavour to 
a book which1 owing to the complete     
absence of charm or distinction1 would  
be otherwise insipid4 ,it is a          
competent1 but woefully uninspiring1    
piece of work4 ,above all things1 ,mr4  
,roberts lacks humour--a quality        
indispensable in a writer on ,ibsen4    
,for ,ibsen1 like other men of genius1  
is slightly ridiculous4 ,undeniably1    
there is something comic about the      
picture of the ,norwegian dramatist1    
spectacled and frock-coated1 looking1   
,mr4 ,archer tells us1 like a           
distinguished diplomat1 at work amongst 
the orange-groves of ,sorrento on       
,ghosts4        ,ibsen was keenly       
sensitive to place1 and if we would get 
the      utmost feeling out of his plays
 we must remember how large a part      
was played by fortunate or unfortunate  
position and circumstances      in      
contributing to the wonderful           
'atmosphere' of the dramas4   ,that is  
what ,mr4 ,roberts thinks4 ,a sense of  

humour would also have saved him from   
the one black note of sentimentality in 
the book3        ,ellida might be       
,solveig analysed--but analysed with how
 loving a      touch1 how unerring a    
kindness2 it is as if a great surgeon   
were      operating on a woman he loved4
   ,such things1 we had imagined1 could 
only be written by members of the       
,acadmie franaise4  ,,footnote3  #b     
,henrik ,ibsen3 a ,critical ,study4 ,by 
,r4 ,ellis ,roberts4 7,secker47         
,,miss ,,coleridge#c   ,sidenote3       
,athenum ,july #aiaj  ,the greatest art 
is1 in a sense1 impersonal4 ,we have no 
biographies of ,homer and ,sophocles1   
nor do we need them4 ,of ,milton and    
,keats we know something2 yet1 knowing  
nothing1 should we enjoy their work the 
less8 ,it is not for what it reveals of 
,milton that we prize ,paradise ,lost2  
the ,grecian ,urn lives independent of  
its author and his circumstances1 a work
 of art1 complete in itself4  ,precisely
 opposite is the case of ,miss ,mary    

,coleridge's poems3 they1 when in #aijh 
,mr4 ,elkin ,mathews produced a more or 
less complete edition1 excited us1 not  
because1 as verse1 they were            
particularly good1 but because they     
discovered1 or seemed to discover1 an   
attractive character4 ,indeed1 ,miss    
,coleridge's art was anything but       
exciting3 her diction was not beautiful1
 her rhythms pleased the ear but        
moderately1 one looked in vain for that 
magic of expression which transmutes    
thought and feeling into poetry4 ,but if
 the expression wanted magic1 that which
 was expressed seemed an enchantment    
almost4 ,the gentle spirit1 with its    
vein of tender pessimism1 in puzzled    
revolt against the wrongness and cruelty
 of a shadowy world1 the brooding       
thought too whimsical to be bitter1 the 
fancy too refined to be boisterously    
merry--all these conspired to fascinate 
us as we came to perceive and appreciate
 them beneath the rather stiff little   
verses4 ,to read ,miss ,coleridge's     

poems was to make acquaintance with a   
charming and delicate soul that wished  
to be understood and was willing to be  
intimate4 ,life astonished her1 and her 
comments on life are her poems4 ,they   
are often mystical1 not to say obscure2 
and the obscurity1 as a rule1 is caused 
by vagueness rather than profundity1 by 
the fact that she hardly knows herself  
what she feels1 or thinks1 or believes4 
,but from so gracious a spirit one      
accepts without demur that which from   
another would not have passed           
unchallenged4 ,miss ,coleridge bewitched
 us with her personality2 we knew that  
her poems were slight1 we felt that they
 revealed a part of her only1 we had    
suspicions1 but we held our peace4 ,had 
we turned to her novels1 in spite of the
 brilliancy of one of them--,the ,king  
with ,two ,faces--our suspicions would  
have been strengthened4 ,but we did not 
turn2 or if we did1 they forced us into 
no questioning mood4 ,it was left for   
this tell-tale volume of ,gathered      

,leaves to press the question           
insistently1 and to answer it4 ,the     
spell is broken4 ,we know now both why  
the poems are good and why they are not 
better4  ,no one will blame ,miss       
,sichel for setting the truth before all
 things3 clearly1 by publishing these   
stories and essays she supplies an      
opportunity of correcting a too         
flattering estimate2 but1 foreseeing1 no
 doubt1 that we shall avail ourselves of
 it1 she supplies also a memoir of fifty
 pages on which our final estimate is to
 be based4 ,that this memoir is a       
competent piece of work need hardly be  
said4 ,miss ,sichel's competence is     
notorious2 as an efficient biographer   
her reputation is secure4 ,not every    
subject1 however1 is suited to her pen4 
,miss ,coleridge did not develop along  
conventional lines2 in fact1 she        
differed so disconcertingly from the    
type with which we have grown agreeably 
familiar in the ,english ,men of        
,letters series1 that1 without violence1

 she could never have been fitted into  
the traditional mould4 ,her biographer  
has done the work thoroughly1 but she is
 a thought heavy in the hand2 she is too
 literary1 not to say professional2 she 
is definite at all costs4 ,she has      
restored ,miss ,coleridge as a ,german  
archologist might restore a ,tanagra    
figure4 ,indeterminate lines have been  
ruthlessly rectified and asymmetry has  
grown symmetrical4 ,though we do not    
suggest that she misunderstood her      
friend1 we are sure that the lady       
exhibited in the memoir is not the lady 
who reveals herself in the poems4  ,of  
the author of the poems we catch a      
glimpse in the fragments of letters and 
diaries which form the penultimate      
section of the volume4 ,but here1 again1
 we find cause for discontent4 ,if      
private reasons forbade fullness1 was it
 wise to print scraps8 ,why tantalize   
us8 ,in the letters we should1 perhaps1 
have recaptured the lady we have lost in
 the essays and stories2 but these      

fragments1 though suggestive1 are too   
slight to be consolatory3 besides1 ,miss
 ,coleridge was no coiner of aphorisms  
and epigrams who could give her meaning 
in a handful of sentences4 ,here is the 
first detached thought in the book3     
',whom the gods love die young' and whom
 they hate die old1 but      whom they  
honour1 these they take up to their     
eternal habitations      in the ripe    
summer time of existence4   ,one wonders
 how it came there4  ,the suspicions    
which this volume helps to confirm1 the 
melancholy guesses it answers1 are that 
,miss ,coleridge1 with all her          
imagination1 had not the constructive   
imagination of an artist1 and that1 in  
spite of her gaiety and spirits1        
fundamentally she was feeble4 ,the      
imagination of an artist1 if we may be  
allowed a seeming paradox1 works        
logically4 ,not fortuitously1 but by    
some mysterious necessity1 does one     
vision follow another4 ,there is a      
rational1 if unconscious1 order in the  

pageantry of images2 there is an        
inevitableness in their succession      
closely allied to the logical necessity 
by which one idea follows another in a  
well-reasoned argument4 ,in ,miss       
,coleridge's mind images arranged       
themselves in no progressive order2 one 
bears no particular relationship to     
another2 they are disconnected1         
sporadic4 ,great imagination is         
architectural2 it sets fancy upon fancy 
until it has composed a splendid and    
intelligible whole--a valid castle in   
the air4 ,miss ,coleridge could not     
build2 ideas broke in her mind in       
showers of whims1 and lay where they    
fell at haphazard2 she has bequeathed no
 castles1 but a garden strewn with      
quaint figures1 where every thought is  
tagged with gay conceits4 ,her short    
poems are often successful because she  
could pick at choice a thought or fancy 
and twist it into a stanza2 but when she
 attempted a tale or an essay she       
gathered a handful of incongruous       

oddments and made of them a patchwork4  
,this first defect was1 we conjecture1 a
 consequence of that other and more     
fundamental flaw to which we have       
already drawn attention4 ,if ,miss      
,coleridge's artificers played truant1  
it was because she lacked strength to   
keep them at their task4 ,for an        
indolent and lawless imagination force  
of character is the only whip1 force of 
intellect the only guide4 ,miss         
,coleridge was deficient in both        
respects1 and so her fancy sat playing  
with chips and pebbles1 making mud-pies 
when it should have been making palaces4
  ,miss ,coleridge never created a real 
work of art because she could not grasp 
emotions1 or1 if she grasped1 failed to 
hold them4 ,perhaps she was too much of 
a ,victorian lady to do more than       
express the culture of an imperfect age 
imperfectly4 ,at any rate1 it is clear  
that a shrinking fastidiousness excluded
 from her world much of the raw material
 from which great art is made4 ,stray   

reflections on ,greek life and thought1 
though in themselves trivial1 are       
interesting for what they betray of a   
state of mind familiar and always       
slightly distressing to people who take 
art seriously4 ,she was a fair scholar  
,miss ,sichel tells us2 certainly she   
studied under an excellent master--the  
author of ,ionica2 yet she could say of 
the ,bacch3 ,the ,hallelujah ,lasses get
 drunk on the wine of the spirit1 not   
the wine of the grape2 and of the       
,medea3        ,medea is thoroughly fin 
de sicle2 says she would rather go into 
battle three times than have a baby     
once1 pitches into men like             
anything4 ,but there's too much         
,whitechapel about her4 ,how are you    
to be seriously interested in a woman   
who has murdered her mother      and    
boiled her father-in-law before the play
 begins8   ,what is this but the shy    
jauntiness1 the elaborate               
understatement1 of something small in   
the presence of something great8 ,that  

uneasy titter1 caught from time to time 
as one turns ,miss ,coleridge's pages1  
we seem to have heard before in the     
,arena chapel or at the end of a ,bach  
fugue4 ,it is the comment of            
sophisticated refinement that can       
neither sit still nor launch out into   
rapturous1 but ill-bred1 ecstasies1 of  
the weakling who takes refuge in slang  
or jocularity for fear of becoming      
natural and being thought ridiculous4   
,miss ,coleridge stood for ,kensington  
and ,culture1 so she smiled and shrugged
 her shoulders at ,medea1 and called the
 ,bacch ,hallelujah ,lasses4 ,she and   
,kensington admired ,greek literature   
and art1 of course1 with enthusiasm     
tempered by taste2 but the glory that   
was ,greece1 the merciless honesty and  
riotous passions1 the adventurous       
thought and feeling1 were meat too      
strong for a society whose happiness    
depended on gazing at one half of life  
with closed eyes and swallowing the     
other in sugar-coated pills4  ,so we    

shall not turn again to ,gathered       
,leaves1 though we shall sometimes read 
the poems4 ,henceforth1 they will       
conjure up a less elusive figure4 ,they 
will show us a pensive lady1 rather well
 dressed in the fashion of              
five-and-twenty years ago1 who sits in a
 ,morris drawing-room1 the white walls  
of which are spotted with               
,pre-,raphaelite pictures1 and muses on 
what her surroundings represent4 ,she is
 intelligent and graceful2 witty in     
season1 fantastic in measure4 ,her mind 
is ruffled by the perplexities          
appropriate to her age and state2 she   
searches ,canon ,dixon's latest poem for
 light on ,holman ,hunt's last picture4 
,her life is an exquisite preoccupation 
with the surface of truth and the heart 
of unreality4 ,her poems suggest once   
more the atmosphere of an age already   
dead and half-forgotten2 of ,sunday     
afternoons in large rooms with long     
blinds1 behind which men yawn and       
cultivated women are earnest and        

playful2 of a world in which people must
 pretend courageously that life is very 
important for fear of discovering that  
it hardly signifies4 ,it is a strange   
world1 faded1 friendly1 urbane1 and1 we 
are happy to think1 already infinitely  
remote4  ,,footnote3  #c ,gathered      
,leaves from the ,prose of ,mary ,e4    
,coleridge4 ,with a ,memoir by ,edith   
,sichel4 7,constable and ,co47  ,this   
review1 when first published1 gave pain1
 ,i know2 it gave pain to friends of    
,miss ,coleridge and to friends of ,miss
 ,sichel and to many of the charming    
people who were friends of both4 ,the   
pain1 of course1 ,i regret2 but ,i      
cannot say that ,i regret the article4  
,the criticism still seems to me fair1  
and ,i know that it was honest3         
nevertheless1 were ,miss ,sichel alive1 
,i should not care to reprint it4 ,but  
that able and friendly lady is now dead1
 and her eulogy has been pronounced by  
those who knew her best and could best  
appreciate her4 ,i1 of course1 have     

criticized her only in her public       
character1 as a writer1 and in so doing 
have transgressed no law that ,i1 at any
 rate1 can respect4 ,as ,voltaire says1 
,on doit des gards aux vivants2 on ne   
doit aux morts que la vrit4 ,to the     
living1 perhaps1 ,i have not always been
 as civil as could have been desired2   
but of the dead ,i have told no lies    
that ,i am aware of4     ,,peacock#d    
,i  ,sidenote3 ,athenum ,feb4 #aiaa  ,in
 the first place1 were these plays worth
 publishing8 ,with some hesitation we   
will admit that they were4 ,presumably  
the possessors of ,messrs4 ,dent's      
pretty edition1 or of any edition for   
that matter1 will be glad to set this   
small volume beside the others and thus 
become owners of the complete prose     
works of an ,english classic4 ,for      
,peacock is a classic2 otherwise they   
might well have been allowed to acquire 
that portentous dignity which grows like
 moss on ancient and unprinted ,,mss4 in
 the ,british ,museum4 ,here and there1 

in the farces1 one may discover examples
 of truly ,peacockian wit and style1 but
 these rare gems have mostly been worked
 into the novels2 while the residue1    
which includes a drama in blank verse1  
has little if any intrinsic value4 ,the 
earliest works of ,peacock--a brilliant 
amateur to the last--are as amateurish  
as the earliest works of his friend     
,shelley and as thin and conventional as
 the worst of ,goldoni4 ,nevertheless   
they are readable2 so we need not stay  
to quarrel with the enthusiastic editor 
who claims that they are replete with   
fun1 written in a flexible style1 and   
bearing the imprint of a scholarly      
discrimination4  ,english prose and     
humour are certainly the richer for one 
or two speeches in this little book1 but
 the service it performs1 or can be made
 to perform1 is greater than that of    
rescuing a few fragments of humorous    
prose or even of filling a gap on our   
shelves4 ,it sends us back to perhaps   
the least known of the great ,english1  

writers4 ,the ,life of ,peacock has yet 
to be written3 an ineffectual memoir by 
,sir ,henry ,cole1 some personal        
recollections by the author's           
granddaughter ,mrs4 ,clarke1 a critical 
essay from the versatile but vapid pen  
of ,lord ,houghton1 the gossip of       
,robert ,buchanan1 and editorial notices
 by ,prof4 ,saintsbury and the late     
,richard ,garnett1 together afford      
nothing more than a perfunctory         
appreciation4 ,two writers1 indeed1 have
 attempted a more elaborate estimate3   
,james ,spedding1 an able prig1#e       
reviewed ,peacock's novels in the       
,edinburgh of ,january #ahci1 and more  
than half a century later ,mr4 ,herbert 
,paul contributed to the ,nineteenth    
,century a paper on the same subject4   
,unluckily1 the judgment of both is     
vitiated by a common defect4 ,both are  
good journalists1 but both are better   
party men2 consequently1 neither can    
appreciate the attitude of one to whom  
collective wisdom was folly1 who judged 

every question in politics1 philosophy1 
literature1 and art on its merits1 and  
whose scorn for those who judged        
otherwise was expressed without any of  
those obliging circumlocutions that are 
prized so highly in political life4     
,with the possible exception of ,prof4  
,saintsbury1 not one of ,peacock's      
interpreters has understood his position
 or shared his point of view2 did not   
,dr4 ,arthur ,button ,young1 the editor 
of these plays1 himself affirm that     
his stories deal with tangible          
realities1 and not with obscure or      
absurd situations1 as is the case with  
those of many novelists4444      ,for   
this reason alone they deserve to be    
widely known1 as also      their author1
 for having helped to raise the tone of 
novel-writing      at a critical        
juncture in its development1 by         
introducing into his      tales         
instruction and information8       ,it  
is only fair to add that this bit of    
criticism occurs in his      ,inaugural 

,dissertation presented to the          
,philosophical ,faculty of      the     
,university of ,freiburg im ,breisgau   
for the ,asquisition of the      ,degree
 of ,doctor of ,philosophy4   ,in       
calling ,peacock a great writer we have 
raised a claim that needs some support4 
,his exquisite style with its ,tacitean 
flavour1 the perfection of his lyrics1  
his wit1 and that intellectual          
brilliancy which sparkles from all the  
facets of his satire1 parody1 and       
epigram1 suffice to endear him to the   
small1 fastidious world whose approval  
is best worth having1 and also1 perhaps1
 to justify our opinion4 ,but1 unless we
 mistake1 the appeal of his novels goes 
farther than the frontiers of good      
taste4 ,peacock's mind was original2 he 
thought about many things and he did his
 own thinking4 ,he is the other side to 
every question2 his way of looking at   
life is a perpetual challenge2 and a man
 without a vestige of humour or taste   
may read him with profit for his point  

of view4  ,peacock belongs to no school 
or age4 ,he has been called a man of the
 eighteenth century living in the       
nineteenth2 nothing could be farther    
from the truth4 ,he loved the sense and 
dignity of the ,augustans1 just as he   
loved the fire and romance of the       
,renaissance1 and the mysterious gaiety 
of the ,middle ,ages2 but he could have 
criticized any of them with as good a   
will as he criticized the age of        
machinery and the march of mind1 and1   
had he been born in any one of them1    
would doubtless have done so4 ,he was a 
student of bardic poetry who yet admired
 ,ariosto2 his passion for classical    
literature was uncommonly wise and      
sincere2 he read ,sophocles for         
pleasure4 ,so remote was he from the    
eighteenth-century ,grecians that he    
could perceive and enjoy the romantic   
element in ,greek life and art2 yet it  
is a mistake to call him a ,greek4 ,an  
,athenian of the time of ,pericles was1 
he thought1 the noblest specimen of     

humanity that history had to show1 and  
of that nobility he assimilated what he 
could4 ,he acquired a distaste for cant1
 prudery1 facile emotion1 and           
philanthropy2 he learnt to enjoy the    
good things of life without fear or     
shame2 to love strength and beauty1 and 
to respect the truth4 ,for all that1 he 
was a modern too2 sharp eyes can see it 
in his verse4 ,a touch of gloating and  
uninquisitive wonder1 a suspicion of    
sentiment for sentiment's sake1 the     
ghost of an appeal from the head to the 
heart1 from the certainty of the present
 to the mystery of the past and the     
future1 betray the descendant of        
,shakespeare and ,sterne4 ,the very     
culture that he inherited from a        
,grco-,roman civilization1 his          
bookishness1 his archology1 his         
conscious ,paganism1 would have looked  
queer in an ,athenian of the fifth      
century ,b4,c4 ,the author of ,love and 
,age was no ,greek2 but he was ,greek   
enough to stand out above his fellows1  

from whom he is most honourably         
distinguished by his ,athenian          
open-mindedness4  ,that ,peacock        
cultivated prejudices is not disputed2  
for instance1 he could not abide        
tobacco-smoke1 ,lord ,brougham1 or the  
,great ,exhibition of #ahea4 ,but his   
prejudices were as peculiar to himself  
as were the principles of ,sir ,thomas  
,browne4 ,they were not the prejudices  
of his age and state1 neither were they 
of the kind that is fatal to free       
thinking and plain speaking4 ,unlike the
 popular dogmas of the muscular         
,christians and their rivals the        
muscular agnostics1 his whims and       
fancies were superficial and involved no
 intellectual confusion4 ,he compelled  
no one to build on unproved hypotheses1 
nor would he suffer himself to be       
compelled4 ,though sceptical about      
progress and mistrustful of democracy1  
to the end of his life he disliked the  
,conservative party2 and perhaps his    
finest flights of sarcasm occur in ,the 

,misfortunes of ,elphin1 where he       
ridicules ,canning's florid rhetoric in 
defence of the ,constitution4           
',reports have been brought to me says  
,elphin1 that the      embankment1 which
 has been so long entrusted to your     
care1 is in a      state of dangerous   
decay4'       ',decay1' said ,seithenyn1
 'is one thing1 and danger is another4  
,everything that is old must decay4     
,that the embankment is old1 ,i am      
free to confess2 that it is somewhat    
rotten in parts1 ,i will not            
altogether deny2 that it is any the     
worse for that1 ,i do most      sturdily
 gainsay4 ,it does its business well3 it
 works well3 it      keeps out the water
 from the land1 and it lets in the wine 
upon the      ,high ,commission of      
,embankment4 ,cupbearer1 fill4 ,our     
ancestors were      wiser than we3 they 
built it in their wisdom2 and1 if we    
should be      so rash as to try to mend
 it1 we should only mar it4'       ',the
 stonework1' said ,teithrin1 'is sapped 

and mined3 the piles      are rotten1   
broken1 and dislocated3 the floodgates  
and sluices are      leaky and creaky4' 
',that is the beauty of it1' said       
,seithenyn4 ',some parts of it are      
rotten1 and some parts of it are sound4'
       ',it is well1' said ,elphin1     
'that some parts are sound3 it were     
better that all were so4'       ',so ,i 
have heard some people say before1' said
 ,seithenyn2      'perverse people1     
blind to venerable antiquity3 that very 
unamiable      sort of people1 who are  
in the habit of indulging their reason4 
,but      ,i say1 the parts that are    
rotten give elasticity to those that are
      sound3 they give them elasticity1 
elasticity1 elasticity4 ,if it      were
 all sound1 it would break by its own   
obstinate stiffness3 the      soundness 
is checked by the rottenness1 and the   
stiffness is      balanced by the       
elasticity4 ,there is nothing so        
dangerous as      innovation4 ,see the  
waves in the equinoctial storms1 dashing

 and      clashing1 roaring and pouring1
 spattering and battering1 rattling     
and battling against it4 ,i would not be
 so presumptious as to say1      ,i     
could build anything that would stand   
against them half an hour2      and here
 this immortal old work1 which ,god     
forbid the finger of      modern mason  
should bring into jeopardy1 this        
immortal work has      stood for        
centuries1 and will stand for centuries 
more1 if we let      it alone4 ,it is   
well3 it works well3 let well alone4    
,cupbearer1      fill4 ,it was half     
rotten when ,i was born1 and that is a  
conclusive      reason why it should be 
three parts rotten when ,i die4'        
,peacock's attitude towards women       
affords an example of the liberality of 
his views and of his isolation4 ,it     
shocked ,victorian sentimentalists1 and 
would probably infuriate the more       
austere feminists of to-day4 ,his       
heroines1 like all his characters1 are  
roughly and extravagantly sketched2 what

 makes them peculiar is that they are   
sometimes almost alive4 ,stupidity1     
ignorance1 and incompetence1 craven     
submissiveness or insipid resignation1  
he did not commend in women3 on the     
contrary1 intellect1 wit1 gaiety1       
spirit1 and even a first in the         
,classical ,tripos seemed or would have 
seemed desirable and ladylike attributes
 to the creator of ,anthelia ,melincourt
 and ,morgana ,gryll4 ,what was called  
womanliness in the forties displeased   
him2 but he liked women to be feminine1 
and knew that distinguished women have  
ever been distinguished as women4  ,the 
truth is1 ,peacock had standards tested 
by which the current ideas of almost any
 age would be found wanting4 ,without   
being a profound thinker1 he was one of 
those people who bother about ends to   
the extent of being unwilling to approve
 of means unless they are satisfied that
 the end in view is good--or at least   
that there is some end in view4 ,with a 
self-complacent age1 in which every one 

was shouting ,forward6 and no one was   
expected to inquire ,whither8 he was    
necessarily out of sympathy4 ,to the    
shouters he seemed irrational and       
irrelevant4 ,they called him immoral    
when they were solemn1 and whimsical    
when they were merry2 and whimsical is  
the epithet with which we are tempted to
 label him1 if labelled he must be4     
,genius makes strange bedfellows2 and   
,peacock's intellectual candour finds   
itself associated with the emotional    
capriciousness of ,sterne4 ,truly1 he is
 always unexpected1 and as often as not 
superficially inconsequent4 ,to state   
the three parts of a syllogism is not in
 his way2 and by implication he         
challenged half the major premises in   
vogue4 ,his scorn of rough-and-ready    
standards1 commonplaces1 and what used  
to be called the opinion of all sensible
 men made him disrespectful to common   
sense4 ,it was common sense once to     
believe that the sun went round the     
earth1 and it is still the mark of a    

sensible man to ignore1 on occasions1   
the law of contradictions4 ,to that     
common sense which is compounded of     
mental sluggishness and a taste for     
being in the majority ,peacock's wit was
 a needle4 ,he was intellectual enough  
to enjoy pricking bladders1 and so      
finished a performer that we never tire 
of watching him at his play4  ,he was1  
in fact1 an artist with intellectual    
curiosity2 and just as he lacked the    
depth of a philosopher so he wanted the 
vision of a poet4 ,that he possessed    
genius will not be denied2 but his art  
is fanciful rather than imaginative and 
of creative power he had next to none4  
,his life was neither a mission nor a   
miracle4 ,but he was blessed with that  
keen delight in his own sensations which
 makes a world full of beautiful and    
amusing things1 charming people1 wine1  
and warm sunshine seem1 on the whole1 a 
very tolerable place1 and all           
metaphysical speculation and political  
passion a little unnecessary4 ,he made  

an art of living1 and his novels are a  
part of his life4 ,he wrote them because
 he had a subtle sense of the ludicrous1
 a turn for satire1 and style4 ,he wrote
 because he enjoyed writing2 and1 with a
 disregard for the public inconceivable 
in a man of sense1 he wrote the sort of 
books that he himself would have liked  
to read4 ,they are the sort1 we think1  
that will always be worth reading4      
,,ii#f  ,sidenote3 ,athenum ,oct4 #aiaa 
,between the publication of his         
,peacock's first and last poem          
sixty years had elapsed2 but the records
 of his existence would1 if      placed 
in close juxtaposition1 hardly fill out 
ten years4   ,thus writes ,mr4 ,freeman2
 and ,mr4 ,van ,doren's book is a       
failure just because he has insisted on 
expanding those records into a volume of
 three hundred pages4 ,of such a work a 
great part must consist in stating      
trivial facts and drawing from them     
inferences which there is no reason to  
accept1 and which would be unimportant  

if accepted4        ,about the time of  
the publication of ',palmyra1' the young
 poet      went back to ,chertsey to    
live4 ,his grandfather1 ,thomas ,love1  
died      ,december #aj1 #ahje1 and     
,mrs4 ,love1 thus left alone1 probably  
desired      the companionship of her   
daughter and grandson4 ,a letter to     
,hookham1 dated two years later1        
testifies that ,peacock soon            
extended one of his walking tours much  
farther than he had hitherto      gone1 
in an excursion to ,scotland4   ,here   
follows an extract from a rather gushing
 and quite unimportant letter about the 
beauties of ,scotch scenery1 after which
 the paragraph concludes as follows3    
,nothing further is known of this       
,scottish tour1 but from it             
probably dates ,peacock's inveterate    
prejudice against the ,scotch4   ,this  
is ,mr4 ,van ,doren at his worst and    
hack biography at normal4 ,at his best  
he gives a straightforward account of   
the little that industry can unearth    

concerning a writer of first-rate       
importance who died but fifty-five years
 ago and whose life is yet more obscure 
than that of many a smaller man who has 
been dead twice or thrice as long4      
,industry in quest of facts is1 indeed1 
,mr4 ,van ,doren's chief merit1 which   
only aggravates our surprise and regret 
at his having concluded his researches  
without discovering that ,old ,sarum is 
not in ,cornwall4 ,still1 he has written
 a readable book4 ,his knowledge of     
,english is superior to that of the     
majority of his compatriots2 and when he
 is not trying to be caustic or         
facetious he is often quite sensible4   
,we can say no more for him however4    
,mr4 ,freeman aims higher1 and though he
 comes short of his mark his is a       
valuable book4 ,he can write well1 and  
will write better2 at present he is set 
upon being witty and clever1 which is   
the more to be regretted in that he is  
both by nature4 ,he has a view of life  
and letters which1 if it be literary and

 rather superficial1 is1 at all events1 
personal4 ,perceiving the insufficiency 
of material for a biography1 he has     
attempted an appreciation of ,peacock's 
art4 ,as we set ourselves a similar task
 so recently as ,february last1 when    
reviewing ,dr4 ,young's edition of the  
plays1 we feel no call to restate our   
estimate or pit it against that of this 
new critic4 ,it need only be said that  
he realizes1 as does ,mr4 ,van ,doren1  
the singularity of ,peacock's genius2   
that1 though neither has succeeded in   
showing precisely why it is unique1 the 
,english critic has brought forward some
 highly illuminating suggestions2 and   
that reduction by a half would be the   
greatest improvement that either book   
could undergo4  ,in the circumstances1  
our interest tends to centre on the     
biographical parts of both works4 ,for  
both are biographical3 only ,mr4        
,freeman1 who claims attention for      
judgment rather than for learning1 has  
been at less pains to sift and record   

the minute evidence that contemporary   
literature and journalism afford4 ,fresh
 evidence1 in the shape of letters and  
memoirs1 may1 of course1 be brought     
forward2 until then these two volumes   
will be final4 ,so far as external      
evidence goes1 the student is now in    
possession of all that is known about   
the author of ,headlong ,hall4  ,it is  
surprising that ,mr4 ,freeman's tact did
 not rescue him from the temptation into
 which ,mr4 ,van ,doren's industry led  
him inevitably--the temptation of       
finding in ,peacock's mature work       
definable traces of childish memories   
and impressions4 ,still more surprising 
is it that1 when both have quoted much  
that is worthless1 neither should have  
printed the one significant document    
amongst the surviving fragments of his  
boyhood4 ,this is a letter in verse to  
his mother1 which not only gives promise
 of the songs that1 above all else1 have
 made their author famous1 but is also  
worth quoting for its peculiar charm and

 fancy4 ,unless we mistake1 it has only 
once been printed1 and is hardly known  
to the literary public1 so here it is3  
,dear ,mother1         ,i attempt to    
write you a letter      ,in verse1 tho' 
in prose ,i could do it much better2    
,the ,muse1 this cold weather1 sleeps up
 at ,parnassus1      ,and leaves us poor
 poets as stupid as asses4      ,she'll 
tarry still longer1 if she has a warm   
chamber1      ,a store of old massie1   
ambrosia1 and amber4      ,dear mother1 
don't laugh1 you may think she is tipsy 
,and ,i1 if a poet1 must drink like a   
gipsy4        ,suppose ,i should borrow 
the horse of ,jack ,stenton--      ,a   
finer ridden beast no muse ever went    
on--      ,pegasus' fleet wings perhaps 
now are frozen1      ,i'll send her old 
,stenton's1 ,i know ,i've well chosen2  
,be it frost1 be it thaw1 the horse can 
well canter2      ,the sight of the     
beast cannot help to enchant her4       
,all the boys at our school are well1   
tho' yet many      ,are suffered1 at    

home1 to suck eggs with their granny4   
,to-morrow1 says daddy1 you must go1 my 
dear ,billy1      ,to ,englefield       
,house2 do not cry1 you are silly4      
,says the mother1 all dressed in silk   
and in satin1      ,don't cram the poor 
boy with your ,greek and your ,latin1   
,i'll have him a little longer before   
mine own eyes1      ,to nurse him and   
feed him with tarts and mince-pies2     
,we'll send him to school when the      
weather is warmer2      ,come kiss me1  
my pretty1 my sweet little charmer6     
,but now ,i must banish all fun and all 
folly1      ,so doleful's the news ,i am
 going to tell ye3      ,poor ,wade1 my 
schoolfellow1 lies low in the gravel1   
,one month ere fifteen put an end to his
 travel2      ,harmless and mild1 and   
remark'd for good nature2      ,the     
cause of his death was his overgrown    
stature3      ,his epitaph ,i wrote1 as 
inserted below2      ,what tribute more 
friendly could ,i on him bestow8        
,the bard craves one shilling of his own

 dear mother1      ,and1 if you think   
proper1 add to it another4   ,that      
epitaph is better known1 but deserves to
 be better still3        ,here lies     
interred1 in silent shade1      ,the    
frail remains of ,hamlet ,wade2      ,a 
youth more promising ne'er took breath2 
,but ere fifteen laid cold in death6    
,ye young1 ye old1 and ye of middle age1
      ,act well your part1 for quit the 
stage      ,of mortal life1 one day you 
must1      ,and1 like him1 crumble into 
dust4   ,surely the boy of nine years   
old who wrote this was destined to be   
something better than a minor poet4 ,and
 did not the delightful mother who      
encouraged him to express himself       
deserve something better for her son8   
,indeed1 he must have been an enchanting
 child1 with his long1 flaxen curls1    
bright colouring1 and fine1 intelligent 
head4 ,one fancies him a happy creature1
 making light work of his ,greek and    
,latin grammar at ,mr4 ,wicks's school  
on ,englefield ,green1 at home spoilt   

and educated1 in the best and most      
literal sense of the word1 by his pretty
 mother and his gallant old grandfather4
 ,no wonder ,queen ,charlotte1 driving  
in ,windsor ,park1 stopped her carriage 
and got down to kiss the winsome little 
boy4  ,from ,peacock's youth and early  
writings 7he was born in #aghe and      
published ,palmyra in #ahjf7 we can     
gather some idea of his character4 ,the 
obvious thing about him is his          
cleverness4 ,the question is1 ,what will
 he make of it8 ,he tries business for a
 short time2 the sea for an even        
shorter2 and then he settles down in the
 country to a life of study and         
composition3 he will be a man of        
letters4 ,his poems are what we should  
expect a clever lad to write4 ,had they 
been written at the end of the          
nineteenth century doubtless they would 
have been as fashionably decadent as1   
written at the beginning1 they are      
fashionably pompous4 ,it was clear from 
the first that ,peacock would not be a  

poet2 he lacked the essential           
quality--the power of feeling deeply4   
,before he was twenty it must have been 
clear that he possessed a remarkable    
head and an ordinary heart4 ,he had wits
 enough for anything and sufficient     
feeling and imagination to write a good 
song2 but in these early days his       
intellect served chiefly to save him    
from sentimentality and the grosser     
kinds of rhetoric4 ,it gained him a     
friend too1 and that friend was         
,shelley4  ,to think of ,peacock's youth
 is to think of his relations with      
,shelley4 ,he seems to have given more  
than he received3 his nature was not    
receptive4 ,he made the poet read       
,greek1 and persuaded him that he was   
not infected with elephantiasis by      
quoting ,lucretius to the effect that   
the disease was known to exist on the   
banks of the ,nile1 neque prterea       
usquam4 ,these words were the greatest  
comfort to ,shelley4 ,the two young men 
did a vast amount of walking1 arguing1  

and miscellaneous reading together1 in  
which ,peacock1 partly from conviction  
and partly from affectation1 seems to   
have been pretty consistent in          
performing the office of a wet blanket4 
,testing his intellect on other people's
 enthusiasms1 falling sedately and      
whimsically in love with various ladies1
 amongst them his future wife1 but      
keeping such feelings as he had for the 
most part to himself1 ,peacock slipped  
through all the critical stages of youth
 till in #ahaf he published ,headlong   
,hall4 ,brains will not make a poet1 but
 they made a superb satirist4  ,there is
 nothing to puzzle us in ,peacock's     
accepting a post under the ,east ,india 
,company4 ,an unusually strong          
inclination toward ,miss ,jane          
,gryffydh1 his milk-white ,snowdonian   
,antelope as ,shelley calls her1 whom he
 had not seen for more than eight years1
 and to whom he became engaged without  
further inspection1 may possibly have   
counted for something in his decision4  

,but the obvious explanation is that a  
man who lives by the head needs regular 
employment1 and only he who lives by the
 emotions has anything to lose by it4   
,peacock's feelings were not so fine    
that routine could blunt them1 nor so   
deep that an expression of them could   
give a satisfactory purpose to life4 ,he
 entered the ,company's service at the  
age of four-and-thirty2 he found in it  
congenial friends1 congenial employment1
 and a salary that enabled him to       
indulge his rather luxurious tastes4 ,he
 kept chambers in ,london1 a house on   
the ,thames1 a good cellar we may be    
sure1 and a wife4 ,of this part of his  
life we know little beyond the fact that
 he was an able and industrious         
official4 ,probably1 we shall not be far
 wrong in supposing him to have been    
much like other officials1 only more    
intelligent1 more witty1 more sceptical1
 more learned1 and more cranky3 also he 
kept stored somewhere at the back of his
 mind a spark of that mysterious thing  

called genius4 ,at any rate1 his        
recorded opinion1 ,there has never been 
anything perfect under the sun except   
the compositions of ,mozart1 smacks     
strongly of classical concerts and the  
,treasury4  ,though during this period  
he wrote his most entertaining1 and     
perhaps his most brilliant novel1       
,crotchet ,castle1 the years were heavy 
with misfortune4 ,his mother1 the human 
being for whom he seems to have cared   
most1 died in #ahcc2 before that date   
his wife had become a hopeless invalid4 
,three of his four children were dead   
before he retired from affairs4 ,already
 he had outlived many of his companions4
 ,sorrow does not seem to have          
embittered but neither did it sweeten   
greatly his temper4 ,his reticence      
stiffened1 so did his prejudices4 ,only 
emotion enables a man to make something 
noble and lovely of pain2 but intellect 
teaches him to bear it like a gentleman4
  ,it is easy to draw a pleasant picture
 of ,peacock's old age2 deeply          

considered1 however1 it is profoundly   
sad4 ,he had stood for many great causes
 but for none had he stood greatly4     
,good nature and benevolence had done   
duty for love and pity4 ,he had been    
more intimate with books than with men4 
,and so1 at the end1 he found himself   
alone4 ,his tragedy is not that he was  
lonely1 but that he preferred to be so4 
,he retired with a handsome pension to a
 sheltered life at ,halliford4 ,the     
jolly old pagan1 the scholar1 and the   
caustic satirist were still alive in    
him4 ,he wrote ,gryll ,grange4 ,he      
packed poor ,robert ,buchanan out of the
 house for smoking in it4 ,he terrified 
a meek curate1 who came to persuade him 
to leave his burning home1 by shouting  
at him1 ,by the immortal gods ,i will   
not move4 ,he carried on a desultory    
correspondence with ,lord ,broughton1   
full of literary humour and literary    
sentiment4 ,he practised small          
benevolences and small tyrannies1 liked 
to see smiling faces about him1 and     

declined to believe seriously in the    
unhappiness of others4 ,he was a        
thoroughly good-natured1 selfish old    
man4  ,in old age he had to pay the     
penalty that awaits those who live by   
the head and not by the heart4 ,he had  
kind acquaintances1 but he had no real  
friends4 ,he had nothing to look back   
upon but a series of more or less       
amusing events and a tale of successful 
achievements--no high enterprises1 no   
splendid failures1 no passionate        
affections4 ,before him lay nothing but 
his books1 his dinner1 and a literary   
reputation4 ,capable biographers can    
make pretty pictures of the white-haired
 scholar surrounded by his favourite    
authors4 ,they can turn his petulant    
limitations and querulous prejudices    
into exquisite foibles1 his despotisms  
into quaint impetuosity1 his            
insensibility to human want and misery  
into mellow wisdom4 ,but we cannot      
forget that the last years of those who 
have never passionately pursued         

impossible ideals or loved imperfect    
human beings are probably more          
attractive to the biographers who record
 than to the men and women who have to  
endure them4  ,,footnotes3  #d ,the     
,plays of ,thomas ,love ,peacock4       
,published for the first time4 ,edited  
by ,a4 ,b4 ,young4 7,david ,nutt47  #e  
,the week after this article appeared   
,sir ,frederick ,pollock wrote to the   
,athenum complaining of my having called
 ,spedding a prig4 ,well1 here is a     
sample of what ,spedding has to say     
about ,melincourt3       ,had the       
business ended here we should have      
thought that the     author's better    
genius had prevailed4 ,we might indeed  
have     questioned many of his         
doctrines1 both social and political2   
and     shown cause to doubt whether in 
the faithful bosom of real nature       
they would yield so fair a harvest as in
 the more accommodating soil     of     
fiction4 ,but we should have met him    
with undivided sympathy1 as     no idle 

talker on no idle theme4 ,this1 however1
 his worst genius     interferes to     
prevent4 ,he has only a half faith in   
the cause he has     espoused1 and dares
 not let go his interest with the other 
party4 ,it     is as if1 having1 in     
sport or curiosity1 raised the veil of  
truth1     he had felt rebuked by the   
severity of her aspect1 and turned for  
relief to more than usual levity and    
mockery4 ,hence the perpetual           
interruption of the serious and         
affecting1 and sometimes even awful1    
interest which belongs to the main      
argument of the piece1 by scenes     of 
farcical and extravagant caricature     
which might be pleasant     enough as   
varieties in that farce of unreason with
 which he usually     entertains us1 but
 which1 coming upon the mind in a state 
of serious     emotion1 are offensive   
and disagreeable4 ,the two styles appear
 two     opposite and incompatible      
moods2 and it is impossible so to govern
     the imagination or the sympathies  

as to be in the humour for both4     ,if
 you are not disgusted with the lighter1
 you cannot but be wearied     with the 
graver4   ,and again3       ,as it is1  
this affected contrast the contrast     
which ,spedding     thinks ,peacock may 
have intended between the beauty of     
,forester and     ,anthelia's view of   
life1 and the gross pictures of         
corruption1     quackery1 and           
worldliness with which he surrounds     
them1 instead of     bringing the virtue
 of his hero into stronger relief1      
serves only to     make more conspicuous
 his own want of constancy in his       
purpose and     faith in his principles4
   ,spedding solemnly proceeds to give  
,peacock a little advice about the      
construction of his novels1 and         
recommends that ,melincourt should be   
divided into two stories3 one to deal   
with the adventures of ,sir ,oran       
,haut-ton and his election for the      
borough of ,onevote2 the other to treat 
of the graver questions concerning the  

realizations of the spirit of chivalry  
under the forms of modern society 444   
with ,forester and ,anthelia for the    
central figures4      ,if he would but  
set about this latter task in a faithful
 spirit1 we     do not fear to predict1 
from the specimen which the tale before 
us1     even in its present state1      
exhibits1 that he would produce a work  
of     far higher and more enduring     
interest than any he has yet            
attempted4   ,let the reader consider   
,melincourt1 what manner of work it is1 
and then judge faithfully between me and
 ,sir ,fred4  #f ,the ,life of ,thomas  
,love ,peacock1 ,by ,carl ,van ,doren4  
7,dent and ,sons47  ,thomas ,love       
,peacock4 ,by ,a4 ,martin ,freeman4     
7,martin ,secker47     ,,boswell',s     
,,letters#g   ,sidenote3 ,athenum ,feb4 
#aiji  ,boswell's letters enjoy the     
advantage of a mysterious history4 ,they
 were written between #ageh and #agie1  
not without a view to publication1 but  
were lost for more than fifty years4 ,at

 ,boulogne in #ahej ,major ,stone1 of   
the ,east ,india ,company1 had the      
fortunate curiosity to examine a scrap  
of paper in which was wrapped some small
 purchase2 it turned out to be a letter 
signed by ,james ,boswell1 and was      
traced to the store of an itinerant     
paper-vendor1 where the letters         
published in #ahef were discovered4 ,the
 anonymous editor of this issue is      
conjectured--with good reason1 as we    
think--by ,mr4 ,seccombe1 who introduces
 the volume1 to have been a ,philip     
,francis of the ,middle ,temple who     
became later ,sir ,philip of the        
,supreme ,consular ,court of the        
,levant2 but this matter also is        
obscure4 ,the strangest mystery of all1 
however1 is that these interesting1     
entertaining1 in fact delightful        
letters1 though on their first          
appearance they created a mild literary 
sensation1 till last ,december had never
 been reprinted4  ,the volume before us 
is a reprint from the first edition1 the

 introduction by ,mr4 ,seccombe being   
substituted for that of the original    
editor4 ,we wish that ,mr4 ,seccombe had
 been less modest--less conservative at 
any rate4 ,with his view that the       
editing was admirably done we cannot    
agree entirely4 ,francis1 who has       
intercalated blocks of exegesis and     
comment between the letters1 writes     
good1 straightforward prose1 and appears
 to have been a good1 sensible sort of  
man4 ,he has enlivened his editorial    
labours with irruptions of legal        
facetiousness and sagacious reflections4
 ,he admires ,carlyle4 ,but his lack of 
subtlety and his prodigious good sense  
make him incapable of appreciating the  
character of ,boswell4 ,passages in the 
letters which seemed to him ridiculous  
he1 in his solicitude for the reader's  
enjoyment1 has been careful to print in 
italics2 for it is difficult to suppose 
that ,boswell underlined them himself4  
,the originals are again lost2 should   
the passages in question really be      

underlined1 it would follow that        
,boswell was not unintentionally or     
unconsciously ridiculous2 that all his  
life he practised an elaborate          
mystification2 that he succeeded in     
hoodwinking the world2 that he          
enlightened ,temple alone1 who          
nevertheless appears to have treated him
 as though he were what the world took  
him for2 and that ,francis1 who saw     
these underlined manuscripts1 and yet   
persisted in the conventional view of   
,boswell1 was not a ,mid-,victorian prig
 but a common imbecile4 ,it is true that
 he has been stupid enough to mangle and
 emasculate the letters that he was     
employed to publish2 an officious prude 
unquestionably he was1 but no fool1 much
 less an idiot4  ,to discuss the        
character of ,boswell has ever been a   
delicate1 not to say dangerous1         
undertaking2 but at least we may affirm 
that those who1 judging him from the    
,life of ,johnson1 are dissatisfied with
 the ordinary1 unfavourable view1 will  

not be put out of countenance by these  
letters4 ,to be sure they will not be   
disappointed of the popular ,bozzy1     
ridiculous1 vain1 and a little vulgar1  
something of a snob1 of a sycophant     
even1 with an undignified zeal for      
notoriety and an imperfect moral sense2 
but beside him they will find another   
,boswell1 the friend of ,hume and       
,johnson1 with his passion for          
excellence1 generous nature1 good       
understanding1 and genius for           
observation--a man by no means to be    
despised4 ,they will see how this man   
expresses thoughts and feelings1 often  
sufficiently commonplace1 in words so   
astonishingly appropriate that we are   
amazed by the sheer truth of the        
self-revelation2 and they may even      
conjecture that some of his             
performances1 which have been lightly   
attributed to dull self-complacency or a
 defective sense of proportion1 are more
 probably the effects of a whimsical and
 fantastic mind through which ran       

possibly a queer strain of madness4 ,be 
that as it may1 we now select for       
quotation a few characteristic passages1
 leaving the reader to decide for       
himself when and how far ,boswell is    
laughing at ,bozzy4  ,the correspondence
 with ,temple1 a fellow-student at      
,edinburgh1 began in #ageh1 when        
,boswell was eighteen2 for the first    
eight years1 however1 he was too busy   
making acquaintance with ,johnson1      
travelling on the ,continent1 and       
conducting his famous ,corsican         
adventure1 to be a very prolific        
letter-writer4 ,in #agff he settled down
 in ,edinburgh to the law1 which he     
found intolerably dreary1 and a         
love-affair1 which he found too         
exciting4 ,the dear infidel1 as he      
called her1 besides being another man's 
wife1 seems to have been an extravagant 
and disreputable young woman3        ,in
 a former part of this letter ,i have   
talked a great deal of my      sweet    
little mistress2 ,i am1 however1 uneasy 

about her4 ,furnishing      a house and 
maintaining her with a maid will cost me
 a great deal      of money1 and it is  
too like marriage1 or too much a settled
 plan      of licentiousness2 but what  
can ,i do8       ,besides1 she is       
ill-bred1 quite a rompish girl4 ,she    
debases my      dignity2 she has no     
refinement1 but she is very handsome and
 very      lively4   ,what he did was to
 break with her2 four weeks later he    
writes3        ,my life is one of the   
most romantic that ,i believe either you
 or ,i      really know of2 and yet ,i  
am a very sensible1 good sort of man4   
,what is the meaning of this1 ,temple8  
,you may depend upon it that      very  
soon my follies will be at an end1 and  
,i shall turn out an      admirable     
member of society4 ,now that ,i have    
given my mind the      turn1 ,i am      
totally emancipated from my charmer1 as 
much as from the      gardener's        
daughter who now puts on my fire and    
performs menial      offices like any   

other wench2 and yet just this time     
twelve month ,i      was so madly in    
love as to think of marrying her4   ,the
 frequency and solemnity of ,boswell's  
resolutions to amend are extraordinary1 
though the fact that his correspondent  
was a curate suggests an explanation2 in
 carrying them out he was perfectly     
normal4  ,boswell tells us that he looks
 with horror on adultery1 and the       
love-affairs with which his letters     
overflow appear1 for the most part1 to  
have been sufficiently innocent2 for an 
,italian angel1 ,zelide 7whom he knew at
 ,utrecht71 ,miss ,bosville1 and ,la    
,belle ,irlandaise he cherished at      
different times a chaste flame2 while   
,miss ,blair1 a neighbour and lady of   
fortune1 very nearly caught him4 ,but   
,boswell decided that he would not have 
a ,scots lass4 ,you cannot say how fine 
a woman ,i may marry2 perhaps a ,howard 
or some other of the noblest in the     
kingdom4 ,rouse me1 my friend6 he cries2
 ,kate has not fire enough2 she does not

 know the value of her lover6           
,nevertheless1 he was to have a ,scots  
lass after all1 for in the autumn of    
#agfi he married ,miss ,margaret        
,montgomerie1 a true ,montgomerie1 whom 
,i esteem1 whom ,i love1 after fifteen  
years1 as on the day when she gave me   
her hand 7,letter to the ,people of     
,scotland74  ,after his marriage        
,boswell's life continued agitated and  
desultory3 he practised at the ,scotch  
,bar1 without much success1 and was     
called to the ,english2 almost every    
year he visited ,london1 where he       
cultivated ,johnson1 enjoyed good       
company and fine1 made the most of his  
social and literary importance1 and     
revelled in the genuine and flattering  
friendship of ,paoli1 who seems to have 
made him free of his house3 ,i felt more
 dignity when ,i had several servants at
 my devotion1 a large apartment1 and the
 convenience and state of a coach4  ,it 
was absurd of him1 no doubt1 to say1 ,am
 ,i not fortunate in having something   

about me that interests most people at  
first sight in my favour8 but it seems  
to have been near the truth4 ,i am      
really the great man now4 ,i have had   
,david ,hume in the forenoon1 and ,mr4  
,johnson in the afternoon4 ,these great 
men were interested somehow1 and so1 one
 must suppose1 was ,miss ,silverton3    
,there is a ,miss ,silverton in the ,fly
 with me1 an amiable creature1      who 
has been in ,france4 ,i can unite little
 fondnesses with perfect      conjugal  
love4   ,there was1 too1 an agreeable   
young widow who1 also in a fly1 nursed  
me1 and supported my lame foot on her   
knee4  ,boswell's life in ,edinburgh was
 not happy2 he hated the rough society  
of ,scotch lawyers1 and quarrelled with 
his father1 the ,laird of ,auchinleck1  
who seems to have been a tiresome1      
disagreeable old man4 ,the ,laird died  
in #aghb1 and seven years later ,boswell
 lost his valuable wife4 ,his story     
becomes melancholy3 money troubles and  
family perplexities beset him 7he was   

left with five children72 and it may be 
that what once made him odd1 aggravated 
by his breaking health1 now made him    
gloomy4 ,after his wife's death he came 
to ,london for good4 ,already he had    
taken a house in ,queen ,anne ,street1  
and here he worked hard at ,the ,life1  
comforted a little by his assurance that
 it would be a masterpiece3        ,i am
 absolutely certain that my mode of     
biography1 which gives not      only a  
,history of ,johnson's visible progress 
through the world1      and of his      
publications1 but a view of his mind in 
his letters      and conversations1 is  
the most perfect that can be conceived1 
and      will be more of a ,life than   
any work that has ever yet appeared4    
,with this bold but just prophecy we may
 leave him2 he died in #agie4           
,,footnote3  #g ,letters of ,james      
,boswell to the ,rev4 ,w4 ,j4 ,temple4  
7,sidgwick and ,jackson47               
,,carlyle',s ,,loves ,,and              
,,love-,,letters#h   ,i  ,sidenote3     

,athenum ,may and ,oct4 #aiji  ,are     
people still interested in the          
,carlyles8 ,some are1 we suppose4 ,the  
older generation is interested in       
,carlyle1 at any rate2 though the       
younger1 we believe1 is not4 ,for men   
and women under thirty the redoubtable  
sage has apparently no message2 but for 
many of their fathers and mothers his   
least word still has a certain          
importance4  ,such reverent curiosity1  
though it may excuse some bad books and 
much futile research1 will1 we fear1    
hardly justify the volume before        
us--,mr4 ,archibald's we mean1 which    
tells us little about ,carlyle and that 
little by no means new4 ,one chapter    
only can be manufactured out of his     
sufficiently indefinite relations with  
,miss ,gordon2 though ten more pages are
 filled out with a discussion of that   
wholly unimportant question ,who was    
,blumine8 ,the reasonable conjecture is1
 of course1 that ,carlyle's method      
resembled that of other writers2 his    

heroine1 no doubt1 was the child of his 
own imagination1 and when a model was   
needed he drew indiscriminately from the
 ladies with whom he was acquainted4    
,should any one chance to be interested 
in ,margaret ,gordon1 her ancestors1 her
 kindred1 or her husband1 he may glean a
 certain amount of information from this
 book4 ,born at ,charlottetown 7,prince 
,edward ,island7 in #agih1 she was left 
fatherless at the age of four1 and      
brought up in ,scotland by her aunt4    
,between #ahah and #ahbj she may have   
had a love-affair or flirtation with    
,carlyle2 and in #ahbd she married ,mr4 
,bannerman1 a commonplace1 good-humoured
 business-man from ,aberdeen1 who became
 a ,member of ,parliament4 ,mr4         
,bannerman speculated1 lost his fortune1
 and was consoled with a colonial       
governorship and a knighthood4 ,lady    
,bannerman was drawn into the           
,evangelical movement1 devoted the last 
years of her life to works of piety1 and
 died 7#ahgh7 in a little house at      

,greenwich and the odour of sanctity4   
,as to what manner of woman she may have
 been we are left in ignorance2 into her
 mode of thinking1 feeling1 and         
seeing--into her character1 that        
is--,mr4 ,archibald has obtained no     
insight4 ,the necessary changes in      
matters of history having been made1 his
 volume might do duty as the            
biographical memoir of thousands of her 
contemporaries4 ,but perhaps a couple of
 specimens of the style and substance of
 ,mr4 ,archibald's prose will best give 
the measure of his understanding3       
,lady ,bannerman dispensed the          
hospitality of ,government ,house with  
the dignity and grace which might be    
expected of one who for over      thirty
 years had moved in the best society of 
,england4 ,she had the      power of    
putting all at their ease1 of           
identifying herself with      their     
individual interests1 and of entering   
with animation into the      affairs of 
the hour4 ,but while she was kind and   

gracious and frank1      and would      
freely enter into conversation with any 
one1 there was      always a certain    
dignity which prevented any attempt at  
undue      familiarity4   ,again3       
,in ,st4 ,john's she was exceedingly    
kind and charitable to the poor1        
and she and ,lady ,hoyles were active   
workers in the ,dorcas ,society4        
,she worshipped at ,st4 ,thomas'        
7,episcopal7 ,church1 and was           
especially interested in her            
,sunday-school class4 ,as we have seen1 
her sympathies were more with the       
,presbyterian ,church1 but probably     
because of her husband's official       
position1 she always chose in the       
,colonies to connect herself with the   
,church of ,england4   ,if this be a    
fair account of ,lady ,bannerman1 we may
 be pardoned for wondering why any one  
thought her biography worth writing4    
,what it all has to do with ,carlyle is 
to us far from clear4 ,the eyes of      
publishers1 however1 are in these       

matters notoriously sharper than those  
of reviewers4   ,,ii  ,having disposed  
of ,carlyle's first love1 we can attend 
to his second--if that is where ,miss   
,welsh comes in order of seniority2 for 
our text mercifully obliges us to say   
nothing of ,miss ,aurora ,kirkpatrick1  
another claimant to the honour of having
 sat for ,blumine1 while on the glories 
of ,lady ,ashburton1 who1 to be frank1  
interests us no more than the simplest  
of these extremely simple misses1 the   
title of our essay precludes us from    
expatiating4 ,but can we8 ,does not the 
great man1 who was to give ,jane the    
splendour of his name1 seem rather to   
demand prompt satisfaction for the      
insult paid him in our first paragraph8 
,there we said1 or implied1 that he was 
obsolescent2 and it is1 perhaps1 worth  
pausing to inquire how a man who seemed 
to his own age one of the great teachers
 and spiritual masters of humanity--the 
peer of ,pythagoras and ,buddha1 of     
,plato1 ,epictetus1 ,st4 ,francis and   

,rousseau--comes in this generation to  
be held a little higher than ,emerson1 a
 good deal lower than ,matthew ,arnold1 
immeasurably so than ,renan4 ,and is it 
not worth pausing again to reflect that1
 contemporaneously with these men1 and  
almost unknown to ,western ,europe1     
lived one who bids fair to produce a    
greater effect on the world than has    
been produced by any teacher since the  
crucifixion8  ,it was primarily as a    
teacher1 as a disseminator of ideas1    
that ,carlyle appeared venerable to his 
own age2 in a less degree they admired  
him as an historian and an artist4      
,to-day1 his ideas are as musty as those
 of ,godwin--a better exponent of deeper
 speculations3 as an historian--in spite
 of an undeniable gift for visualizing  
and describing scenes from the past--he 
is hardly of more consequence than      
,creighton or ,stanhope3 while1 as an   
artist1 he ranks with such faded        
rhetoricians as ,chteaubriand4  ,what is
 the meaning of this8 ,why simply that  

the ,victorians made the mistake about  
,carlyle that every age makes about its 
,carlyles4 ,they took a thoughtful      
journalist for a master2 and this they  
did because the journalist had the skill
 and conviction to persuade them1 and   
himself1 that what is commonest and most
 vigorous in human nature is also most  
sublime4 ,carlyle could1 in perfect good
 faith1 give tone to the vulgar         
instincts and passions2 he could make   
narrow-mindedness1 brutality1           
intolerance1 obtuseness1 and            
sentimentality seem noble2 he knew1     
being an unconscious hypocrite1 how1    
without a glimmer of open cynicism1 to  
make the best of both worlds4 ,for      
instance1 ,carlyle and his public wished
 to believe in ,eternal ,justice        
regulating the affairs of men4 ,they    
believed in it as something emotionally 
congenial to them1 not1 you may be sure1
 as a metaphysical truth discovered and 
confirmed by the intellect4             
,intellectual processes were not in     

,carlyle's way3 he was a popular        
philosopher4 ,from this belief in       
,eternal ,justice he naturally deduced  
the doctrine that ,right is ,might1     
which doctrine applied to history bore  
fruit most grateful to                  
hero-worshippers--a sect that flourished
 uncommonly in those days4 ,when1       
however1 it was pointed out by earthy   
and eristic rationalists that if in the 
past ,right was ,might then it followed 
that ,might was ,right1 ,carlyle1 who   
had ever the shortest of ways with      
dissenters1 drowned the argument in a   
flood of invective4 ,of course if ,right
 is ,might it does follow that the good 
cause has always been the successful    
one2 and in that case it looks as though
 the successful one must always have    
been the good4 ,might1 in fact1 is      
,right4 ,carlyle knew better3 and he who
 would be the prophet of his age must   
know1 as he did1 to reject unwholesome  
conclusions without invalidating the    
healthy premises from which they follow4

  ,each age has its ,carlyles1 but it   
never much respects the ,carlyles of    
other ages4 ,we have our ,ferrero and   
our ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 to say nothing of   
such small fry as ,faguets1 ,marinetti1 
e tutti quanti4 ,they are people who    
have something for their own age and    
nothing for any other1 and their own age
 is pretty sure to prefer them to any   
great man it may produce but fail to    
smother3 they are adored and duly       
forgotten4 ,they must come forward as   
the critics and guides of society2      
whether they declare their messages in  
prose or verse1 in novels1 histories1   
speeches1 essays1 or philosophical      
treatises is of no consequence4 ,it must
 be possible to make prophets of them1  
that is all4 ,a pure artist or          
philosopher or man of science1 one who  
is concerned with ,beauty or ,truth but 
not with its application to contemporary
 life will not do4 ,darwin and          
,swinburne1 therefore1 the greatest of  
the ,english ,victorians1 were not      

eligible2 but the age chose ,carlyle for
 its select preacher when it might have 
had ,mill4 ,naturally it preferred his  
coloured rhetoric and warm              
sentimentality to ,mill's cold reason   
and white-hot emotion4 ,it chose him    
because he was what ,mill was not--a    
,carlyle4 ,yet1 though ,utilitarianism  
is discredited1 ,mill remains2 the      
candour and subtlety of his intellect   
impress us still1 and his ,autobiography
 will seem to future generations one of 
the most moving documents of the        
nineteenth century4  ,as for ,carlyle1  
nobody marks him2 we only wonder that he
 will still be talking4 ,the old        
controversy between those who wish to   
believe the truth and those who insist  
that what they wish to believe is true  
raves on2 but neither side dreams of    
briefing the ,chelsea sage4 ,his vatic  
eloquence carries no conviction4 ,men   
and women of the younger generation1    
whatever their views1 find no support in
 him1 because he appeals to axioms and  

postulates which to them seem unreal4   
,it is not that his arguments are       
old-fashioned1 but that they are based  
on nothing and apply to nothing4 ,a     
modern emotionalist may call in ,tolstoy
 or ,bergson or ,berkley or ,lon ,bloy  
or ,pguy or ,plato himself to break the 
head of ,anatole ,france or ,bertrand   
,russell1 but he will not trouble       
,carlyle4 ,and besides finding him      
empty1 the new age is quite aware of his
 positive defects4 ,it cannot away with 
his peasant morality--moralizing        
rather--his provincialism1 and the      
grossness of his method4 ,from the      
beginning to the end of his works there 
is neither pure thought nor pure        
feeling--nothing but a point of view    
which is now perceived to be            
ridiculously plebeian4 ,nevertheless1   
,carlyle had one positive gift that the 
younger generation is perhaps not very  
well qualified to appreciate1 he was an 
extraordinarily capable man of letters4 
,his footnotes1 for instance1 might     

serve as models2 he had a prodigious    
talent for picking out just those bits  
of by-information that will amuse and   
interest a reader and send him back to  
the text with renewed attention4 ,his   
editing of ,mrs4 ,carlyle's             
letters--letters which come not within  
our terms of reference and from which1  
therefore1 we cannot decently quote--is 
remarkable3 only1 even here1 his        
intolerable virtue and vanity1 his      
callous self-content1 his miserable1    
misplaced self-pity and his nauseous    
sentimentality parade themselves on     
almost every page4 ,for all his ,oh     
heavenses1 courageous little souls1 and 
ay de mis1 he never once guessed the    
nature of his offence1 never realized   
the beastliness of that moral and       
religious humbug which to himself seems 
always to have justified him in playing 
tyrant and vampire to a woman of genius4
   ,,iii  ,the volumes before us1 as we 
have hinted1 were expected1 not without 
excitement1 by those people for whose   

benefit we are about to review them4 ,it
 must be confessed that they have not   
wholly escaped the fate that is apt to  
befall the progeny of parturient        
mountains4 ,not that they are precisely 
what ,horace would have expected them to
 be3 they are anything but small2 yet1  
about the contents there is something   
mousey--the colour perhaps4 ,the fact   
is1 they are disappointing4 ,the letters
 they contain--a bare third of which are
 by ,jane ,welsh--were all written      
between the middle of #ahba and the end 
of #ahbf--that is to say1 before either 
,jane or ,carlyle had found themselves4 
,at his best1 ,carlyle was not a        
letter-writer2 he was a clever man who  
wrote letters4 ,these have sometimes the
 personal quality of a good essay1 never
 the charm of familiar correspondence4  
,in these early days his mind is as     
undeveloped as his style2 he is crude1  
awkward1 over-emphatic2 apter at        
catching the faults than the excellences
 of the eighteenth-century prose        

writers4 ,that one should write to      
please rather than to improve one's     
correspondent was an idea which seems   
hardly to have occurred to him3         
,when ,i sit down to write ,letters to  
people ,i care anything for1 ,i      am 
too apt to get into a certain ebullient 
humour1 and so to indite      great     
quantities of nonsense1 which even my   
own judgment      condemns--when too    
late for being mended4   ,that is his   
own admission4 ,here is a specimen of   
his solemn admonitions to his future    
wife3        ,i very much approve your  
resolution to exercise your powers in   
some sort of literary effort2 and ,i    
shall think myself happy1 if by      any
 means ,i can aid you in putting it in  
practice4 ,there is nothing      more   
injurious to the faculties than to sit  
poring over books      continually      
without attempting to exhibit any of our
 own      conceptions4 ,we amass ideas1 
it is true2 but at the same time we     
proportionally weaken our powers of     

expressing them2 a power      equally   
valuable with that of conceiving them1  
and which1 tho' in      some degree like
 it the gift of ,nature1 is in a far    
higher degree      the fruit of art1 and
 so languishes more irretrievably by    
want of      culture1 etc4   ,even when 
writing to a lady with whom one is on   
the most delicate terms such austerity  
is excessive1 especially when it runs   
into a dozen pages4 ,carlyle is at his  
best when describing people1 and it is  
to be regretted that his editor1 out of 
respect for the memory of ,campbell's   
widow and others long since deceased1   
has felt obliged to suppress more than  
one passage in which contemporaries are 
freely handled4 ,he is at his worst when
 writing1 and generally complaining1    
about himself2 and1 like the majority of
 people who take themselves very        
seriously1 most amusing when            
unconsciously so4 ,in the ,october of   
#ahbd he visited ,paris and told ,miss  
,welsh just what he thought of it3      

,i am daily growing more and more       
contemptuous of ,paris1 and the         
manire d'tre of its people4 ,poor       
fellows6 ,i feel alternately            
titillated into laughter and shocked to 
the verge of horror at the      hand    
they make of ,life4444 ,their houses are
 not houses1 but places      where they 
sleep and dress2 they live in cafs and  
promenades and      theatres2 and ten   
thousand dice are set a-rattling every  
night in      every quarter of their    
city4 ,every thing seems gilding and    
fillagree1 addressed to the eye1 not to 
the touch4   ,mrs4 ,carlyle1 on the     
other hand1 had a genuine gift2 her     
genius may be small1 but it is          
undeniable4 ,she was never in the first 
flight of letter-writers1 a tiny band   
which consists1 we take it1 of ,mrime1  
,mme4 de ,svign1 ,horace ,walpole1      
,byron1 and whom else8 ,but in that     
larger second class1 the class of ,gray 
and ,julie de ,lespinasse1 ,lady ,mary  
,montagu1 ,swift1 ,flaubert1 ,leopardi1 

,charles ,lamb1 ,gibbon1 ,fitzgerald1   
,voltaire1 ,cicero we suppose1 and a    
good many more1 she is entitled to a    
place4 ,jane ,welsh1 however1 is by no  
means ,mrs4 ,carlyle4 ,she was but      
twenty-five when she married4 ,here we  
find her rather too conscious of her own
 superiority2 not only was she the      
beauty1 she was also the ,muse of the   
village2 had she been less vain she must
 have been unnatural4 ,yet1 under all   
her pert provincialism1 we can detect   
that mysterious quality which           
distinguishes the good letter-writer4   
,she writes to please two people--her   
correspondent and herself2 she has no   
need1 therefore1 to canvass general     
truths1 but can afford to be personal   
and charming4 ,her artful wit gives pith
 and moment to the most trivial         
enterprises1 and turns domestic projects
 into adventures of high romance4 ,she  
never makes great things small by       
declamation2 she prefers to make small  
things great by insinuation4 ,her friend

 is assumed to be interested in all that
 concerns herself1 so she is not afraid 
to be intimate2 and a correspondent both
 clever and intimate is one of those    
things that make life precious4 ,in a   
word1 her letters 7which1 to our dismay1
 besides occupying a bare third of the  
two volumes1 are towards the end        
disastrously affected by the style of   
her lover7 succeed in giving a whimsical
 view of her ordinary and external life1
 viewed from standpoints above and      
beyond the reach of externals--the head 
and the heart4 ,her account of the      
affair with ,mr4 ,dugald ,g---- is1 in  
its way1 a little masterpiece1 but too  
long for quotation4 ,we select a shorter
 specimen of her style3       ,such a   
week ,i spent in ,galloway6 ,there was  
no amusement within     doors1 and the  
weather precluded the chance of finding 
any without4     ',coelebs in ,search of
 a ,wife' was the only book in the      
house1 and     even that was monopolized
 by a young lady who came to my ,uncle's

 7,i     strongly suspect7 on ,coeleb's 
errand4 ,the rest of us had no weapon   
of any sort to combat time with1 and for
 four whole days ,i sat     counting the
 drops of rain that fell from the       
ceiling into a bowl     beneath1 or in  
burbling the chain of my watch for the  
pleasure of     undoing it4 ',oh1       
,plato6 what tasks for a philosopher6'  
,at length in     a frenzy of ennui ,i  
mounted a brute of a horse that could do
 nothing     but trot1 and rode till ,i 
was ready to drop from the saddle--just 
for diversion4 ,i left my companions    
wondering when it would be fair2     and
 when ,i returned they were still       
wondering4 ,how very few people         
retain their faculties in rainy weather6
   ,we can hardly make evident by short 
quotations the difference between the   
letters of a gifted person and of one   
who had a gift for letter-writing2 the  
reader1 however1 who will be at pains to
 take ,lamb's correspondence from the   
shelf and compare his letters with those

 of ,mrs4 ,carlyle will no doubt        
discover what it is that they both      
possess and ,carlyle lacks4 ,we would   
say1 if permitted once again to trot out
 the weary and well-fired hack1 that you
 may think of ,carlyle writing his      
,frederick in a tail-coat1 or whatever  
costume you prefer1 and feel sure1 if   
your mind be not too literal1 that his  
letters were written in the same full   
dress4 ,far pleasanter to imagine ,jane 
,welsh1 coming home from a rout1        
slipping a gay dressing-gown over a     
satin petticoat1 and gossiping till the 
fire burnt low4 ,what is more1 before   
she had the privilege of doing for a    
great man with a ,scotch sense of       
economy and a peasant's notion of wifely
 duties1 she may often have so gossiped4
 ,the fact is1 ,carlyle1 in his most    
playful moments1 kept one eye on the    
eternities1 and ,jane1 in her most      
solemn1 never lost sight of the comic   
spirit4  ,the volumes before us are well
 printed on good paper1 and without are 

embellished by a device--two hearts1    
stamped in gold1 linked with a golden   
ring1 and supported by a plump little   
cupid2 the same device is repeated on   
the title-page in mauve4 ,trifles may be
 significant2 whether this symbol was   
suggested by the editor1 or whether the 
editor was influenced by it1 are        
questions deserving thought4 ,turning to
 matters less subtle1 we wish that ,mr4 
,alexander ,carlyle had not found it    
necessary to rake up the ashes which    
reticence had allowed to grow cold4     
,also1 we wish that he had adopted some 
other policy towards ,jane ,welsh2 the  
pin1 even between deft fingers1 is an   
ignoble and unattractive weapon4 ,in his
 notes he contrives a small and         
unpleasant sensation 7vol4 i1 p4 #cai7  
which would be more effective were it   
supported by anything better than a     
piece of gossip1 for which no authority 
is given1 and the doubtful              
interpretation of one passage in a      
letter4 ,we are grateful to him1        

however1 for translating all the ,latin1
 ,french1 ,german1 ,italian1 and ,scotch
 words1 and for several touches of      
unconscious humour1 of which the        
following is a pleasant example3        
,pen 7from ,penfillan1 home of ,miss    
,welsh's paternal grandfather7      was 
her pet name used to distinguish her    
from the ,welshes of her      maternal  
grandfather's household1 especially from
 her mother's      younger sister1 whose
 name was also ,jeannie ,welsh4         
,conscious of      procrastinating too  
long in writing1 ,miss ,welsh here      
sportively      enlarges ,pen not into  
,penfillan1 but into ,penelope1 the name
 of      ,ulysses' faithful wife1 who   
put off so long the hateful task of     
choosing a husband from the wasteful and
 riotous horde of suitors      assembled
 in her house during ,ulysses'          
protracted absence4 ,see      ,homer's  
',odyssey4'   ,,footnote3  #h ,the      
,love-,letters of ,thomas ,carlyle and  
,jane ,welsh4 ,edited by ,alexander     

,carlyle4 #b vols4 ,illustrated4 7,john 
,lane47  ,carlyle's ,first ,love1       
,margaret ,gordon1 ,lady ,bannerman4 ,by
 ,raymond ,clare ,archibald4 7,john     
,lane47     ,,the ,,lysistrata#i        
,greek3 ,ahi ,charites temenos ti labein
 hoper ouchi peseitai ztousai psuchn    
euron ,aristophanous4 ,,plato4          
,sidenote3 ,athenum ,jan4 #aiab  ,to    
,plato it seemed that the ,graces1      
seeking an imperishable temple1         
discovered the soul of ,aristophanes4   
,to the grocers and statesmen of ,queen 
,victoria it seemed otherwise4 ,their   
taste was a good deal nicer than that of
 ,plato1 or of ,shakespeare for that    
matter1 or of ,dante1 ,rabelais1        
,catullus1 ,voltaire1#aj ,gibbon or     
,balzac1 to say nothing of ,st4         
,chrysostom 7who could not sleep without
 an ,aristophanes under his pillow7 or  
the author of ,the ,song of ,solomon4   
,they did not like vulgarity and they   
put a stop to it3 also in that age      
,punch and the ,times flourished4 ,what 

is decent or indecent1 vulgar or        
refined1 is1 of course1 a matter of     
taste2 and each age has a taste of its  
own4 ,the taste of ,athens in her prime1
 or of ,rome in hers1 of ,italy in the  
days of ,dante or of ,raphael1 of the   
court of ,elizabeth1 or of              
eighteenth-century ,france was not the  
taste of ,victorian ,england4 ,and the  
strange thing is that1 though not only  
in the arts1 but in all the delicacies  
of life--in personal relations1 in      
sentiment and wit--the great poets1     
artists and critics are admitted to have
 been more subtle and fastidious than   
most curates or tradesmen1 in the matter
 of morals the curates and tradesmen are
 allowed to know better4 ,in this one   
respect their sensibilities are to be   
preferred2 in all others they modestly  
confess themselves inferior to the      
greatest minds of the ages4 ,things that
 seemed beautiful or interesting or     
amusing to ,shakespeare or ,plato1 to   
,chaucer or ,aristophanes1 they know1   

for certain1 to be evil4 ,and since they
 are evil they are not to be mentioned2 
discussion of them even--since they are 
quite sure that they are evil--is a     
crime4 ,now the prevention of crime is a
 duty of the state2 so very few of the  
world's great masterpieces could have   
been published for the first time in    
modern ,england2 and it has been        
impossible for ,mr4 ,bickley ,rogers to 
give us even a translation of the       
,lysistrata4  ,were ,aristophanes alive 
and publishing now1 not only would his  
plays be vetoed by the ,censor for      
indelicacy1 and boycotted by the        
libraries1 he would be in personal      
danger on another account2 for a judge  
of the ,high ,court could surely be     
found to sentence the author of ,the    
,birds to six months' hard labour for   
blasphemy4 ,mr4 ,rogers1 therefore1 who 
made this translation1 not in the       
,athens of ,plato1 but in the ,london of
 ,podsnap--in #ahgh1 to be exact--is not
 much to be blamed for having allowed it

 to bear the mark of its age4           
,nevertheless1 though pardonable1 his   
compromise is deplorable1 since it robs 
this translation of precisely that      
quality which gives to most of the      
others their high importance4 ,for ,mr4 
,rogers is one of those who during the  
last five-and-twenty years have been    
busy awakening us to a new sense of the 
possibilities of life4 ,his share in    
that task has been to express and       
restate1 in a form appreciable by the   
modern mind1 some of the adventures and 
discoveries of the ,hellenic genius4 ,he
 is one of those scholars who1          
consciously or unconsciously1 have      
joined hands with the boldest spirits of
 the age1 and1 by showing what the      
,greeks thought and felt1 have revealed 
to us new worlds of thought and feeling4
 ,now1 to write like the sociologists1  
the subject of the ,lysistrata is the   
fundamental nature and necessity of the 
interdependence of the sexes4 ,but what 
,aristophanes thought and felt about the

 matter is just what we shall not find  
in this translation4 ,for instance1 the 
scene between ,cinesias and ,myrrhina is
 essential to a perfect understanding of
 the play1 but the latter part of it    
7ll4 #ije-fj7 is not so much as         
paraphrased here4 ,and so the spirit    
languishes2 it could flourish only in   
the body created for it by the poet1 and
 that body has been mutilated4  ,this   
version1 then1 fails to bring out the   
profound1 comic conception that gives   
unity and significance to the original2 
nevertheless1 it has something more than
 such literary interest as may be       
supposed to belong to any work by ,mr4  
,rogers4 ,the comic poet offers matter  
worthy the consideration of politicians 
and political controversialists1 and    
this the translator has rendered        
fearlessly and well4 ,for the           
,lysistrata is a political play1 and    
cannot be discussed profitably apart    
from its political ideas and arguments4 
,it can no more be treated as pure      

literature than the poetry of ,keats can
 be treated as anything else4 ,frankly  
pacificist1 and to some extent feminist1
 hostile1 at any rate1 to arrogant      
virility1 it sounds in its ideas and    
arguments oddly familiar to modern ears2
 and1 in the interest of those ears1 it 
may be worth pausing a moment to        
consider the circumstances in which it  
was produced4  ,some eighteen months    
earlier--towards the end of #dac        
,b4,c4--had come news of the most       
stunning disaster that was to befall    
,athens till the final catastrophe at   
,aegospotami4 ,the greatest armament    
ever assembled by a ,greek state had    
been annihilated1 literally1 before     
,syracuse3 the city1 itself1 was in     
danger4 ,for that not the less was      
,aristophanes permitted to produce in   
the state theatre at the public cost his
 fiercely anti-militarist and           
anti-imperialist play4 ,was it the best1
 or one of the two or three best1       
comedies of the year8 ,that was what the

 ,athenians wanted to know4 ,if it was1 
of course it ought to be presented4     
,during this long and horrible war 7it  
lasted twenty-eight years71 power1 as   
was to be expected1 slipped into the    
hands of vile and violent demagogues1 of
 men who by rhetoric and intrigue       
induced the people more than once to    
reject on fair occasions reasonable     
terms1 who in #dbj1 guided by           
,alcibiades1 contrived by an infamous   
stratagem to upset the ,peace of        
,nicias1 and by a combination of evil   
motives--private interest1 public       
vanity1 vindictiveness1 greed1 and      
sentimentality--prolonged the war until 
it ended in the ruin of the city and the
 irreparable debasement of ancient      
civilization4 ,these men1 as may be     
supposed1 were the butts of our poet's  
bitterest satire and most furious       
invective4 ,yet even they1 though       
incessantly attacked and exposed1 never 
succeeded in prohibiting1 and perhaps   
never wished to prohibit1 the           

performance of his plays4  ,it has been 
said that ,athens attempted to impose   
her civilization on the ,hellenic world 
and became barbarous in the attempt4    
,there is1 of course1 much truth in     
this4 ,to wage war successfully a state 
must make itself to some extent         
barbarous2 and the ,peloponnesian ,war  
ended the progressive phase of ,greek   
culture4 ,the state conquered by ,rome  
was something unrecognizably inferior to
 the state that ,pericles so recklessly 
jeopardized2 and it is interesting to   
note that the conquest of ,greece by    
,rome did far more for the spread of    
,greek civilization and culture than any
 of those projects of aggrandizement and
 expansion so artfully devised by       
,athenian imperialists4 ,no reader of   
,thucydides can doubt that as the       
struggle intensified ,athenian civility 
diminished3 yet1 when we remember that  
even in the throes of war the right of  
the individual to live and speak freely 
was not lost1 that1 on the contrary1    

during the war1 came forth some of the  
finest and freest criticism with which  
the world has ever been blest1 we shall 
incline to suspect that even in her     
decline ,athens was decidedly more      
civilized than most states at their     
apogee4  ,greek3 ho de anexetastos bios 
ou bitos1 said ,socrates--a life        
unsifted is a life unspent4 ,because the
 ,athenians really believed this1       
because they saw dimly that good states 
of mind1 not wealth nor comfort nor     
power nor prestige--which are but       
means--but states of mind1 which alone  
are good in themselves1 are the proper  
end of existence1 they refused to       
sacrifice individual liberty to any god 
of efficiency4 ,it was to the mind of   
the individual they looked for absolute 
good3 the state was but a means4        
,therefore at ,athens1 after twenty     
years of stultifying war1 the right of  
the individual to free expression and   
self-development was scrupulously       
respected4 ,in this truly liberal       

atmosphere vivid and original characters
 grew and flourished1 thought and felt1 
and of their thoughts and feelings have 
left such record as still charms and    
tantalizes less fortunate generations4  
,this belief in personal liberty1 this  
respect for the individual mind as the  
sole source of truth and beauty1 made   
possible ,athens1 a small short-lived   
state in the distant past1 an ideal     
towards which the best minds are ever   
looking back1 the glory and grand       
achievement of the ,western world4#aa   
,our enthusiasm for that ,athenian      
spirit1 which respected art and gave    
free rein to criticism even at the most 
desperate moment of the city's history1 
has carried us a little1 but only a     
little1 away from the matter in         
hand--the political ideas of the        
,lysistrata4 ,political wisdom1 like    
human folly1 seems to obey a law known  
to men of science as the ,conservation  
of ,energy--quantity and quality are    
permanent1 form alone changes4 ,it is   

the ,aristophanic method that differs so
 greatly from that of most modern       
satirists4 ,for ,aristophanes does not  
confine himself to driving the blade of 
his wit into the rotten parts of a bad  
case2 he does not score intellectual    
points only4 ,his method is more        
fundamental4 ,a clever controversialist 
can always find joints in the harness of
 his foe4 ,when ,mr4 ,shaw meets ,mr4   
,belloc in public controversy it is hard
 to say which makes the greater number  
of hits4 ,even harder is it to say that 
the cause of truth has been much        
advanced4 ,one may hold1 fairly enough1 
that both sides have been made          
ludicrous2 but it is still fairer to    
admit that neither has been utterly     
discredited4 ,if ,aristophanes never    
succeeded in ruining a party1 at least  
he succeeded in discrediting some       
pestilent opinions4 ,this he did1 not so
 much by a brisk display of intellectual
 handiness1 as by showing that a pompous
 superstructure was baseless4 ,he makes 

us feel a position to be absurd1 instead
 of merely thinking certain things in it
 silly4  ,the superior1 sneering        
official has not escaped shrewd knocks  
from the wits of every age4 ,there is a 
type of mind which1 under every form of 
government1 pushes to the front by sheer
 lack of virtue4 ,wherever life has     
become sufficiently mechanical to       
support a bureaucracy1 there will the   
,poloniuses and ,shallows gather1 and1  
wherever there is an official caste1    
there will be satirists or              
torture-chambers4#ab ,yet1 though the   
self-complacent magistrate has been the 
butt of the ages1 ,aristophanes and     
,shakespeare1 and perhaps ,flaubert1    
have alone revealed his essential       
nullity1 because they alone have looked 
for something essential beneath the     
accidental4 ,nothing could be simpler   
than the character of ,polonius2 nothing
 could be more subtle4 ,a rap here1 a   
stab there1 and the soul of a minister  
is exposed4 ,we have come to see1 we    

scarcely know how1 that1 if he ever had 
one1 he has lost it4 ,some idea of the  
simplicity and subtlety of the          
,aristophanic method may be gathered    
from the following scene1 but to        
illustrate the extravagance and beauty  
of the form1 or the profundity of the   
conception1 no quotation can suffice4   
,lysistrata has unfolded her famous     
scheme for stopping the war3 there is to
 be a sympathetic strike2 the women of  
all the combatant states1 principals and
 allies1 are to withhold their services 
until the war has been stopped3         
,,lysistrata ending a speech4 ,then     
shall the people revere us and          
honour us1                   givers of  
,joy1 and givers of ,peace4             
,,magistrate4 ,tell us the mode and the 
means of your doing it4       ,,lys4    
,first we will stop the disorderly crew1
                 ,soldiers in arms      
promenading and marketing4              
,,stratyllis leader of the chorus of    
women4 ,yea1 by divine                  

,aphrodite1 'tis true4       ,,lys4     
,now in the market you see them like    
,corybants1 jangling                    
about with their armour of mail4        
,fiercely they stalk in the midst of the
 crockery1                   sternly    
parade by the cabbage and kail4         
,,mag4       ,right1 for a soldier      
should always be soldierly6       ,,lys4
         ,troth1 'tis a mighty          
ridiculous jest1                        
,watching them haggle for shrimps in the
 market-place1                   grimly 
accoutred with shield and with crest4   
99       99       99       99       99  
,,strat4     ,comes1 like a ,tereus1 a  
,thracian irregular1                    
shaking his dart and his target to boot2
                 ,off runs a shopgirl1  
appalled at the sight of him1           
down he sits soldierly1 gobbles her     
fruit4       ,,mag4       ,you1 ,i      
presume1 could adroitly and gingerly    
settle this                   intricate1
 tangled concern3                 ,you  

in a trice could relieve our            
perplexities4       ,,lys4              
,certainly4       ,,mag4                
,how8 permit me to learn4       ,,lys4  
,just as a woman1 with nimble dexterity1
                   thus with her hands  
disentangles a skein4                   
99       99       99       99       99  
,,mag4       ,wonderful1 marvellous     
feats1 not a doubt of it1               
you with your skeins and your spindles  
can show2                 ,fools6 do you
 really expect to unravel a             
terrible war like a bundle of tow8      
,,lys4       ,ah1 if you only could     
manage your politics                    
just in the way that we deal with a     
fleece6                        99       
99       99       99       99           
,,mag4       ,heard any ever the like of
 their impudence1                       
these who have nothing to do with the   
war1                 ,preaching of      
bobbins1 and beatings1 and washing-tubs8
       ,,lys4         ,nothing to do    

with it1 wretch that you are8   ,the    
women conclude that one who talks thus  
is no better than a dead man2 and when  
he sets out on some trusty platitude    
concerning women's sphere and the       
married state with        ,truly whoever
 is able to wed--   ,lysistrata takes   
him up sharply with        ,truly1 old  
fellow1'tis time you were dead4         
,accordingly they prepare with          
sacrificial pigs1 funeral cakes1 fillets
 and chaplets to give the walking corpse
 a decent burial4 ,the magistrate stumps
 off1 taking ,heaven to witness he never
 was so insulted in his life1 which1 as 
,lysistrata observes1 amounts to nothing
 more than grumbling because they have  
not laid him out4  ,twenty-three        
centuries are gone since ,aristophanes  
wrote the ,lysistrata1 but the safe     
official who dismisses with a           
traditional sneer or a smile the notion 
that any can manage1 save those who have
 been trained to mismanage1 is still    
with us4 ,perhaps he has outlived the   

class whose prejudices and limitations  
he formerly expressed2 but in the days  
of ,aristophanes such a class existed1  
and it is represented here by the chorus
 of old gentlemen4 ,in those days the   
men were not the only fools4            
,aristophanes had no intention of making
 out that they were4 ,he was a better   
artist than party man4 ,he was a comic  
poet who revealed the essential comedy  
of all things4 ,the chorus of women1    
,lysistrata herself1 and the other      
leading ladies1 all have their foibles  
and absurdities2 only the chorus of men1
 who are so keenly alive to them1 seem  
never to guess that there are smuts on  
the pot4 ,to seek in this age and       
country a companion for these old       
fellows would be to insult our ,western 
civilization4 ,let us invent a purely   
fantastic character2 one who could not  
sleep at night for fear of ,prussians   
and ,social ,democrats1 who clamoured   
daily for a dozen ,dreadnoughts1        
conscription1 and the head of ,mr4 ,keir

 ,hardie on a charger1 and yet spent his
 leisure warning readers of the daily   
papers against the danger of admitting  
to any share of power a sex notorious   
for its panic-fearfulness1 intolerance1 
and lack of humour2 such a one would    
indeed merit admission to the ,greek3   
choros gerontn1 would be a proper fellow
 to take his stand ,greek3 hexs         
,aristogeitoni1 beside the brave        
,aristogiton1 and ,greek3 pataxai tsde  
graos tn gnathon1 beat down this        
monstrous regiment of women4            
,aristophanes was a staunch             
,conservative1 but he disliked a stupid 
argument wherever he found it4 ,he cared
 intensely about politics1 but he could 
not easily forget that he was an artist4
 ,neither the men nor the women are tied
 up and peppered with the small shot of 
his wit2 they are allowed to betray     
themselves4 ,the art consists in        
selecting from the mass of their        
opinions and sentiments what is most    
significant1 and making the magistrate1 

who speaks for the party1 deliver       
himself of judicious commonplaces4 ,the 
chorus of wiseacres1 the bar-parlour    
politicians1 whom chance or misfortune  
has led to favour one side rather than  
the other1 are less cautious without    
being less platitudinous4 ,their talk is
 all of inevitable war and stripping for
 the fray1 vindicating rights1 tyranny  
and traitors1 spoliation1 innovation1   
and striking good blows for the cause2  
at least it was twenty-three hundred    
years ago4                  ,men        
,chorus4       ,this is not a time for  
slumber2          now let all be bold   
and free1      ,strip to meet the great 
occasion1          vindicate our rights 
with me4      ,i can smell a deep1      
surprising      ,tide of ,revolution    
rising1      ,odour as of folk devising 
,hippias's tyranny4      ,and ,i feel a 
dire misgiving1      ,lest some false   
,laconians1 meeting          in the     
house of ,cleisthenes1      ,have       
inspired these wretched women           

all our wealth and pay to seize4        
,pay from whence ,i get my living4      
,gods6 to hear these shallow wenches    
taking citizens to task1      ,prattling
 of a brassy buckler1          jabbering
 of a martial casque6      ,gods6 to    
think that they have ventured           
with ,laconian men to deal1      ,men of
 just the faith and honour          that
 a ravening wolf might feel6      ,plots
 they're hatching1 plots contriving1    
plots of rampant ,tyranny2      ,but    
o'er ,,us they shan't be ,tyrants1      
no1 for on my guard ,i'll be1      ,and 
,i'll dress my sword in myrtle1         
and with firm and dauntless hand1       
,here beside ,aristogeiton              
resolutely take my stand1               
,marketing in arms beside him4          
,this the time and this the place       
,when my patriot arm must deal a        
--blow upon that woman's face4   ,one is
 tempted to quote ,mr4 ,rogers          
indefinitely2 indeed1 there are a score 
of good things to which we would gladly 

call attention4 ,having warned readers  
that this version is not a translation  
in the sense that the versions of ,the  
,frogs and ,the ,birds are1 we can1 with
 a clear conscience1 urge all to read it
 who care for good literature or are    
interested in political ideas4 ,they    
will not be disappointed2 only1 we would
 suggest to those whose ,greek has grown
 a little rusty that a literal          
translation in ,french or ,german would 
be a suitable companion for the ,english
 paraphrase4 ,without it1 they will     
hardly understand what provoked ,plato's
 splendid compliment and would bring    
down upon the author1 were he alive1 the
 rigours of our ,english law4           
,,footnotes3  #i ,the ,lysistrata of    
,aristophanes1 acted at ,athens in the  
year ,b4,c4 #daa4 ,the ,greek ,text     
,revised1 with a ,translation into      
,corresponding ,metres1 ,introduction1  
and ,commentary1 by ,benjamin ,bickley  
,rogers4 7,bell and ,sons47  #aj        
,voltaire1 by the way1 was no admirer of

 ,aristophanes4 ,ce pote comique1 said  
he1 qui n'est ni comique ni pote1       
n'aurait pas t admis parmi nous  donner 
ses farces  la foire ,saint-,laurent4   
,but that was not because he was        
indecent1 but because to ,voltaire1 who 
said much the same of ,shakespeare1 he  
seemed extravagantly incorrect4  #aa ,of
 course this panegyric needs            
qualification4 ,what panegyric does not8
 ,the ,athenians condemned ,socrates4   
,yes 444 yes4 ,but1 as a statement of   
the general belief and1 what is more1   
the practice of ,athens1 these rather   
excited paragraphs may stand4  #ab      
,note3 #aiah4 ,though assuredly our     
satirists hide their light under a      
bushel1 the tiny flickers do not escape 
the eyes of our officials4 ,let them    
beware4 ,in #dae1 after the mutilation  
of the ,hermae1 there was a panic at    
,athens and a reign of terror instigated
 by some of the demagogues4 ,torture1   
though contrary to the laws of ,athens  
and to all ,athenian sentiment1 was     

proposed4 ,the proposal was accepted2   
but when the moment for execution came  
the ecclesia--the mass meeting of       
citizens1 that is to say--refused to    
allow it4 ,now ,pericles would never    
have proposed such a thing2 neither     
would ,mr4 ,asquith3 but suppose in     
these days some more popular and less   
responsible leader were to back the     
project1 ,i wonder whether the ,english 
people would decline to follow him4     
,,trelawny',s ,,letters#ac   ,sidenote3 
,athenum ,jan4 #aiaa  ,any one who has  
read ,trelawny's recollections of       
,shelley and ,byron must know that their
 author was something much more         
considerable than a friend of the great4
 ,any one who1 lured by that enchanting 
book1 has gone on to the ,adventures of 
a ,younger ,son may be pardoned for     
supposing1 if we are really to take it  
for autobiography1 that its author was a
 stupendous liar4 ,just what he was--the
 man who wrote those enthralling memoirs
 and that excellent romance--may now be 

pretty well made out from this          
collection of old and new letters put   
together by ,mr4 ,buxton ,forman4       
,vigour and directness1 transparent     
honesty and complete fearlessness1 are  
the qualities that impress this able    
editor as he reads the letters of the   
man who1 in his opinion1 was less       
tainted with the sordid commercialism   
and ever-increasing snobbery of that    
century the nineteenth than almost any  
man one could name as having lived      
through so large a part of it4 ,we agree
 heartily2 but1 of course1 there is more
 to be said--for instance1 that         
,trelawny sometimes reminds us of an    
extraordinarily intelligent schoolboy1  
at others of a rather morbid minor poet4
 ,only1 the vitality of few schoolboys  
amounts almost to genius1 and minor     
poets are not always blest with feelings
 fundamentally sound4 ,most of his vices
 were the defects of good qualities4 ,a 
powerful imagination may be fairly held 
accountable for his habit of romancing1 

and a brave vocabulary for some of his  
exaggeration4 ,his vanity and           
violence--as childish as his love of    
mystery1 and often as childishly        
displayed--were forms in which his high 
spirits and passionate nature expressed 
themselves4 ,art1 in the shape of a bad 
education1 aggravated his faults2 but   
his honesty and imagination1 his        
generosity and childlike capacity for   
admiration and affection were from      
nature alone4 ,he was a schoolboy who   
never grew up2 cultivating his cabbages 
at ,worthing in #ahge1 he is essentially
 the same shrewd1 passionate1 romantic  
scapegrace who deserted his ship in     
,bombay harbour soon after the battle of
 ,trafalgar1 and burnt ,shelley's body  
on the foreshore at ,via ,reggio4  ,like
 all boys1 ,trelawny was exceedingly    
impressionable1 and at the beginning of 
this book we find him under the         
influence of the learned ladies of      
,pisa4 ,left to himself1 he wrote with  
point and vigour prose as rich in colour

 and spirit as it is poor in grammar and
 spelling4 ,his letter to the ,literary 
,gazette1 published in this volume1 is a
 good example of his narrative style4   
,but even his style could be perverted3 
,i must give you the consolation of     
knowing--that you have      inflicted on
 me indiscribable tortures--that your   
letter has      inflicted an incurable  
wound which is festering and inflaming  
my      blood--and my pride and passion1
 warring against my ungovernable        
love1 has in vain essayed to hide my    
wounded feelings--by silently           
submitting to my evil destiny4   ,so he 
wrote to ,claire ,clairmont in ,december
 #ahbb2 but under the language of the   
minor romantic throbs the lusty passion 
of a man4  ,shelley's influence was     
great2 with him ,trelawny was always    
natural and always at his best2 but     
,shelley was a wizard who drew the pure 
metal from every ore4 ,with ,byron it   
was different4 ,trelawny was almost as  
vain as the ,pilgrim of ,eternity1 as   

sensitive1 and1 when hurt1 as           
vindictive4 ,he was jealous of ,byron's 
success with women--they were two of a  
trade--and especially of his relations  
with ,claire4 ,when ,byron posed        
,trelawny posed1 and when the one sulked
 the other sulked2 but was any man      
except ,shelley big enough to brook his 
lordship's moods8 ,that ,byron valued   
,trelawny is certain2 he invited him to 
,greece because he knew his worth4 ,once
 arrived1 ,byron had the wit to perceive
 that ,mavrocordato1 albeit the meanest 
of masters1 was the best and most       
serviceable to be had at the moment4    
,trelawny1 as was to be expected1 fell  
under the spell of ,odysseus1 at that   
time in more or less open revolt against
 the provisional government1 but an     
adventurer of fierce and reckless       
spirit1 in manner and appearance a      
romantic outlaw1 a man after his own    
heart4 ,henceforth ,byron is reckoned at
 best a dupe1 and at worst a sluggish   
poltroon2 while ,trelawny1 it is said1  

imitated his hero so loyally that he    
ate1 dressed1 and even spat in his      
manner4 ,when the poet died ,trelawny   
spoke with characteristic feeling3      
,with all his faults ,i loved him       
truly4444 ,if it gave me pain           
witnessing his frailties1 he only wanted
 a little excitement to      awaken and 
put forth virtues that redeemed them    
all4   ,but the iron had entered into   
his soul1 old sores rankled1 he could   
not forgive2 to the last he was willing 
to pay back his rival in his own        
coin--sneers and abuse4  ,as ,trelawny  
could scarcely write to a woman without 
making love to her1 and as his relations
 with ,mary ,shelley were necessarily   
emotional and intimate1 an ambiguous    
proposal and a handful of affectionate  
letters will not persuade us that he    
ever cared more seriously for her than  
for scores of others4 ,though some      
letters must have been written when he  
was courting the sister of ,odysseus or 
keeping a harem at ,athens1 and others  

when his heart was disengaged1 can any  
one decide which are sincere and which  
are not8 ,or1 rather1 are they not all  
equally sincere8 ,the following extract 
may help us to a conclusion3        ,i  
say6 the poet ,shelley was a thorough   
mormon--why did he not      declare     
himself and anticipate the sect8 ,i     
would have joined him      and found him
 a settlement--it would not hold        
together without a                      
superstition--for man all over the world
 are sic      superstitious--it's the   
nature of the animal--your mother was a 
simpleton to have never heard of a man  
being in love with two      women2 when 
we are young we are in love with all    
women--the bible      would call it by  
its proper name1 lust4   ,so wrote      
,trelawny in #ahfi 7he had recovered his
 style7 to ,claire ,clairmont4 ,his     
letters to her1 now published for the   
first time1 compose the largest and     
liveliest part of the volume4 ,if he    
cared for one woman more than another1  

we believe that woman was ,claire4 ,she 
was not good1 but she has been more than
 sufficiently reviled4 ,for ,trelawny   
that she was beautiful sufficed2 let it 
satisfy the vindictiveness of virtue    
that she suffered horribly4 ,what       
precisely was the degree of their       
intimacy is not clear2 but1 in view of  
,claire's reputation and certain        
passages in these letters1 it is perhaps
 not unfair to suppose that at any rate 
for a short time in the year #ahbb she  
was his mistress4 ,be that as it may1   
after ,shelley's death they parted1 and 
doubtless it will be said she treated   
her lover ill4 ,to us it appears that he
 gave as good as he got4 ,she was       
mercenary1 and he was inconstant4 ,if we
 read ,letter ,,xx aright1 when she did 
offer1 after some months of prudent     
dalliance1 to live with him at          
,florence1 he replied that he had but   
#ejj a year1 which was not enough for   
two4 ,an establishment on the confines  
of respectability was the last thing he 

desired4 ,neither ever loved truly2 but 
,trelawny1 for a time1 felt violent     
physical passion for the woman whose    
head and shoulders remind us of what    
dealers call a ,giorgione4 ,such is the 
story1 so far as we can deduce it from  
these letters2 each1 if our conjecture  
serve1 was partially satisfied1 for in  
money matters ,trelawny always treated  
his lady handsomely1 though he could not
 or would not give her what most she    
wanted--material security4  ,he never   
lost his taste for ,claire2 and on the  
ruins of their bitter and agitated      
relations was built a kind of           
friendship1 in which expansion and      
intimacy and malice were all possible1  
and which is aptly commemorated by these
 vivid and entertaining letters4 ,as for
 ,mary1 her character deteriorated and  
,trelawny's judgment grew more acute4   
,her corners grew more brutally         
protuberant beneath the tissue of       
glamour cast over them by a name4 ,to   
her also ,trelawny's purse was open2 but

 long before the quarrel over ,queen    
,mab his generous spirit had begun to   
groan under her prim banality1 and to   
express itself in ungenerous            
backbitings4 ,his final estimate he     
imparted to ,claire when he was         
seventy-eight years old1 and it remains 
for those who dislike to disprove it3   
,mary ,shelley's jealousy must have     
sorely vexed ,shelley--indeed she       
was not a suitable companion for the    
poet--his first wife ,harriett      must
 have been more suitable--,mary was the 
most conventional slave      ,i ever    
met--she even affected the pious dodge1 
such was her      yearning for          
society--she was devoid of imagination  
and ,poetry--she      felt compunction  
when she had lost him--she did not      
understand or      appreciate him4      
,there are two big gaps in the          
correspondence with ,claire3 one from   
#ahch to #aheg1 the other from #aheg to 
#ahfi4 ,at the age of seventy-seven we  
find ,trelawny still unchanged3 ,all my 

early convictions and feelings harden   
with my bones--age has not tamed or     
altered me4 ,he had lived through the   
wildest adventures3 in a cave on ,mount 
,parnassus he had been shot through the 
body and had pardoned one of his        
assailants2 he had swum the rapids below
 ,niagara2 he had played the pirate in  
the ,south ,seas and flirted with ,mrs4 
,norton in ,downing ,street2 and now1 a 
veteran and something of a lion1 he     
astonished ,london parties with his     
gasconade and the ,sussex fisher-folk   
with his bathing exploits4 ,we can      
believe that his conversation was       
brilliant1 but most censorious2 his     
letters to ,claire give some idea of it3
 ,women have taken to gin--men have     
always done so1 now it's women's turn2  
---- is as gross and fat as ---- and    
from the same cause--gluttony and       
sotting--it's all the fashion4  ,and    
here we would interpose a query--,was it
 really necessary to suppress the names8
 ,this elaborate and unscholarly        

tenderness for the feelings of the      
friends and relations of the dead1 and  
for those of their descendants even1 is 
becoming1 in our judgment1 a nuisance4  
,had people been so fussy and timid     
always we should have no history worth  
reading4 ,after all1 men1 and women too 
for that matter1 have got to stand on   
their own feet4 ,we are not our         
grandmothers' keepers4 ,no one will     
think at all the worse of ,mr4 ,smith   
because some lively diarist has hinted  
that his great maiden aunt was no such  
thing3 neither will any one think much  
the worse of the old lady4 ,besides1 it 
is easy for ,mr4 ,smith to say that the 
diarist was a liar who couldn't possibly
 have known anything about it4 ,the past
 belongs to the present1 and the dead   
are in some sort public property4 ,it is
 not well1 we think1 that history should
 be impoverished1 and an instrument of  
culture blunted1 out of regard for the  
feelings of stray nephews and nieces1   
and we commend to editors and           

biographers the saying of that          
undergraduate who to his friend's       
complaint--,hi1 ,johnnie1 you've shot my
 father1 replied1 with a truly ,british 
sense of give and take--,never mind1    
have a shot at mine4  ,poor ,claire     
became devout in old age and provoked a 
comprehensive growl from ,shelley's     
untamed friend3 ,i am not one of that   
great sect whose vanity1 credulity1 and 
superstition makes them believe in      
,god--the devil--souls and immortality4 
,yet with what cheerful wisdom he laughs
 away the fancy1 which threatened to    
become an obsession1 that ,allegra was  
still alive in #ahfi3 ,my dear ,clare1  
you may be well in body2 but you have a 
bee in your bonnet4 ,he suggests raking 
up some plausible cranky old dried-up   
hanger-on of fifty-two or so1 who should
 follow you about like a feminine       
,frankenstein1 as he carelessly puts it4
 ,he tried to mitigate the crazy        
malevolence she cherished for her       
earliest lover3 ,your relentless        

vindictiveness against ,byron is not    
tolerated by any religion that ,i know  
of2 while through the rack of jibes1    
malisons1 and ebullitions of wilfulness 
shines steadily his veneration for the  
great poet he loved3        ,you say he 
,shelley was womanly in some things--so 
he was1 and we      men should all be   
much better if we had a touch of their  
feeling1      sentiment1 earnestness1   
and constancy2 but in all the best      
qualities of man he excelled4   ,through
 these letters--through all ,trelawny's 
writings--runs a wonderful sense of     
power4 ,he was not one to seek out the  
right word or prune a sentence2 his     
strength is manifest in his laxities4   
,he believed that no task1 intellectual 
or physical1 was beyond him2 so he wrote
 as he swam1 taking his ease1 glorying  
in his vitality1 secure in a reserve of 
strength equal to anything4 ,a sense of 
power and a disregard for syntax--these 
are his literary characteristics4 ,he   
read ,shakespeare and ,shelley1 and it  

is not clear that he cared greatly for  
much besides2 he liked ,swinburne1 and  
was profoundly interested in ,darwin4   
,late in life he discovered ,blake and  
was fascinated4 ,what ,trelawny cared   
for in literature was ,imagination1 the 
more sublime the better1 while in life  
he had a taste for ,truth and ,freedom4 
,he was always something of an oddity4  
,he loathed superstition1 cant and      
snobbery and said so in a way that gave 
much pain to the nicest people4 ,he was 
of that disconcerting sort which1       
excelling in all that ordinary people   
admire1 admires1 for its part1 what they
 hate--the abnormal and distinguished4  
,he was a man of action who mistrusted  
common sense1 a good fellow on the side 
of cranks3 the race has never been      
common and is now almost extinct4       
,,footnote3  #ac ,letters of ,edward    
,john ,trelawny4 ,edited1 with a brief  
,introduction and ,notes1 by ,h4 ,buxton
 ,forman4 7,frowde47     ,,sophocles    
,,in ,,london   ,i  ,sidenote3 ,o,edipus

 at ,covent ,garden  ,sidenote3 ,athenum
 ,jan4 #aiab  ,there need be nothing    
anachronous or archological about a     
performance of ,o,edipus at ,covent     
,garden4 ,there is no reason why the    
plays of ,sophocles should move us less 
than they moved the ,athenians          
twenty-three hundred years ago1 and     
there is some for supposing that we1 who
 live in the twentieth1 are more likely 
to appreciate them than those who lived 
in any intervening century4 ,for        
everywhere to-day is a cry for          
simplicity and significance1 and art    
more simple and significant than the    
,attic drama does not exist4 ,in less   
than ten thousand words ,sophocles tells
 all that can be told about a terrible  
and complex tragedy4 ,zola or ,meredith 
in ten times the space would have added 
nothing4 ,they would only have put flesh
 on bone and muscle2 they would have    
given us trappings and ornament where   
,sophocles gives nothing but bare       
springs and forces4  ,yet in this flat1 

lean1 ,attic drama all ,latin realism   
and ,celtic romance1 all details and    
suggestions1 are implicit4 ,it states   
just those fundamental things of which  
all the rest are but manifestations or  
consequences4 ,there is as much         
psychology in the scene between         
,o,edipus and ,jocasta1 a matter of some
 seventy lines1 as could be forced into 
seventy pages by a modern novelist4 ,a  
change of feeling that it would take    
,mr4 ,henry ,james a chapter to         
elaborate is indicated by a statement1 a
 question1 and a reply4 ,sophocles could
 never be satisfied with anything short 
of the essential3 that he stated2 the   
rest he left out4  ,though ,prof4       
,gilbert ,murray is1 as every one knows1
 a charming and sensitive scholar1 he is
 not the ideal translator of ,sophocles4
 ,perhaps the ,zolas and                
,merediths--especially the              
,merediths--impress him too easily2     
perhaps he loves too well the literary  
tradition1 the ,european tradition of   

five hundred years1 to understand that  
the greatest poetry is rarely poetical3 
,a ,voice1 a ,voice1 that is borne on   
the ,holy ,way6     ,what art thou1 ,o  
,heavenly ,one1 ,o ,word of the ,houses 
of ,gold8     ,thebes is bright with    
thee1 and my heart it leapeth2 yet is it
 cold1                 ,and my spirit   
faints as ,i pray4                      
,i--6 ,i--6      ,what task1 ,o         
,affrighter of ,evil1 what task shall   
thy people essay8     ,one new as our   
new-come affliction1       ,or an old   
toil returned with the years8           
,unveil thee1 thou dread benediction1   
,hope's daughter and ,fear's4   ,this is
 very pretty1 but is it ,sophocles8--or 
,swinburne8 ,still1 grace there is1 and 
distinction1 in all that ,prof4 ,murray 
writes--qualities that are not          
accentuated by the mouthings of the     
protagonist1 ,mr4 ,martin ,harvey1 the  
uninspired drone of the chorus1 or the  
intermittent shrieking and bawling of   
the crowd4 ,in the translation of the   

,professor the simple profundities of   
the poet become delicate verse1 which in
 the mouth of the histrion is turned    
into rhythmless rhetoric4  ,but1 after  
all1 in performances of this sort it is 
not the play1 but the production1 that  
is the thing--though that is less true  
of this than of any other ,reinhardt    
entertainment we have yet seen4 ,still1 
deeds not words3 it is by theatrical    
effects and stage decoration1 if by any 
means1 that the message of ,sophocles is
 to be conveyed to the people of        
,london4 ,that both are remarkable      
cannot be denied4 ,o,edipus is a fine   
show4 ,it is erudite1 striking1 and     
ingenious2 but it is not a work of art4 
,what is it1 then8 ,to borrow an        
expressive1 though unnecessarily        
insulting term from our neighbours1 it  
is ,le faux bon4  ,and what is ,le faux 
bon8 ,it is something exceedingly       
difficult to produce4 ,we do not wish to
 belittle it2 we wish to make plain its 
nature4 ,if we succeed1 we shall show   

also how choice and rare a thing this   
,o,edipus is4 ,at any rate1 it keeps    
good company4 ,the plays of ,mr4        
,stephen ,phillips are classical        
examples of the faux bon1 and1 to remove
 a suspicion of disparagement1 we hasten
 to add that the plays of ,m4 ,rostand  
and ,fitz,gerald's paraphrase of ,omar  
are examples too4 ,the brilliant and    
entertaining pictures of ,mr4 ,nicholson
 and ,mr4 ,orpen serve our purpose even 
better1 so closely do they resemble the 
first-rate4 ,and now in this1 the latest
 art1 the new art of the theatre1 come  
,m4 ,bakst with his ,scheherazade1 and  
,prof4 ,reinhardt with ,sumurun and ,the
 ,miracle1 levying contribution on all  
the others1 culling from them all those 
features that people of taste expect and
 recognize in a work of art4  ,for le   
faux bon is produced to meet the demands
 of a tasteful and cultivated society--a
 society that knows as much about art as
 can be taught4 ,people who have been   
brought up on terms of familiarity with 

the arts learn to recognize all those   
features that a work of art ought to    
possess2 they know the effects that it  
ought to produce2 but1 unless born with 
the power of reacting emotionally and   
directly to what they see and hear1 they
 cannot understand what a work of art   
is4 ,such people are numerous in these  
days4 ,far too intelligent to be duped  
by imitations of particular plays1 or   
poems1 or pictures1 what they require is
 imitation art4 ,and that is what they  
get4 ,in ,prof4 ,reinhardt's productions
 there are dramatic pauses and          
suspensions1 effects of light and sound1
 combinations of movement and mass1 line
 and colour1 which recall1 not          
particular works1 but general ideas     
based on the study of hundreds of works1
 and provoke1 in the right kind of      
spectator1 precisely those trains of    
thought and feeling that are provoked by
 real works of art4 ,true1 they express 
no first-hand emotion1 neither does the 
real thing to lovers of the faux bon1   

but they cause physical reactions 7as   
when ,jocasta's women rush screaming on 
to the stage7 subtle enough to do duty  
for sthetic emotions4 ,it is hard to    
believe that these refined stimulants   
are precisely the same in kind as the   
collisions and avalanches of melodrama2 
but they are4  ,o,edipus is a good show4
 ,to appreciate it properly we must     
realize that it is nothing else4 ,we    
must compare it with pageants and       
ballets2 and if1 so comparing it1 we    
like it less than some that we have seen
 at the ,empire and the ,alhambra1 the  
generous will attribute our eccentricity
 to an overdeveloped moral sense4 ,to be
 frank1 we do not believe that ,prof4   
,reinhardt or ,m4 ,bakst has more to say
 than the creators of our best musical  
ballets4 ,but1 while the latter modestly
 pretend to nothing more than the       
flattery of our senses by means of form 
and sound and colour1 the wizards of the
 new art claim to express the most      
profound and subtle emotions4 ,we prefer

 #ahcj to ,the ,miracle1 because it is  
unpretentious and sincere4 ,we prefer   
,o,edipus to the pantomime because it is
 prettier and shorter4 ,as works of art 
they all seem to us about equal4   ,,ii 
,sidenote3 ,the ,trachini at ,the       
,court4  ,sidenote3 ,athenum ,july #aiaa
  ,the players of ,bedford ,college are 
winning for themselves a place of honour
 amongst those who help the modern world
 to understand ,greek drama4 ,the       
traditional opinion that the ,athenians 
were a race of fools with a sense of    
form1 who wrote tedious verse to        
perfection1 has been ousted by a new    
doctrine1 less false1 but even more     
dangerous4 ,a race of scholars arose who
 assumed1 reasonably enough1 that plays 
written by intelligent men for an       
intelligent public could not be quite so
 dull as tradition proclaimed2 and      
though to rob the classics of their     
terrors needed much audacity and some   
irreverence1 the new ideas won ground by
 sheer force of plausibility4           

,unfortunately1 to the modern scholar an
 intelligent public meant a public of   
modern scholars4 ,he peopled the ,attic 
theatre with an audience of cultivated  
liberals1 and by a good play meant the  
sort of play such a public would relish4
 ,whence it followed that the ,athenian 
dramatists must have concerned          
themselves with those problems which    
have been so acutely discussed in the   
plays of ,mr4 ,galsworthy and ,mr4      
,shaw4  ,as a fact1 ,athenian tragedy is
 never1 or hardly ever1 concerned with  
intellectual matters of any sort2 its   
business is to express emotion1 and this
 it has done in the most perfect        
literary form ever devised by man4 ,the 
great merit of ,miss ,e4 ,b4 ,abraham's 
performance is that she plays the part  
of ,deianeira neither as if that lady   
were a relic of the most insipid period 
of classical sculpture1 nor yet as      
though she were cousin-german to ,hedda 
,gabler4 ,when she errs1 she errs on the
 side of modernity2 and that is as it   

should be4 ,certainly she puts too much 
psychology into the character of the    
fond1 gentle lady1 whose simple humanity
 at pathetic odds with ,fate wins       
sympathy from the audience without      
effort or emphasis2 while a hankering   
after the latest subtleties has led her 
to misunderstand completely the passage 
7#ehj-ie in the acting edition7 in which
 she supposes the queen to be justifying
 herself to a reluctant chorus1 whereas1
 in fact1 she is justifying herself to  
the ,universe1 and giving the audience a
 hint4 ,the meek chorus is only too     
willing to agree4  ,poor is the triumph 
of ,fate over a timid woman4 ,heracles  
is a more splendid but not less helpless
 victim4 ,mr4 ,g4 ,edwards understands  
the part well4 ,very fine was the       
passionate indignation1 surging up      
through physical agony1 in the first    
great speech2 and this mood is made to  
prevail until in the name ,greek3       
,nessos the hero recognizes the finger  
of ,god4 ,from that point1 though       

violent and dictatorial still to his son
 and the respectful mortals about him1  
the tyrant submits sullenly to those he 
can neither vanquish nor appease4  ,mr4 
,garrod1 who played the part of ,hyllus1
 spoke his lines exceedingly well4      
,perhaps the chorus was a little too    
classical--that is to say1 too stiff and
 lackadaisical2 but the phrasing was    
always pretty and sometimes unexpected1 
and the lovely strophe beginning1       
,greek3 hon aiola nux enarizomena2      
seemed to gain a new enchantment from   
the delicately concerted voices4        
,scholars will have to bring strong     
arguments to justify what is an obvious 
literary blemish in the distribution of 
the concluding lines4 ,somehow or other1
 between ,hyllus and the chorus1 the    
sombre intensity of the complaint was   
allowed to evaporate4 ,the words1       
,greek3 ta de nun hestt' oiktra men     
hmin1 aischra   and        ,greek3      
kouden toutn o ti m ,zeus   should come 
from the same lips1 surely4        ,o   

,providence1 ,i will not praise1        
,neither for fear1 nor joy of gain1     
,your blundering and cruel ways4        
99       99       99       99       99  
,and all men's miserable days1      ,and
 all the ugliness and pain1      ,o     
,providence1 ,i will not praise4        
,,the ,,flight ,,of ,,the ,,dragon#ad   
,sidenote3 ,athenum ,oct4 #aiaa  ,no one
 will be surprised to learn that        
fourteen hundred years ago the ,chinese 
laid down six canons of art4 ,nothing is
 more natural than that some great      
artist1 reviewing in old age his life   
and work1 should deduce from the mass of
 experience and achievement certain     
propositions1 and that these1 in time1  
should become rules1 to be preached by  
pedants1 practised by dilettanti1 and   
ignored by every artist worthy of the   
name4 ,what does surprise us is that the
 first of these ,chinese canons should  
be nothing less than a definition of    
that which is essential in all great    
art4 ,rhythmic vitality1 ,prof4 ,giles  

calls it2 ,mr4 ,okakura1 the            
,life-movement of the ,spirit through   
the ,rhythm of things2 ,mr4 ,binyon     
suggests the fusion of the rhythm of the
 spirit with the movement of living     
things4        ,at any rate1 he says1   
what is certainly meant is that the     
artist      must pierce beneath the mere
 aspect of the world to seize and       
himself to be possessed by that great   
cosmic rhythm of the spirit      which  
sets the currents of life in motion4 ,we
 should say in ,europe      that he must
 seize the universal in the particular4 
,the universal in the particular1 that  
is perhaps what the greatest art        
expresses4 ,perhaps it is a widespread  
consciousness of this that produces all 
great movements2 and perhaps the history
 of their decline and fall is nothing   
more than a history of its gradual decay
 and disappearance4 ,great movements    
seem to arise when men become aware     
suddenly that the universe has a soul3  
the first artists of a movement are the 

men who perceive most clearly this soul 
in every part of the universe2 they are 
called ,primitives4 ,they are men driven
 to art by the intolerable necessity of 
expressing what they feel2 they break   
silence only because they have something
 to say2 and their one object is to say 
it as completely and intelligibly as    
possible4 ,primitives stand in a class  
by themselves because they have         
perceived more clearly than others the  
reality that lies beneath the           
superficial1 and because1 having no     
other end in view1 they have expressed  
it more completely4  ,great movements   
are alike in their beginnings2 whether  
they are ,buddhist or ,byzantine1 ,greek
 or ,egyptian1 ,assyrian or ,mexican1   
their primitives have two qualities in  
common1 profundity and directness4 ,and 
in their histories1 so far as we may    
judge from the scanty records of ancient
 civilizations1 all have a general      
resemblance4 ,always1 as the sense of   
reality decays1 the artist labours to   

conceal under technical proficiency the 
poverty of his emotional experience4    
,for the inspired artist technique was  
nothing but a means2 for his hungry     
successors it becomes an end4 ,for the  
man who has little to say the manner of 
saying it gains consequence1 and in a   
manner which has been elaborated into an
 intricate craft the greatest emotions  
cannot be expressed4 ,the circle is     
vicious4 ,with the exaltation and       
elaboration of craftsmanship expression 
first falls into neglect and then       
becomes impossible4 ,those who are not  
content to marvel at cleverness1 but    
still ask emotion of art1 must be       
satisfied with such as craftsmen can    
supply4 ,if pictures no longer express  
feeling they may at least provoke it4   
,if painting is to be a mere question of
 pattern-making1 at least let the       
patterns be pretty4 ,sensuous beauty and
 cunning delineation become rivals for  
the throne whence expression has been   
ousted4 ,so1 with occasional            

irregularities1 the path winds down the 
hill4 ,skill itself declines1 and the   
sense of beauty runs thin4 ,at the      
bottom1 for what once was art--the      
expression of man's most holy           
emotions--smart tradesmen offer1 at     
fancy prices1 mechanical prettiness1    
cheap sentiment1 and accurate           
representation4  ,comparisons between   
the history of ,asiatic and of ,european
 art are admittedly possible2 but as yet
 we believe the precise nature of the   
similarity has not been stated4 ,it lies
 in the fact that both conform to the   
general laws of decay4 ,the ,asiatic    
movement with which we are familiar is  
essentially ,buddhist2 it expresses that
 sense of the universe that is expressed
 in another form by ,buddhist doctrine  
and its later developments along the    
lines of ,taoist idealism4 ,how far the 
spread of ,buddhism in ,china represents
 a spiritual reaction from the dry      
materialism of ,confucianism is no      
matter for brief and dogmatic           

discussion4 ,we need only say that the  
fourth-century painting in the ,british 
,museum by ,ku ,k'ai-chih1 though the   
artist himself is said to have been a   
,buddhist1 belongs clearly to an earlier
 movement than that of which the ,t'ang 
and just pre-,t'ang masterpieces are the
 primitives4 ,by comparison with early  
,buddhist art this exquisite picture is 
sufficiently lacking in emotional       
significance to tempt one to suppose    
that it represents the ripe and highly  
cultivated decadence of a movement that 
the growing religious spirit was soon to
 displace4 ,slight as his acquaintance  
with this early art must be1 an         
,englishman who visited regularly the   
exhibition at ,shepherd's ,bush was able
 to gather from eight or ten pictures1 a
 couple of large wooden ,bodhisattvas1  
and a few small figures in bronze1 some 
idea of the way in which ,japanese      
primitives could enter and express the  
world of reality4 ,that same power he   
will find in the ,byzantine mosaics of  

the sixth century1 which express the    
earliest triumphs of another spiritual  
revolution over the cultured materialism
 of a moribund civilization4  ,that new 
movement spread slowly across ,europe1  
and till the middle of the twelfth      
century there was no general decline4   
,but the best was over in ,france before
 the twelfth century was out4 ,gothic   
architecture is juggling in stone and   
glass4 ,in ,italy ,giotto followed      
,cimabue2 and ,giotto could not always  
resist the temptation to state the      
particular and leave the universal out4 
,he sometimes tells us facts instead of 
expressing emotions4 ,in the full       
,renaissance the coarsest feeling       
sufficed to flavour a handsome1         
well-made picture4  ,meanwhile1 under   
the ,ming dynasty 7#acfh-afdd7 ,asiatic 
art had reached much the same stage4    
,the ,ming picture in the ,british      
,museum known as ,the ,earthly ,paradise
 is inferior to the best work of        
,botticelli1 with which it is commonly  

compared1 but reminds us1 in its        
finished grace and gaiety1 of a painting
 by ,watteau4 ,korin1 towards the end of
 the ,ming period1 is about as empty as 
,velasquez and more brilliant than      
,frans ,hals4 ,the eighteenth century1  
one inclines to believe1 was the same   
everywhere4 ,stylistic obsession and the
 taste for material beauty ended in     
mechanical prettiness1 altogether       
inexpressive or sentimental4 ,in both   
hemispheres painting was reduced to a   
formula--a formula for producing elegant
 furniture4  ,but even in the age of    
decay ,oriental art retained traces of  
primitive splendour4 ,it never sank into
 mere representation4 ,the men who      
turned out the popular ,japanese        
colour-prints1 though they chose the    
same subjects as the ,dutch genre       
painters1 were artists enough to treat  
them differently and to look for        
something significant beneath the mass  
of irrelevant accidents4 ,also they     
preserved a nicer sensibility to        

material beauty4 ,a cheap ,japanese     
print has sometimes the quality of a    
painting by ,whistler4 ,indeed1 the     
superiority of the ,orientals is        
discreetly insinuated from beginning to 
end of ,mr4 ,binyon's essay4 ,equal1 if 
not superior1 to the ,greek or          
,christian in the primitive stage1 the  
,asiatic movement clung to the heights  
longer1 sank more gradually1 and never  
sank so low4 ,these facts are painful1  
but patent2 they require explanation4   
,why is ,oriental art generally superior
 to ,european8 ,bearing in mind what has
 been said about the nature of the      
greatest art1 we shall expect it to be  
because in the ,east they have kept in  
closer touch with reality4 ,that is     
precisely what has happened4 ,the       
emotional life has never been in the    
,east what it has become in the ,west1  
the rare possession of a fortunate few4 
,there the practical life has been kept 
subordinate1 a means to supporting the  
emotional4 ,in ,china men still go about

 their business that they may purchase  
leisure in which to contemplate reality4
 ,in ,europe we are practical2 and      
reality is banished from the life of the
 practical man who regards all things as
 means instead of contemplating them as 
ends4 ,he sees just what is of use to   
him1 and no more4 ,he sees enough for   
identification and recognition2 in fact1
 he reads the labels on things4 ,the    
labels are all he requires4 ,in the     
emotional life things are valued for    
their significance--for what they are1  
not for what they can be made to do2    
they are seen whole because they are    
seen as ends4 ,the practical man sees   
only a part--the part that serves his   
purpose4 ,the camera sees more than     
that1 it sees all the details2 but it   
cannot see the spirit--that has to be   
felt4  ,most ,europeans think of boats  
as means of locomotion1 of apples as    
eatables4 ,they recognize such things by
 their serviceable qualities2 their     
individuality1 the universal in these   

particulars1 escapes them4 ,in a picture
 of a boat or an apple they look for    
those unessential qualities which       
minister to their pleasure1 and of which
 alone they are aware4 ,the cleverness  
of a man who can paint fruit that tempts
 urchins impresses them2 but the artist 
who feels1 and tries to express1 the    
soul of fruit and flowers they take for 
an incompetent dunce or a charlatan4    
,one might say that man has been a      
monarch1 looking to his                 
subject-world only for service and for  
flattery1 and just because      of this 
lordly attitude he has failed to        
understand that      subject-world1 and1
 even more1 has failed to understand    
himself4   ,in the ,east men have ever  
set the spiritual life above the        
practical1 and artists have excelled in 
expressing the very essence of material 
things because they expressed what they 
felt1 instead of representing what the  
ordinary man sees4 ,they have felt that 
if the spirit informs all1 then all must

 have individual significance4 ,to see  
things as means is to see what is most  
useful and least important about them4  
,to see things as ends is to be         
shockingly unpractical2 it is to see    
,god in everything2 it is to exalt the  
spirit above the flesh2 it is not the   
way to get on2 but it is the only way to
 produce significant art1 and1 indeed1  
it is only on such terms that life      
itself signifies4  ,so far we have      
admitted the superiority of the ,east3  
the last word has yet to be said4 ,few  
observant people will deny that there   
are signs of an awakening in ,europe4   
,the times are great with the birth of  
some new thing4 ,a spiritual renaissance
 may be at hand4 ,meanwhile1 we are not 
suffered to ignore the huge strides in  
material progress that are the chief    
glory of modern ,japan2 nor have we     
failed to remark that the latest art to 
reach us from that country proved1 when 
displayed with some ostentation at      
,shepherd's ,bush1 equal in vulgarity of

 sentiment1 flashiness of execution1 and
 apelike imitation to the worst that can
 be seen at ,burlington ,house4         
,philistinism1 it seems1 finds ready    
converts on the other side of the globe4
 ,let the spokesmen of the young and    
bustling empire be heard4 ,shiba ,kokan1
 the pupil of ,harunobu1 says in his    
,confessions3        ,in ,occidental art
 objects are copied directly from       
nature2 hence      before a landscape   
one feels as if one were placed in the  
midst of      nature4 ,there is a       
wonderful apparatus called the          
photograph1 which      gives a facsimile
 copy of the object1 whatever it is1 to 
which it      is directed4 ,nothing     
which has not actually been seen is     
sketched1      nor is a nameless        
landscape reproduced1 as we often see   
done in      ,chinese productions4444 ,a
 painting which is not a faithful copy  
of      nature has neither beauty nor is
 worthy of the name4   ,and this is the 
considered judgment of that popular     

modern painter ,okio3        ,the use of
 art is to produce copies of things1 and
 if an artist      has a thorough       
knowledge of the properties of the thing
 he paints1      he can assuredly make a
 name4444 ,without the true depiction of
      objects there can be no pictorial 
art4 ,nobility of sentiment and         
suchlike only come after a successful   
delineation of the external      form of
 an object4   ,such men would be very   
much at home at an ,academy banquet or  
in the parlour of a suburban stockbroker
 and less so in the world of art than a 
saint would be in ,wall ,street4 ,for   
whereas the saint would perceive the    
spark of the universal in the particular
 stockjobber1 the stockjobber and his   
friends1 ,mr4 ,okio1 the delineator1 and
 the philophotographic ,mr4 ,kokan1 are 
blind to anything that is not on the    
surface4 ,japan1 we are told1 is to     
shape the future of the ,eastern        
hemisphere4 ,japan is forging ahead4    
,already she has set her hand to the    

task of civilizing1 that is to say      
,europeanizing1 ,china--just at the     
moment when ,europe is coming to loathe 
her own grossness4 ,time is the master  
of paradox4 ,who shall say what         
surprises are too fantastic for his     
contriving8 ,can the classic distinction
 between ,east and ,west1 that venerable
 mother of trite reflections and bad    
arguments1 be1 after all1 mutable8 ,is  
the unchanging ,east changeable8 ,is    
,mr4 ,kipling's thrilling line no more  
than the statement of a geographical    
truism8 ,england they tell us was once a
 tropical forest2 ,london may yet be the
 spiritual capital of the world1 while  
,asia--rich in all that gold can buy and
 guns can give1 lord of lands and       
bodies1 builder of railways and         
promulgator of police regulations1      
glorious in all material                
glories--postures1 complacent and       
obtuse1 before a ,europe content in the 
possession of all that matters4         
,,footnote3  #ad ,the ,flight of the    

,dragon3 an ,essay on the ,theory and   
,practice of ,art in ,china and ,japan4 
,by ,laurence ,binyon4 7,john ,murray47 
,,william ,,morris#ae   ,sidenote3 ,new 
,statesman ,oct4 #aiad  ,here is a book 
that starts a dozen hares1 any one of   
which would be worth catching or        
hunting1 at any rate1 through a couple  
of large-type columns4 ,for a really    
good book about ,william ,morris is     
bound to raise those questions that     
,morris made interesting and his        
disciples fashionable1 and that our     
children1 we may hope1 will one day make
 vital4 ,how far can society affect art1
 or art society8 ,what might we have    
made of machinery and what has machinery
 made of us8 ,was the nineteenth century
 a disaster or only a failure8 ,these   
are the questions that it seems right   
and natural for a writer who has made   
,william ,morris his peg to discuss2 and
 if ,i discuss something quite different
 it may look as though1 forsaking       
profitable hares1 ,i were after a       

herring of my own trailing4 ,yet1       
reading this book1 ,i find that the     
question that interests me most is3 ,why
 does ,clutton ,brock tend to overrate  
,william ,morris8 ,to answer it ,i have 
had to discover what sort of person ,i  
suppose ,clutton ,brock to be1 and      
,william ,morris to have been4  ,clutton
 ,brock is one of our best critics4     
,when ,i say this1 of course ,i take    
into consideration his unsigned         
writings1 the anonymity of which is not 
so strict as to make my judgment        
indiscreet4 ,without the subtlety of a  
philosopher or a trained dialectician1  
he has been blest with a powerful       
intellect which enables him1 unlike most
 of our critics1 not only to distinguish
 between sense and nonsense1 but himself
 to refrain from saying what is utterly 
absurd4 ,mr4 ,brock does not like       
nonsense1 and he never talks it4 ,both  
the form and the content of his         
criticism are intellectual4 ,he is in   
the great ,english tradition--the       

tradition of ,dryden and ,johnson and   
,macaulay and ,leslie ,stephen2 he has  
an argumentative prose-style and a      
distaste for highfalutin1 and1 where the
 unenlightened intellectualism of       
,macaulay and ,leslie ,stephen1 and the 
incorrigible common sense of ,johnson1  
might have pitched these eminent men    
into the slough of desperate absurdity1 
it often happens that ,mr4 ,brock1 whose
 less powerful mind is sweetened by a   
sense of art1 contrives to escape4  ,no 
man who has ever done anything worth    
doing has done less highfalutin than    
,morris4 ,he was always the craftsman   
who kept close to his material1 and     
thought more about the block and the    
chisel than about sthetic ecstasy4 ,the 
thrills and ecstasies of life1 he seems 
to have felt1 must come as by-products  
out of doing one's job as well as one   
could3 they were not things1 he thought1
 to aim at1 or even talk about overmuch4
 ,i do not agree with ,morris1 but that 
is beside the point4 ,the point is that 

,clutton ,brock is unwilling to disagree
 with him violently4 ,he has a peculiar 
kindness for ,morris that does not      
surprise me4 ,he is a man who works for 
his living1 and does his work so well   
that we may be sure he wins from it     
delight4 ,the greater part of what he   
writes he does not sign2 and there are  
thousands of people in ,england who1    
though they hardly know his name1 have  
yet been affected by his mind4 ,as he   
sits quietly producing a surprising     
quantity of good literature1 he must    
sometimes feel very near those anonymous
 craftsmen of the ,middle ,ages who1    
lost in the scaffolding1 struck out     
forms that would to-day make only too   
familiar the names of their creators4   
,at such moments1 can he be less than   
partial to the man who understood so    
well the greatness and the dignity of   
those nameless artists8  ,morris was    
amongst the first to perceive that much 
of the greatest art has been produced   
anonymously and collectively2 and we may

 be sure that ,clutton ,brock shares his
 dislike for that worship of names1 that
 interest in catalogues and biographies1
 which amongst the collecting classes   
still does duty for sthetic sensibility4
 ,morris was indignant1 as well he might
 be1 when he heard the pictures of some 
famous artist--famous because he signed 
his name and left some record of his    
life--exalted above the sculpture and   
windows of ,chartres--the work of       
obscure stone-cutters and verriers4 ,he 
loved the medival craftsmen for the     
fineness of their work and for their    
personal modesty4 ,he liked to think of 
men who could take their orders from a  
contre-matre and execute them superbly1 
partly1 ,i think1 because he saw that   
these were men who could be fitted into 
his ideal ,state4 ,and ,mr4 ,clutton    
,brock1 good ,socialist that he is1     
must1 ,i suppose1 himself have been     
perplexed by that problem which         
confronts every modern ,state-projector3
 ,what is to be done about the artists8 

,how are these strange1 turbulent1      
individualistic creatures to be fitted  
into any rational collectivism8 ,what   
place can be found in ,utopia for people
 who do not work to live1 but live to do
 what they consider their own peculiar  
piece of work8 ,now1 if only they were  
craftsmen1 they would make what was     
wanted2 they would do what they were    
told4  ,some feeling of this sort may1  
,i think1 be at the back of ,mr4        
,clutton ,brock's peculiar sympathy with
 ,morris2 it would explain1 too1 why he 
did less than justice to ,shelley in    
that remarkable study he published some 
years ago4 ,he could not quite forgive  
the poet for being so hopelessly        
anti-,social4 ,perhaps1 in his heart1   
,mr4 ,brock would hardly admit the      
absolute value of sthetic rapture2 he   
wants art to do something for life1 and 
he loses patience with people who simply
 add to its confusion4 ,shelley1 he     
thought1 made a mess of his own life and
 of ,harriet's1 and1 for all one knows1 

of ,miss ,hitchener's1 and of a score of
 others2 and his poetry you must read   
for its own sake or not at all4 ,the    
poetry of ,morris has value for people  
who have never known what it is to feel 
an sthetic emotion1 and his life was    
superbly useful to his fellow-men4 ,the 
great ,state of the future will be glad 
of as many ,william ,morrises as it can 
get4  ,but it is ,i who am being less   
than just now4 ,from what ,i have said  
any one might infer that ,i had not     
read1 or had not appreciated1 that      
volume called ,the ,defence of          
,guenevere and ,other ,poems1 in which  
are to be found things of pure beauty1  
,summer ,dawn1 ,in ,prison1 ,the ,wind1 
,the ,haystack in the ,floods2 any one  
might suppose that ,i did not know ,love
 is ,enough4 ,these are the poems which1
 with ,sigurd1 give ,william ,morris his
 place amongst the poets4 ,mr4 ,clutton 
,brock feels this surely enough1 because
 he possesses1 besides intellect1 that  
other and rarer critical faculty1 that  

spiritual tuning-fork by which a fine   
critic distinguishes between emotion and
 sentimentality1 between rhetoric and   
rant4 ,it is because ,mr4 ,brock        
possesses this peculiar                 
sensibility--part sthetic1 part ethical1
 and part intellectual1 it seems--that  
he can be trusted to detect and dislike 
even the subtlest manifestations of that
 quality which most distinguishes       
,tennyson from ,morris1 ,kipling from   
,walt ,whitman1 and the ,bishop of      
,london from the ,vicar of ,wakefield4  
,that is why ,i suppose ,mr4 ,brock to  
be one of our best critics4  ,if there  
were anything fundamentally nasty about 
,morris ,mr4 ,brock would not be        
inclined to overrate him4 ,mr4 ,brock   
pardons no unpardonable horrors3 there  
are none here to pardon4 ,but he        
overrates1 or rather overmarks1 ,william
 ,morris as a scrupulous but            
soft-hearted examiner might overmark a  
sympathetic pupil4 ,he never gives marks
 when the answer is wrong1 but he gives 

a great many when it is right3 and he is
 a little blind to deficiencies4 ,he    
does not make it clear that ,morris1 as 
an artist1 was cursed with two of the   
three modern ,english vices1 that he was
 provincial and amateurish4 ,but he     
gives him full credit for not being     
goaded to futility by a sense of his own
 genius4  ,morris was provincial as the 
,pre-,raphaelites and ,tennyson and     
,carlyle were provincial1 as ,swinburne 
and ,whistler were not2 his mind could  
rarely escape from the place and age in 
which it was formed4 ,he looked at art  
and life1 and at the future even1 from  
the point of view of an ,englishman and 
a ,victorian2 and when he tries to      
change his position we feel the         
,victorian labouring1 more or less      
unsuccessfully1 to get out of himself4  
,when ,i accuse him of being amateurish 
,i do not use that vile word in         
contradistinction to professional4 ,in a
 sense all true artists must be         
amateurs2 the professional view1 the    

view that art is a hopeful and genteel  
way of earning one's living1 is possible
 only to official portrait-painters and 
contractors for public monuments4 ,when 
,i say that ,morris1 like almost all our
 visual artists and too many of our     
modern writers1 was amateurish1 ,i mean 
that he was not serious enough about his
 art4 ,he tended to regard art as a part
 of life instead of regarding life as a 
means to art4 ,a long morning's work1 an
 afternoon of fresh air1 a quiet        
evening1 and so to bed and fit next     
morning for another good spell of       
production2 something of that sort1 one 
fancies1 was not unlike the ideal of    
,william ,morris4 ,it is a craftsman's  
ideal2 it is a good life for any one but
 an artist2 and it would be a good      
attitude towards art if art were not    
something altogether different from     
work4 ,alas6 it is the ,english         
attitude4 ,i never look at those ,saxon 
manuscripts in the ,british ,museum but 
,i say to myself3 ,and didn't they go   

out and have a game of cricket after    
hours and work all the harder next day  
for their wholesome exercise6  ,but from
 the fatal curse ,morris was free2 no   
man of great ability was ever less      
conceited4 ,you will not find in his    
work a trace of that tired pomposity    
which tells us that the great man is    
showing off1 or of that empty           
pretentious singularity which betrays   
the vanity of the lonely ,british       
artist4 ,morris was never the           
self-conscious master calling on sun and
 moon to stand and watch him sign his   
name1 neither was he the shy genius of  
the ,english hedgerows sheltering his   
little talent from contemporary         
infection and the chill winds of        
criticism4  ,morris was neither a great 
artist nor a great thinker1 but he was a
 great man1 and that1 ,i suspect1 is the
 chief reason why ,mr4 ,brock loves him1
 and why none of the better sort can    
help liking him4 ,he had that           
magnanimity which makes people take     

instinctively the right side4 ,his      
reasons might be wrong1 but he was in   
the right4 ,there are people in history1
 and ,morris is one of them1 about whom 
we feel that if they were alive they    
would sympathize with whatever were the 
best and most pressing aspirations of   
the age4 ,morris would1 of course1 be as
 firm to-day as ever against plutocracy1
 but one feels sure that he would take  
his stand with those who are trying to  
win for themselves some kind of moral   
and intellectual as well as economic    
freedom4 ,one feels sure he would be of 
that forlorn hope of civilization that  
carries on a sporadic and ineffective   
war against officialism and militarism  
on the one hand1 and puritanism and     
superstition on the other4 ,one feels   
sure that1 however little he might like 
new developments in art or thought1 he  
would be against the people who tried to
 suppress them4 ,one feels quite sure   
that he would never cease to believe    
that so long as society is imperfect it 

is the right and duty of individuals to 
experiment4 ,the fact is1 ,morris was at
 once a practical craftsman and an      
idealist4 ,in practical affairs and     
private prejudices he could be as       
truculent and wrong-headed as the rest  
of us2 but he was always conscious of   
something much more important than      
practical affairs and private           
prejudices4 ,he cared nothing for his   
own reputation and little for immediate 
success because he cared for something  
greater4 ,for that he cared so much that
 he was able to forgive the quarrels and
 absurdities of the ,hammersmith        
,socialists and to laugh even at his own
 vehemence4  ,,footnote3  #ae ,william  
,morris4 ,by ,a4 ,clutton ,brock4       
7,williams and ,norgate3 ,home          
,university ,library1 #as4 net47        
,,persian ,,miniatures#af   ,sidenote3  
,burlington ,magazine ,may #aiad  ,very 
slowly it is becoming possible to       
construct a history of ,persian         
painting4 ,until quite lately all       

attempts were frustrated by what is sure
 to frustrate the attempts of the first 
historians of any school or slope1 or1  
for that matter1 of any subject         
whatever--a false point of departure4   
,so long as it was supposed that ,behzad
 was the first mature master of ,persian
 painting1 ,persian art-historians were 
as inevitably out in their conjectures  
as were the people who used to believe  
that ,raphael was what they would have  
called the fons et origo of ,european   
painting4  ,we are now acquainted1 if   
not familiar1 with ,persian paintings of
 the thirteenth and early fourteenth    
centuries1 with the ,mongol and with a  
pre-,mongol school--for it seems        
imprudent to give the name ,mongol to   
works that can be assigned to a date    
earlier than #abeh 7the year of the     
eponymous establishment71 especially as 
they differ profoundly from the         
recognized ,mongol type4 ,we know that  
the pre-,mongol school was the heir of a
 great decorative tradition2 and we have

 good reasons for believing that this   
tradition was based on ,sassanian1      
,sung1 and ,byzantine art4 ,we are      
therefore more or less in the position  
of people who should be acquainted with 
the work of ,cimabue1 ,giotto1 and      
,duccio1 though knowing very little of  
,byzantine art and its primitive        
developments in the ,west4  ,of this    
early period--,mongol and               
pre-,mongol--we do not yet possess many 
examples2 but the student who turns to  
the ,burlington ,magazine for ,july and 
,august #aiac will see reproductions    
from a superb manuscript of the late    
thirteenth century1 ,mr4 ,pierpont      
,morgan's ,manafi-i-,heiwan1 and any one
 who has the good fortune to know ,m4   
,claude ,anet or ,m4 ,vignier can       
probably be put in the way of seeing    
some originals4 ,he will discover in the
 work of this early period two distinct 
schools3 one--of which the running      
ibexes in the ,manafi-i-,heiwan is an   
example--obviously related to ,sung2 the

 other--of which the ,kalila and ,dimna 
miniatures#ag 7dated #abcf71 and the    
elephants from the ,manafi-i-,heiwan    
7#abie circa7 may be taken as           
illustrations--reminding us rather of   
,sassanian art4 ,exquisite perfection of
 line is the dominant characteristic of 
the first school2 in the second1 we find
 a broader treatment1 a more splendid   
disposition of masses1 and a more       
monumental design than in any other     
known school of ,persian painting4 ,it  
is amongst the works of these           
thirteenth-century painters that we must
 look for the discovered masterpieces of
 ,persian art4  ,in our present state of
 ignorance we may call this the great   
age4 ,it is the familiar age of fine    
,rhages pottery2 and to compare the     
beautiful drawing on the twelfth-and    
thirteenth-century pots with the        
miniatures of this period is to let a   
flood of light on to the study of both4 
,mr4 ,kevorkian has1 or had1 a wonderful
 painting from ,the ,history of the     

,kalifs by ,tabari 7about #abjj71 the   
figures of which might have walked      
straight out of a ,rhages bowl into     
which they had walked some fifty years  
earlier direct from ,western ,china4    
,yet1 admirable as this thirteenth      
century is1 ,i do not believe that it is
 in fact the supreme age of ,persian    
painting4 ,certainly it is not the      
primitive age4 ,this is an art that     
comes out of a long tradition4 ,and just
 as we have already discovered pottery  
earlier than and surpassing that of the 
thirteenth century1 so ,i hope and      
believe we shall yet see primitive      
,persian paintings superior to anything 
that the late pre-,mongol and ,mongol   
period can show4 ,for the present we can
 only say that the works of this period 
are not much inferior to the greatest   
that the genius of any race or age has  
created4  ,in #acce begins what is known
 as the ,timourid age--the age beloved  
above all others by discerning          
connoisseurs--and it is tempting to     

assign to this famous period the        
illustrations in a manuscript belonging 
to ,mr4 ,herramaneck1 now in the        
possession of ,mr4 ,arthur ,ruck1 from  
which are drawn the paintings reproduced
 on ,plate ,i4 ,this temptation is      
strengthened by the fact that the       
manuscript is said to be dated #acih2   
yet it is a temptation to which ,i am   
unwilling to yield4 ,rather1 ,i incline 
to think that these are the work of an  
early contemporary of ,behzad1 by whom  
they are not influenced1 and that they  
belong1 therefore1 to that interesting  
period of transition which lies between 
the ,timourids of the fifteenth and the 
,sefevaeans of the sixteenth century4   
,if we turn to the ,burlington ,magazine
 for ,october #aiab1 we can compare our 
,plate ,i1 a1 with two paintings1 one in
 ,m4 ,claude ,anet's collection dating  
from the fourteenth century1 the other  
from ,m4 ,meyer-,riefstahl's belonging  
to the fifteenth4 ,all have ,mongol     
affinities3 but in ,m4 ,anet's picture1 

though the rather finicking and academic
 drawing of the tree shows that already 
under the early ,timourids the full     
,persian style was developed1 there are 
yet to be found traces of a monumental  
design that had almost disappeared by   
the end of the fifteenth century4  ,the 
work here illustrated is too descriptive
 and not sufficiently monumental to be  
assigned to the ,timourid age1 and so ,i
 give it to the late fifteenth century1 
to those delicious years when the old   
tradition1 though weakened1 had not been
 smothered under the scenic delicacies  
brought into fashion by ,behzad4 ,if the
 ,timourid age is to be dubbed the      
,persian quattrocento1 ,mr4 ,ruck's man 
will pass muster as the counterpart of  
some artist older than ,raphael1 who    
worked independently of the young       
prodigy unaffected by his ultimately    
disastrous inventions4  ,from an album1 
also in the possession of ,mr4 ,arthur  
,ruck1 comes a drawing signed by ,behzad
 and reproduced on ,plate ,,ii1 c4 ,on  

the genuineness of the signature ,i     
cannot pretend to an opinion1 but there 
seem to be no solid grounds for         
disputing it4 ,the work itself is       
characteristic enough4 ,it is           
accomplished and tasteful2 it is also   
thin in quality and the forms are       
indifferently co-ordinated4 ,it is1 in  
fact1 a very pretty piece of            
illustration2 it is not a profoundly    
moving design4 ,compared with figure ,a 
on ,plate ,i it is tight and unlovely3  
compared with the masterpieces of the   
thirteenth century it is not even what a
 picture by ,raphael is to a picture by 
,giotto2 if1 historically1 ,behzad is   
the ,raphael of ,persia1 sthetically1 he
 is a very inferior one4  ,it is in the 
post-,behzad art1 their ,sefevaean art  
of the sixteenth century1 that the      
,persians have the advantage of us4 ,the
 miniatures of this age were1 until     
lately1 reckoned by ,european collectors
 the masterpieces of ,persian painting1 
and the decline of their reputation may 

be compared with that of those later    
cinquecentiste who stood so high in the 
taste of the eighteenth century4 ,the   
descent1 however1 has been less sharp as
 the error was less glaring4 ,after     
,behzad there is no such tumble as      
befell ,italian art in the last days of 
the ,renaissance4 ,on the contrary1 as  
my final illustrations 7also drawn from 
,mr4 ,ruck's scrap-book7 show1 the      
,persian art of the sixteenth century   
maintained a very high level4 ,the      
ladder picture 7,plate ,,iii1 ,d7 is1 ,i
 presume1 by ,sultan ,mohamed4 ,for my  
part ,i prefer it to the ,behzad4 ,it is
 less mechanical2 and ,i find in it none
 of that weary pomposity1 that gesture  
of the great man who knows his business 
too well1 which so often displeases me  
in the master4 ,sultan ,mohamed was1 so 
the story goes1 a pupil of ,aga ,mirek1 
who was a pupil of ,behzad4  ,this      
charming ,sultan ,mohamed belongs to the
 middle of the sixteenth century1 and   
its companion illustration 7,plate      

,,iii1 ,e7 may be placed some twenty    
years later4 ,about this last1 however1 
it would be easy and excusable to go    
wrong2 for from the local colour and the
 head of the man who leads the horse it 
would seem to have been painted in      
,india4 ,we know that the album from    
which it comes was for many years in    
that country2 yet ,i cannot believe that
 this picture is the product of any     
,indo-,persian school4 ,it is too good3 
there persists too much of the great    
,timourid and ,mongol tradition which1  
as the work of ,sultan ,mohamed shows1  
was still cherished by the ,persian     
artists of the sixteenth century4 ,that 
it is earlier than the seventeenth      
century and the reign of ,shah ,abbas is
 beyond dispute2 it is untainted1 or    
almost untainted1 with that soft1 slick1
 convictionless woolliness that was     
brought to perfection by ,riza ,abbassi1
 the court painter1 and seems to have   
flattered so happily the taste of the   
,persian grand monarque4 ,the figure of 

the kneeling princess comes nearer to   
the style of ,mirek than to that of any 
other artist with whom ,i am acquainted2
 and1 if ,i must hazard a guess1 ,i will
 suggest that this is the work of some  
,persian pupil of ,mirek who went to try
 his luck at the court of the ,great    
,mogul4  ,with ,shah ,abbas and the     
seventeenth century ,persian art becomes
 definitely and hopelessly second-rate4 
,from the ruins emerge a variety of     
decadent schools of which two deserve   
mention4 ,the academic school continued 
the ,behzad tradition1 and its hard but 
capable style did well enough for       
copying ,persian old masters1 ,european 
paintings by such artists as ,bellini1  
and engravings by such artisans as      
,marcantonio--an amusing product of this
 last kind of activity 7also from a book
 in ,mr4 ,ruck's possession7 will be    
reproduced later in the ,burlington     
,magazine4 ,at the same time there      
appeared a freer and softer style1      
examples of which1 at first sight1      

sometimes remind one of a particularly  
good ,conder4 ,in ,india developed a    
number of schools1 romantic1            
picturesque1 and literal2 of these1 a   
queer sensual charm notwithstanding1 it 
must be confessed that the two main     
characteristics are weakness of design  
and a sweetly sugary colour4 ,but ,i am 
straying beyond any boundary that my    
illustrations could justify4 ,i have    
been able to give excellent examples of 
the late middle period of ,persian      
painting4 ,in the two first we caught an
 echo of the great ,timourid age and    
felt a premonition of the good          
,sefevaean3 in the last we see how      
splendid ,persian painting could be in  
its decline4 ,i wish ,i could have      
reproduced examples to show how glorious
 was its youth and early manhood4       
,,footnotes3  #af ,to make the most of  
an article of this sort the reader      
ought1 obviously1 to have illustrations 
by him4 ,for these1 in the original     
even1 ,i was obliged to refer to back   

numbers of the ,burlington ,magazine1   
and now ,i must refer also to the plates
 that accompanied this article when     
first it appeared4  #ag ,in the         
collections of ,m4 ,henraux and ,m4     
,claude ,anet4 ,reproduced in the       
,burlington ,magazine1 ,october #aiab4  
,,countercheck ,,quarrelsome            
,sidenote3 ,new ,statesman ,mar4 #aiad  
,i hasten to accept ,mr4 ,randall       
,davies's offer of friendship1#ah though
 ,i doubt whether much good can come of 
it if we are to go on arguing about     
sthetics4 ,we are too far apart4 ,what  
,mr4 ,davies feels for a picture is     
something altogether different from what
 he feels for a carpet1 whereas the     
emotion ,i feel for a carpet is of      
exactly the same kind as the emotion ,i 
feel for a picture1 a statue1 a         
cathedral1 or a pot4 ,also1 my whole    
system of sthetics is based on this     
psychological fact1 so that it would1   
perhaps1 have been wiser in ,mr4 ,davies
 to have stated the difference between  

us and let it go at that4  ,if some one 
were to find fault with the ,new        
,statesman on account of the flimsiness 
and inadequacy of the arguments it      
adduces in favour of private ownership  
of railways1 the editor1 being a polite 
man1 would reply1 ,i suppose1 that his  
critic had misunderstood the policy of  
the paper3 he would not feel that his   
arguments had received any very damaging
 blow4 ,in my first chapter ,i made it  
clear--my publishers accused me of      
becoming repetitious about it--that what
 ,i wanted to discover was a quality    
common and peculiar to all those objects
 ,i called works of art2 ,i explained   
that by works of art ,i meant objects   
that provoked in me a peculiar emotion1 
called sthetic2 and ,i repeated over and
 over again that amongst these objects  
were pictures1 pots1 textiles1 statues1 
buildings1 etc4 ,mr4 ,davies's sharp    
eyes have enabled him to perceive either
 that my hypothesis--that significant   
form is the essential quality in a work 

of art--leads to the inclusion of       
,persian carpets amongst works of art1  
or that the hypothesis that             
representation is the essence of art    
excludes them3 ,i am not sure which4    
,anyway1 this much is certain1 either   
both pictures and carpets can be works  
of art or they cannot4 ,i set out from  
the hypothesis that pictures and        
carpets1 or rather some pictures and    
some carpets1 are works of art2 and     
therefore ,i am less inclined to feel   
crushed by ,mr4 ,davies's discovery that
 my premises follow from my conclusions 
than to inquire why ,mr4 ,davies does   
not consider carpets and pots and       
buildings works of art1 or1 if1 after   
all1 he does consider them works of art1
 to what class he relegates pictures and
 statues4 ,my object is to discover some
 quality common and peculiar to all     
works of art4 ,such a quality there must
 be unless when we use the term works of
 art we gibber4 ,does ,mr4 ,davies      
assert that only pictures and statues   

can be works of art8 ,or are we to      
assume that he gibbers8  ,even if ,i    
cannot argue profitably with my new     
friend ,i may be able to give him a     
useful hint4 ,for though1 as he wittily 
observes1 he is still much older than ,i
 am1 it is conceivable that ,i enjoy a  
wider sthetic experience4        ,to    
look for the same qualities in a carpet 
and a picture would be      equally     
absurd1 seeing that one is intended to  
hang on the wall and      the other to  
be laid on the floor4 ,if any one doubts
 this1 let him      frame his carpets   
and put his canvases over the parquet4  
,to hang on the wall was1 of course1    
precisely the purpose for which many of 
the finest ,oriental carpets were       
intended2 but disdaining all            
considerations1 no matter how relevant1 
that seem to set a premium on           
scholarship1 ,i will gladly put my      
friend and his readers in the way of    
carrying out this interesting           
experiment4 ,they need not jeopardize   

the drawing-room furniture4 ,not far    
from the house in which ,mr4 ,davies    
lives stands a building so large and so 
silly that it can scarcely have escaped 
his admiration4 ,it is the ,victoria and
 ,albert ,museum2 and any one who cares 
to step inside can see a fair collection
 of ,oriental carpets hanging           
picture-wise against the wall--hanging  
in frames too4 ,i shall be very much    
surprised if the more sensitive of those
 who trouble to pay them a visit do not 
feel that these carpets are as          
sthetically satisfactory on the wall as 
they would be on the floor1 and ,i shall
 be amazed if they do not feel also that
 they are as definitely works of art as 
the objects that adorn the walls of the 
,tate ,gallery4  ,my purpose is to      
discover the quality common and peculiar
 to works of art4 ,i have suggested that
 this quality is what ,i call           
,significant ,form--i4e4 combinations of
 lines and colours that are in          
themselves moving4 ,a good many people  

besides ,mr4 ,davies have blamed me for 
giving the name ,significant ,form to   
just that form which seems to signify   
nothing4 ,i adopted the term with       
hesitation1 and ,i shall sacrifice it   
without pain if something better can be 
found to take its place4 ,all the same1 
,i did try to explain what ,i meant by  
it4 ,i speak of ,significant ,form in   
contradistinction to ,insignificant     
,beauty--the beauty of gems or of a     
butterfly's wing1 the beauty that       
pleases1 but does not seem to provoke   
that peculiar thrill that we call an    
sthetic emotion4 ,i suggested very      
cautiously that the explanation of this 
difference might lie in the fact that   
the forms created by an artist express1 
or in some way transmit1 an emotion felt
 by their creator1 whereas the forms of 
nature1 so far as most of us are        
concerned1 do not seem to hand on       
anything so definite4 ,but about this   
part of my theory ,i was1 and still am1 
extremely diffident1 and ,i mention it  

here only in the hope of justifying what
 has seemed to many sensible people a   
silly name4  ,at the beginning of my    
book ,i was at some pains to explain why
 ,i held that all systems of sthetics   
must be based on personal experience4 ,i
 said that my purpose was to discover   
some quality common and peculiar to all 
works that moved me sthetically1 and ,i 
invited those whose experience did not  
tally with mine--and whose experience   
does tally exactly with that of any one 
else8--to discover some other quality   
common and peculiar to all the objects  
that so moved them4 ,i said that in     
elaborating a theory of sthetics an     
author must depend entirely on his own  
experience1 and in my book ,i depended  
entirely on mine4 ,there are people to  
whom a simple statement of this sort    
comes as a pressing invitation to score 
cheaply3--,so now we know what art is1  
it is whatever you are pleased to honour
 with your approval4 ,but why should    
,mr4 ,bell suppose that the forms that  

move him are the only ones proper to    
move others8 says ,mr4 ,davies4         
,again1 it is as foolish for ,mr4 ,bell1
 or any other individual1 to      say1  
as he does say1 that ,frith's           
,paddington ,station is not a      work 
of art as it would be for me to say that
 rhubarb tart--which ,i      detest--is 
not food4 ,if ,i were the only person in
 the world who ate      anything1 then1 
,i admit1 ,i should be right in saying  
that it was      not food--for it would 
not be1 because ,i should never eat it4 
,and      if ,mr4 ,bell were the only   
spectator of works of art on earth1 he  
would have a perfect right to say that  
,paddington ,station was not      a work
 of art4 ,but as he is not the only     
person on earth--if he      will forgive
 me for mentioning the fact--he has no  
right to say      that it is not a work 
of art4   ,if this were anything more   
respectable than one of those pieces of 
grave but delicate sarcasm for which ,i 
am told ,mr4 ,davies is famous1 it would

 be perilous doctrine in the mouth of a 
professional art critic4 ,we have no    
right to say that something is not a    
work of art so long as other people say 
that it is4 ,the poor fellow who has    
gone through with a picture to the very 
end and has got it hung will always1 ,i 
suspect1 consider it a work of art2 and 
,i hope that some of his friends will   
have the humanity to back him up4       
,therefore 444 well1 we must be         
catholic4 ,but ,mr4 ,randall ,davies1   
who deals out1 week after week1 column  
after column of sthetic judgments1 may  
surely be invited by his readers to     
disclose the criteria by which he       
distinguishes between works of art and  
rubbish4 ,if a work of art be that which
 any one judges to be a work of art1 we 
may as well consult the first policeman 
we meet instead of going for an opinion 
to a paid expert4  ,if ,mr4 ,davies had 
understood the very simple language in  
which ,i stated my position1 he would   
have realized that when ,i say that     

,paddington ,station is not a work of   
art ,i mean that ,paddington ,station   
does not provoke in me an sthetic       
emotion1 and that ,i believe we can have
 no reason for thinking a thing to be a 
work of art except that we feel it to be
 one4 ,paddington ,station did not move 
me2 therefore ,i had no reason for      
judging it a work of art1 but1 of       
course1 ,i may have looked at the       
picture stupidly and remained           
insensitive to the real significance of 
its forms4 ,if ,mr4 ,davies had         
understood the very simple language in  
which ,i stated my position1 he would   
have realized that1 far from making a   
claim to infallibility in sthetic       
judgments1 ,i insisted on the fact that 
we might all disagree about particular  
works of art and yet agree about        
sthetics4 ,but if ,mr4 ,davies had been 
able to catch the general drift of my   
book1 he would have understood that     
whether ,paddington ,station moves me or
 whether it leaves me cold is a matter  

of secondary importance4 ,the point of  
first importance is whether a person who
 is moved in the same sort of way by    
,paddington ,station and a ,sung bowl   
and ,sta4 ,sophia and a ,persian carpet 
can find any quality common and peculiar
 to all save that which ,i have called  
,significant ,form4  ,that is the       
problem4 ,it is not quite so simple as  
,i have had to make it appear4 ,some day
 ,i hope to answer the pertinent        
questions raised by ,mr4 ,roger ,fry and
 other critics4 ,in my book ,i have     
examined my own experience in the hope  
of inducing my readers to examine       
theirs4 ,what do they say8 ,are they    
really talking nonsense when they speak 
of works of art1 including under that   
head pictures1 pots1 buildings1         
textiles1 etc48 ,if they are not1 what  
characteristic distinguishes the        
species8 ,do they not feel as much      
emotion for a picture of a round of beef
 as for a picture of the ,crucifixion1  
and do they feel less for a ,sassanian  

textile8 ,if what they had taken for a  
jug turns out to be a paper-weight2 if1 
as sometimes happens in a battered      
fresco1 what was said to be the         
,heavenly host is proved to be a pack of
 licentious ,florentines1 do they really
 have to readjust their sthetic         
attitude8 ,if people who are capable of 
feeling and of analysing their feelings 
will give me honest answers to these    
questions1 ,i shall be even more        
grateful to them than ,i am to ,mr4     
,davies for his facetious advertisement 
of my book4  ,,footnote3  #ah ,i wonder 
what ,mr4 ,davies really said4 ,any one 
who cares to know has only to consult   
the ,new ,statesman for ,march #g or    
#ad1 #aiad4 ,i have not a copy by me4   
,it looks as though there had been a    
pretty firm offer of some sort3 it came 
to nothing1 alas6     ,,picture ,,shows 
,i  ,,the ,,london ,,salon   ,sidenote3 
,athenum ,july #aiab  ,there are many   
reasons for approving of the ,london    
,salon4 ,for one thing it is the only   

place in ,england where pictures are    
hung without any selection being made4  
,the fate of the ,salon d',automne1     
formerly the most interesting exhibition
 in ,europe1 could be cited to discredit
 the jury system1 were it not that the  
system had discredited itself even more 
effectually in this country by making it
 appear that ,british art had ceased to 
exist4 ,no matter how good the          
intentions of a jury may be1 inevitably 
it comes to be dominated by a clique of 
painters who imagine that they are      
setting a high standard by rejecting all
 pictures sufficiently unlike their own4
 ,in ,france1 therefore1 ,les           
,indpendants have become the            
representatives of contemporary art1    
while ,english people who hope to       
discover something vital at home must   
betake themselves to the ,albert ,hall4 
,but there is more than this to be said 
for the ,london ,salon3 its standard of 
painting is far higher than that of the 
,royal ,academy or of the ,new ,english 

,art ,club4 ,for this we have chiefly to
 thank ,mr4 ,walter ,sickert and his    
pupils4 ,they set the tone4 ,it is      
extraordinary that any master should    
have led so many pupils so far along the
 road to art4 ,all have been taken to   
that point where work ceases to appear  
utterly negligible4 ,all have been made 
to search life for realities1 and not   
for pictures4 ,they have been taught to 
simplify and to select2 and they have   
been taught not to select the obvious1  
the romantic1 and the pretty4 ,they have
 not been taught1 however1 to discover  
and express the profoundly significant1 
for that cannot be taught4 ,even ,mr4   
,sickert cannot turn sincere and        
intelligent painters into artists4      
,entering the arena1 the visitor will   
probably turn first to the large picture
 by ,mr4 ,wyndham ,lewis4 ,to appreciate
 this1 he should take the lift to the   
gallery1 whence1 having shed all        
irrelevant prejudices in favour of      
representation1 he will be able to      

contemplate it as a piece of pure       
design4 ,he will be able to judge it as 
he would judge music--that is to say1 as
 pure1 formal expression4 ,so judging1  
he cannot fail to be impressed by the   
solidity of the composition1 to which   
the colour is not an added charm1 but of
 which it is an integral part2 he will  
feel that the picture holds together as 
a unity in the way that a good sonata   
holds1 in a way that nothing else does  
in this exhibition2 also he will feel a 
certain dissatisfaction which may cause 
him to inquire whether ,mr4 ,lewis has  
altogether succeeded in expressing      
himself4 ,we believe that he has not4   
,there is a laboriousness about this    
work which seems to represent the       
artist's unsuccessful struggle to       
realize in paint his mental conception2 
and it is for this reason that we admire
 it rather as a promise of something    
great than as an achievement4  ,the     
other striking thing in the arena is    
,mr4 ,epstein's statue4 ,approached from

 behind1 as the present writer          
approached it1 this has very much the   
air of an important work of art2 and    
that it well may be4 ,closer            
examination1 however1 raises some       
doubts4 ,is it1 perhaps1 only the       
imitation of one8 ,mr4 ,epstein is a    
baffling artist4 ,his skill and         
scholarship are amazing1 and he seems to
 have convictions2 but what are they8   
,has he merely a brilliant gift for     
description1 helped out and             
sophisticated by a subtle taste8 ,or has
 he a queer entangled sense of the      
significance of form4 ,is he a plastic  
artist or an extraordinarily gifted     
statuary8 ,even if this work be an      
imitation1 how admirable a one is it6   
,that ,mr4 ,epstein should combine with 
the taste and intelligence to perceive  
the beauty of ,mexican sculpture the    
skill and science to reproduce its fine 
qualities is surely something to note   
and admire4 ,there is enough in this    
figure1 imitative though it be1 to      

secure for its author pre-eminence      
amongst living ,british sculptors4#ai   
,a third work in this part of the hall  
has attracted some attention4 ,it is a  
picture of the coronation of ,george ,v4
 by one ,fernand ,piret1 a ,french      
aviator--so the story goes--who never   
before dabbled in terrene arts4 ,it may 
be so4 ,in any case he has contrived a  
mordant comment on that memorable and   
mystic ceremony4  ,upstairs1 the best   
things are two charming pictures by ,mr4
 ,s4 ,f4 ,gore4 ,it is a joy to watch   
the progress of this good artist4 ,the  
patient and unpretentious labour of his 
experimental years is being handsomely  
rewarded4 ,mr4 ,gore is finding himself2
 we never doubted that he was well worth
 finding4 ,mr4 ,gilman1 too1 is steadily
 becoming more interesting2 but ,mr4    
,ginner has1 as yet1 hardly fulfilled   
the promise of his early work4 ,the     
delicate sensibility and fine           
scholarship which ,m4 ,lucien ,pissarro 
chooses to conceal beneath a presentment

 of almost exaggerated modesty will     
escape no one whose eyes have not been  
blinded by the flush of fashionable     
vulgarity1 of which1 happily1 there is  
very little here4 ,the ,london ,salon is
 no place for those who are1 or who hope
 to become1 portrait-makers at a        
thousand a head4  ,all the creditable   
work to be found in this exhibition is  
not to be mentioned in one article4 ,the
 pictures by ,miss ,helen ,saunders1    
painted surely under the influence of   
,mr4 ,etchells2 ,the ,omnibus1 by ,mr4  
,adeney2 the works of ,mrs4 ,louise     
,pichard1 ,mr4 ,malcolm ,drummond1 ,mr4 
,j4 ,b4 ,yeats1 and ,mr4 ,w4 ,b4 ,c4    
,burnet2 that rather pretentious piece1 
,les ,deux ,amies1 by ,madame ,rene     
,finch2 and ,the ,cot1 a charming little
 picture by ,mrs4 ,ogilvie--all deserve 
more attention than any overworked      
critic is likely to give them4 ,they    
are1 for the most part1 accomplished    
paintings that provoke no doubts and no 
outrageous hopes4  ,,footnote3  #ai     

#aiag3 ,a friendly critic reading this  
paragraph suggests that it might stand  
fairly as a description of ,mevstrovi'c4
 ,i cannot agree4 ,epstein is in every  
respect superior to the ,serbian        
sculptor1 in whose work there can be no 
question of anything but pastiche4 ,it  
has been said that it expresses the soul
 of ,serbia4 ,i know nothing of that4   
,what ,i do know1 what every one        
familiar with modern art knows1 is that 
it expresses nothing but what can be    
learnt by any clever student in the     
schools of ,vienna1 ,munich1 and ,paris4
     ,,ii  ,,english                    
,,post-,,impressionists   ,sidenote3    
,nation ,oct4 #aiac  ,it is said that   
,czanne was in the habit of describing  
himself as a pupil of ,camille          
,pissarro4 ,the belief is popular1 and  
may be well founded2 at any rate1 it has
 emboldened ,mr4 ,rutter to overstock   
his ,post-,impressionist and ,futurist  
,exhibition with unimportant works by   
this distinguished ,impressionist4      

,surely a couple of examples would have 
sufficed to illustrate the latest1 and  
best1 theory of sthetics4 ,for that is  
the service performed on this occasion  
by the works of ,pissarro4 ,they mark   
that difference in purpose between three
 schools1 an understanding of which will
 enable the intelligent student to pick 
his way across the depths and shallows  
of contemporary art4  ,the romantic     
artists of the early nineteenth century 
used form and colour to describe        
situations and comment on life4 ,there  
are no examples of their work in this   
exhibition2 but1 as we shall see1 the   
,futurists are unconsciously harking    
back to their theories4 ,the            
,impressionists1 in rebellion1 used form
 and colour to register their visual    
impressions2 they belong to the age of  
science and state facts without comment4
 ,but every romantic or impressionist   
painter who happened to be an artist    
also used form and colour as means of   
expressing and provoking pure sthetic   

emotion4 ,it was not his fault if he    
flew in the face of party principles2 he
 was an artist and he could not help it4
 ,czanne was not only a very great      
artist2 he was what is almost as rare1 a
 thoughtful one4 ,so1 in his later      
periods1 he came to use form and colour 
solely as means of expressing and       
provoking those extraordinary emotions  
that arise from the contemplation of    
real or imagined form4 ,his theory      
quarrels with no vital school of art    
that has ever existed4 ,he merely sifted
 the grain from the chaff1 the relevant 
from the irrelevant4  ,the ,lake1 by    
,czanne1 is therefore the most important
 sthetic document in this exhibition    
besides being the best picture4 ,czanne 
set modern art on the right road4 ,the  
revolutionary doctrine he bequeathed to 
,post-,impressionism is a truth as old  
as the ,neolithic ,age--the truth that  
forms and colours are of themselves     
significant4 ,the ,italian ,futurists   
are at the opposite pole to             

,post-,impressionists because they treat
 form and colour as vehicles for the    
transmission of facts and ideas4 ,polka 
and ,valse by ,severini are1 in         
intention1 as descriptive as ,the       
,doctor by ,sir ,luke ,fildes2 only they
 are meant to describe states of mind1  
whereas ,the ,doctor purports to        
describe a situation4 ,whether1 in fact1
 they succeed in describing anything1   
and1 if so1 whether what they describe  
is of much consequence1 are questions   
for the psychologist4 ,the critic of art
 has only to note that the forms and    
colours are in themselves insignificant 
and in their relations commonplace2 they
 are also those much affected of late by
 the more adventurous students at the   
cole des ,beaux-,arts4  ,futurism is a  
negligible accident3 the discoveries of 
,czanne are safe in the hands of the    
,french masters1 with whose names the   
catalogue bristles--,gauguin1 ,van      
,gogh1 ,matisse1 ,picasso1 ,marchand1   
,derain1 ,marquet1 ,friesz1 ,herbin1    

l',hote4 ,unluckily1 the big artists    
are1 for the most part1 meagrely        
represented by rather unimportant works1
 of which1 by the way1 a good many are  
already familiar to picture-goers4 ,i   
think ,i never met so many old faces in 
a modern exhibition4 ,and though ,i     
shall never complain of encountering a  
,matisse or a ,marchand1 though it be   
for the third time in eighteen months1  
to be vexed by some mediocre remnant    
from the summer exhibitions strikes me  
as an unnecessarily sharp tax on the    
patience4  ,i do not grumble at the     
reappearance of ,wyndham ,lewis's       
,kermesse1 which has been altered and   
greatly improved since its last         
appearance at the ,london ,salon4 ,lewis
 promises to become that rare thing1 a  
real academic artist4 ,he is academic in
 the good sense of the word--that is to 
say1 he uses a formula of which he is   
the master and not the slave4 ,he uses  
it as a means to vast organizations of  
form1 designed1 ,i imagine1 to have     

something of the austere and impressive 
unity of great architecture4 ,he        
succeeds to a surprising degree4 ,the   
enemy that dogs him in all his works is 
an excessive taste for life4 ,he is     
inclined to modify his forms in the     
interest of drama and psychology1 to the
 detriment of pure design4 ,at times his
 simplifications and rhythms seem to be 
determined by a literary rather than a  
plastic conception4 ,probably this is   
not the kind of criticism which by now  
,wyndham ,lewis must have learnt to     
disregard4 ,he is more accustomed1 ,i   
suspect1 to hearing his work called     
mechanical and lifeless1 and1 in a      
sense1 it is both4 ,that is the price an
 artist must pay who sets himself to    
achieve the end that ,lewis has in view4
 ,he who is working by formula towards  
the realization of a minutely definite  
intellectual plan must be willing1 on   
occasions1 to sacrifice the really      
valuable qualities of sensibility and   
handwriting as well as the adventitious 

charms that spring from happy flukes4   
,besides1 ,i am not sure that ,lewis has
 been blest with uncommon sensibility4  
,the peculiar merits of ,kermesse will  
become obvious to any one who1 after    
contemplating that picture1 turns sharp 
round and glances at the big canvas by  
,delaunay4 ,delaunay1 according to ,mr4 
,rutter1 is the protagonist of what is  
known in ,paris as ,orfism2 his picture1
 ,the ,cardiff ,football ,team1 is what 
used to be known in ,paris as trs       
artiste4 ,it is well made1 but it is not
 made to wear4 ,it is not what ,czanne  
would have called quelque chose de      
solide et de durable comme l'art des    
muses4 ,it is a brighter1 gayer1 more   
attractive thing than ,kermesse1 but in 
construction it is less subtle and less 
solid3 by comparison1 it looks like a   
poster1 and a poster1 ,i believe1 is    
what it is4  ,it would be tedious to    
write at length about the ,french       
masters1 considering how much has been  
written during the last twelve months in

 praise or blame of finer and more      
characteristic examples of their art4   
,more profitably they may be used as a  
peg on which to hang a short sermon to  
their ,english imitators4 ,amongst these
 ,i do not reckon the painters of the   
,camden ,town group1 of whose work there
 is plenty in this exhibition4 ,walter  
,sickert1 the chief of that school1 was 
in possession of a style and a          
reputation when ,picasso was still      
making figures on a slate4 ,spencer     
,gore has taken from the new movement   
just so much as was suited to his       
temperament1 and1 without submitting his
 personal gift to any formula1 has added
 immensely to the significance and charm
 of his work4 ,the majority1 however1   
remain essentially what they have always
 been--realistic impressionists4 ,they  
have been very conscientiously twisting 
their hurdy-gurdies while ,rome was     
a-burning4  ,but1 as this exhibition    
shows1 there is a school of ,english    
,post-,impressionists4 ,it is not       

completely represented here2 indeed1 the
 gaps are as conspicuous as they are    
unfortunate4 ,here we have only a       
heterogeneous collection of young       
painters1 diverse in talent and temper1 
all of whom have this in common1 that   
they have swallowed1 more or less whole1
 the formulas which ,french masters     
invented and which ,french masters are  
now developing and modifying4           
,confronted by the elaborate surprises  
of these rank-and-file men1 the         
patriotic critic1 supposing such an     
anomaly to exist1 will have to admit    
that ,english painting remains where it 
has generally been--in a by-street4 ,it 
is well to admit this in time2 for ,i   
can almost hear those queer people who  
can appreciate what is vital in every   
age but their own1 squealing            
triumphantly--,we told you so4 ,yes2 it 
is true4 ,english ,post-,impressionism  
is becoming academic3 but               
,post-,impressionism is not2 in ,france 
the movement is as vital as ever4  ,too 

many of the ,english                    
,post-,impressionists are coming to     
regard certain simplifications1         
schematizations1 and tricks of drawing1 
not as means of expression and creation1
 but as ends in themselves1 not as      
instruments1 but as party favours4 ,the 
,french masters are being treated by    
their ,english disciples as ,michael    
,angelo and ,titian were treated by the 
minor men of the seventeenth century4   
,their mannerisms are the               
revolutionary's stock-in-trade4 ,one is 
constantly confronted at the ,dor       
,gallery by a form or a colour that is  
doing no sthetic work at all2 it is too 
busy making a profession of faith2 it is
 shouting1 ,i am advanced--,i am        
advanced4 ,i have no quarrel with       
advanced ideas or revolutionary         
propaganda2 ,i like them very well in   
their place1 which ,i conceive to be a  
tub in the park4 ,but no man can be at  
once a protestant and an artist4 ,the   
painter's job is to create significant  

form1 and not to bother about whether it
 will please people or shock them4      
,ugliness is just as irrelevant as      
prettiness1 and the painter who goes out
 of his way to be ugly is being as      
inartistic and silly as the man who     
makes his angels simper4 ,that is what  
is the matter with ,hamilton's portrait 
in the big room--to take an instance at 
random4 ,hamilton has plenty of talent1 
and this picture is well enough1        
pleasant in colour and tastefully       
planned2 but his talent would be seen to
 greater advantage if it did not strut  
in borrowed and inappropriate plumes4   
,the simplifications and distortion of  
the head perform1 so far as ,i can see1 
no sthetic function whatever2 they are  
not essential to the design1 and are at 
odds with the general rhythm of the     
picture4 ,had the painter scribbled     
across his canvas1 ,to hell with        
everything1 it seems to me he would have
 done what he wanted to do1 and done it 
better4  ,what gives even minor         

,frenchmen an advantage over the        
,english is artistic courage4 ,they will
 be themselves at all costs1 even at the
 risk of pleasing old ladies from the   
country1 or passing unnoticed4 ,asselin 
goes farther than ,nevinson with less   
ability4 ,yet ,nevinson bears the       
,briton's burden more lightly than his  
fellows2 probably because he is cleverer
 than most of them4 ,he is clever enough
 to pick up some one else's style with  
fatal ease2 is he not clever enough to  
diagnose the malady and discover a cure8
 ,if ,i were older1 ,i would advise     
,nevinson and the more intelligent of   
this company to shut themselves up for  
six months1 and paint pictures that no  
one was ever going to see4 ,they might  
catch themselves doing something more   
personal if less astonishing than what  
they are showing at the ,dor ,galleries4
 ,artistic courage1 that is what is     
wanted--courage to create the forms that
 express oneself instead of imitating   
those that express the people for whom  

one would gladly be mistaken4     ,,iii 
,,an ,,expensive ,,masterpiece          
,sidenote3 ,new ,statesman ,july #aiad  
,because we all know stories of         
first-rate works of art having been     
offered at ridiculously low prices to   
,english galleries and museums and      
refused by them on the ground that there
 was no money even for the purchase of  
what was very good and very cheap1 we   
are surprised and even excited when we  
hear that a big price 7some say as much 
as #ejjj7 has been paid for a ,chinese  
pottery figure4 ,and those of us who    
have the fortune to belong to the       
privileged1 and therefore well-behaved1 
sex hurry off to see what ,mr4 ,hobson  
describes in the ,may number of the     
,burlington ,magazine as a new ,chinese 
masterpiece in the ,british ,museum4    
,mr4 ,hobson is a sound archologist2    
consequently it is impossible to read   
his careful and admirably frank article 
without surmising that he himself feels 
some qualms of suspicion about the date1

 if not the beauty1 of his treasure4    
,for us the first question to be asked  
is3 ,is this a fine work of art8 ,for   
,mr4 ,hobson ,i suppose the first care  
was to decide whether or no the thing   
was ,t'ang4 ,his is the sound1 the      
scientific1 the archological method2 and
 ,i feel sure he followed it because it 
is the archological method1 and because1
 had he followed the unscientific1      
sthetic method1 and considered first the
 style and artistic worth of this       
figure1 he would have found that in     
answering our question he had answered  
his own or made the asking of it        
superfluous4 ,had ,mr4 ,hobson been as  
sensitive as he is sound1 we may be sure
 that he would have seen this so-called 
,t'ang ,lohan in ,america or farther    
before ever he advised the ,british     
,museum to bid a shilling for it4  ,the 
new ,chinese masterpiece in the ,british
 ,museum is a common1 pretentious thing1
 and that1 if ,i must play the          
archologist1 is a fair reason for       

suspecting that it is not the product of
 a great age--and ,t'ang art still seems
 great even after we have seen something
 of its greater predecessors1 ,wei1     
,liang1 ,sui4 ,this figure1 though      
larger than life-size1 is nowise        
monumental2 on the contrary1 it is      
patently a bibelot agrandi1 reminding   
one oddly in this respect of ,benvenuto 
,cellini's ,perseus4 ,it is something   
that has been conceived on a small scale
 and carried out on a large4 ,this fact 
alone1 had it been noted1 as it must    
have been by any one who looked at the  
figure sthetically1 would have suggested
 that this was a product1 not of the    
,t'ang dynasty--an age of monumental    
sculpture--but of the ,ming dynasty--the
 great age of choice chinoiseries and   
archaistic experiments4  ,this          
theory--that the figure is              
,ming--technical evidence supports at   
least as strongly as it supports the    
,t'ang attribution4 ,technique apart1   
artistic consideration makes it clear   

that if the work is not ,t'ang it must  
be as late as ,ming4 ,that this should  
be so may at first seem strange to those
 who remember that the ,t'ang dynasty   
flourished between ,a4,d4 #fah and #ijf1
 and the ,ming between #acfh and #afdc4 
,yet1 in fact1 it is far easier to      
confuse ,t'ang with ,ming than to       
confuse a work of the intermediate ,sung
 period 7#ifj-abgi7 with either4 ,the   
mystery is not profound4 ,throughout the
 ,t'ang and ,sung periods ,chinese art  
was thoroughly alive2 both ,t'ang and   
,sung are vital and original styles4    
,t'ang art expresses the inspiration of 
one age1 ,sung of another2 ,sung follows
 and differs from ,t'ang as quattrocento
 follows and differs from ,giottesque3  
they are different and characteristic   
modes of a continuous stream of         
inspiration4 ,but the ,sung dynasty and 
the ,chinese inspiration collapsed      
within a hundred years or less of each  
other1 and for suggestion and direction 
the ,ming artists looked1 not so much   

into their own hearts as to the past1   
and especially to the golden days of    
,t'ang4 ,history is deaf to the doctrine
 of progressive evolution1 and1 if we   
would understand the history of art1 we 
must learn to think in styles rather    
than in years2 also we must become      
accustomed to remote derivations4 ,it is
 possible to confound ,renaissance work 
of the sixteenth century with ,roman of 
the second2 it is impossible to confuse 
either with their neighbours1 ,gothic   
and ,byzantine4 ,similarly1 it would be 
intolerable to mistake ,ming for ,sung1 
but excusable to mistake it for ,t'ang1 
and that1 ,i believe1 is just what ,mr4 
,hobson has done4  ,but1 to be frank1 ,i
 care very little when or where this    
figure was made2 what ,i care about is  
its sthetic insignificance4 ,look at the
 modelling of the hands3 they are as    
insensitive and convictionless as lumps 
of bread4 ,look at the tight1 cheap     
realism of the head2 the accents violent
 without being impressive1 the choice of

 relief common4 ,the chest is the best  
part of the thing1 and that strikes me  
as being traditional rather than felt4  
,the view of the figure in profile is   
less unsatisfactory than the view from  
in front3 but look at those hands6  ,if 
this thing impresses any one1 it must   
impress him by its dramatic and not by  
its plastic qualities2 and that is not  
the way in which a fine ,t'ang figure   
impresses us4 ,here the design is petty 
and the forms1 in themselves1 flaccid   
and poor2 but the tight1 realistic face 
is made to gaze most melodramatically   
into eternity4 ,it is melodrama1 ,i     
fancy1 that has taken the town by storm4
 ,compare this overgrown knick-knack    
with some really fine ,t'ang piece or1  
better still1 with one of those ,wei    
figures which the ,museum had lately the
 chance of acquiring at a very moderate 
price1 and you will feel the difference 
between form that impresses by sheer    
sthetic rightness and form that reminds 
you of the late ,sir ,henry ,irving4    

,with all its elaborate quietness1 this 
deep-contemplative ,lohan is just a     
piece of rhetoric3 put it beside        
something first-rate and you will know  
what to think of it as surely as you    
know what to think of        ,i have    
spread its folds o'er the dying1 adrift 
in a hopeless sea2      ,i have hurled  
it swift on the slaver1 and seen the    
slave set free1   when you put that     
beside        ,he all their ammunition  
,and feats of war defeats      ,with    
plain heroic magnitude of mind4444      
,why is it always in purchases of this  
sort the nation sinks the best part of  
its miserable art fund8 ,well1 in this  
case ,i think it is possible to follow  
the workings of official taste4         
,officials know as well as the rest of  
us that ,t'ang art is well thought of1  
and that without some important example 
of it no ,oriental collection is deemed 
complete4 ,but ,t'ang art1 as a rule1 is
 neither literary nor pretty nor at all 
the sort of thing the collecting class  

cares for4 ,what this class really likes
 is the art of the eighteenth century   
and the art of the high ,renaissance4   
,miraculously comes to light an         
important figure labelled ,t'ang yet    
rich in the dear1 familiar qualities of 
,renaissance sculpture4 ,as usual1 the  
officials have got it both ways4 ,surely
 ,providence had a hand in this1 unless 
it was the dealers4     ,,iv  ,,marchand
   ,sidenote3 ,preface4 ,carfax         
,exhibition1 ,june #aiae  ,of the       
younger ,french artists ,marchand seems 
to me the most interesting4 ,by the     
younger ,i mean those who1 though they  
descend from ,czanne1 have been         
influenced1 directly or indirectly1 by  
,matisse or ,picasso or both4 ,these    
form a just distinguishable group       
sandwiched between the                  
quasi-impressionists--,bonnard1         
,manguin1 ,vuillard--and the ,cubists4  
,to be precise1 it is of a battered     
sandwich that they are the core2 the jam
 oozes through on either side4 ,it      

always does4 ,that is why scholars and  
historians have a hard time of it4  ,i  
dare say ,marchand would deny that he   
had been influenced by any one2 for some
 strange reason artists like to suppose 
that1 unlike all other living things1   
they are unaffected by their            
environment4 ,the matter is of no       
consequence1 but with the best will in  
the world ,i should find it hard to     
believe that the ,femme couche devant un
 paysage 7,no4 #e7 would have been just 
what it is if ,gauguin had never        
existed1 or that the scheme of the      
beautiful ,portrait de femme 7,no4 #d7  
owes nothing to ,picasso4 ,and isn't it 
pretty clear that ,marchand would have  
painted in an altogether different style
 if ,czanne had never existed8          
,believing1 as ,i do1 in the influence  
of one artist on another1 ,i regard this
 exhibition as a piece of rare good     
fortune for ,british art4 ,marchand is  
eminent in just those qualities that we 
most lack4 ,above all things he is a    

painter4 ,i am curious to hear what ,mr4
 ,sickert has got to say about his      
pictures2 and ,i shall be disappointed  
if they do not wring from him what used 
to be the highest encomium on the lips  
of his old friend ,degas--,c'est de la  
peinture6  ,no living painter is more   
purely concerned with the creation of   
form1 with the emotional significance of
 shapes and colours1 than ,marchand4 ,to
 him1 evidently1 the function of a      
painter is to paint2 the discussion of  
such interesting matters as ,love1      
,life1 ,death1 and ,the grand for ever1 
he leaves to the literary gentlemen4 ,he
 has nothing to say about ,man's place  
in the ,universe1 or even in ,camden    
,town2 it is in combinations of lines   
and colours that he deals1 and1 as you  
may see1 he has already produced some of
 extraordinary subtlety and             
significance4 ,before such a picture as 
,no4 #g or ,no4 #ab the most inveterate 
psychologist1 should he happen to       
possess a grain of sensibility1 must be 

dumb2 unless he murmur respectfully the 
name of ,chardin4  ,marchand is neither 
a doctrinaire nor a timid ,conservative4
 ,he is familiar with the work of       
,czanne1 ,matisse1 ,picasso1 and the    
whole ,cubist school2 and if by         
simplification1 distortion1 or what men 
of science would call flat absurdity1 he
 can in any way improve his composition1
 he does not hesitate to simplify1      
distort1 or fly in the face of facts4   
,he wants to create significant form1   
and all means to that end he finds good4
 ,but he is no doctrinaire4 ,he never   
distorts or makes his pictures look     
queer on principle4 ,he cares nothing   
for being in the fashion1 neither does  
he eschew a novel eccentricity lest the 
nicest people should say that he is     
going a little too far4 ,his work is    
uncompromisingly sincere4 ,he neither   
protests against tradition nor respects 
it4 ,he is an artist4  ,i shall not be  
surprised to hear that some critics     
consider ,marchand dry and intellectual4

 ,certainly he is not lyrical or        
charming4 ,no picture by him has the    
ravishing loveliness of a ,renoir or the
 delicious handling of a ,duncan ,grant4
 ,i suspect he paints all his big things
 in the studio4 ,he makes sketches2 and 
,i shall be glad to hear what any one   
competently acquainted with the drawings
 of the old masters has to say about    
,no4 #ci4 ,but when he gets to work on  
his canvas ,i do not suppose he thinks  
of anything beyond the complete         
realization of a definite and perfectly 
elaborated scheme4 ,there are no happy  
accidents or lucky flukes in his        
painting4 ,it is as stark and solid as  
the work of ,ingres or ,mantegna4 ,some 
people call that sort of thing dry and  
intellectual2 others call it masterly4  
,if ,english amateurs take kindly to    
these pictures they will do themselves  
great honour4 ,they will prove that they
 can distinguish between the easy       
juxtaposition of pretty patches of      
colour and the profound and sensitive   

research of a true colourist2 they will 
prove that they can distinguish between 
obvious relations and subtle harmonies2 
they will prove that they can recognize 
that quality which is common to works of
 art of all schools and ages1 and that1 
when they see it1 they like it4 ,and    
those unlucky people who cannot1 even in
 the presence of a work of art1 forget  
for a moment all about politics and     
philanthropy1 may like to remember that 
,marchand1 too1 has been unlucky4 ,after
 great hardships he had just won his way
 to a position of some security when war
 broke out4 ,he has lately been called  
up1 not1 ,i think1 for active1 but for  
some sort of military service4 ,his pay1
 ,i believe1 is one sou a day1 and what 
happens to those who depend on him one  
does not care to imagine4  ,marchand was
 born at ,paris in #ahhc4 ,his work is  
not unknown in ,england4 ,four of his   
pictures were shown at the ,grafton     
,galleries in #aiab2 and not long ago ,i
 saw an exquisite little still life by  

him--,no4 #ab in this ,exhibition1      
unless ,i mistake--at the ,new ,english 
,art ,club4 ,i wonder how it got there4 
,v  ,,the ,,mansard ,,gallery#bj        
,sidenote3 ,nov4 #aiag  ,the collection 
of modern pictures made by ,mr4 ,fry1   
and shown1 first in ,birmingham and then
 at the ,mansard ,gallery1 is the most  
important we have seen in ,london since 
the beginning of the war--since the     
,grosvenor ,house show in the summer of 
#aiad1 to be exact4 ,that the best      
exhibition we have seen for so long     
should be held in the best gallery is a 
bit of good luck which1 in these unlucky
 days1 seems extraordinary2 but what    
seems miraculous almost is that ,messrs4
 ,heal and ,sons seem positively to     
prefer good pictures to bad4 ,i would1  
therefore1 advise any one who thinks my 
advice worth having to keep an eye on   
the ,mansard ,gallery4  ,in this        
exhibition the best of the younger      
,english artists--,i am sorry there is  
nothing by ,stanley ,spenser1 ,wyndham  

,lewis1 ,bomberg or ,roberts--are       
confronted by a handful of their ,french
 contemporaries4 ,they are not          
confronted by the best of them3 ,mr4    
,fry has hung nothing by ,matisse1      
,bonnard or ,picasso1 for instance1     
though1 had he pleased1 he could have   
shown a couple of pictures by the       
last-named1 at any rate4 ,he chose well1
 ,i dare say2 but it is mere justice to 
admit that the only two ,french artists 
fairly represented are ,marchand and de 
,vlaminck4 ,for the rest1 the single    
picture by l',hote is a characteristic  
work of that engaging but not very      
formidable painter2 the two small       
pictures by ,friesz1 good as they are1  
hardly rank among his masterpieces2     
there is in ,london at least one other  
work by ,gris1 and that1 to my thinking1
 a better2 while the ,derain is by no   
means worthy of that eminent artist4  ,i
 wish we could have been shown three or 
four capital works by ,derain1 because  
there is no man in the modern movement  

more readily appreciated by people who  
care for painting1 but boggle at the    
unfamiliar4 ,i remember finding myself  
once in ,kahnweiler's shop on the       
,boulevards with an extremely           
intelligent official from ,south        
,kensington1 and ,i remember his        
admitting with excellent candour that1  
though the ,picassos still puzzled him1 
he was a thorough convert to ,derain4   
,naturally3 how should a man of taste   
and erudition not appreciate the        
exquisite scholarship of an artist who  
can use the masters of painting as a    
very fine man of letters--,charles      
,lamb1 for instance--uses the masters of
 literature8 ,for ,derain is one who has
 gone to the root of the matter and can 
remind you of the ,siennese school or   
have a joke with ,pinturicchio by a     
subtler method than quotation4 ,when    
such a one bases his art on ,czanne and 
the douanier ,rousseau1 treating them   
quite simply as masters1 an intelligent 
spectator is bound to unlock his most   

finished prejudices and take another    
look at them4  ,marchand and de         
,vlaminck dominate one end of the       
gallery4 ,there are three pictures by   
each1 they are admirably hung1 and the  
effect produced by this pool of         
distinguished and beautifully ordered   
colour is marvellous4 ,one is brought to
 a stand by that indescribable sense    
that has come to most of us on entering 
for the first time some well-arranged   
room in an important continental        
gallery--a sense of being in the        
presence of great art4 ,closer          
examination1 without destroying the     
unity of effect1 proves these two men to
 be about as different as two very good 
artists of the same school and country  
can be4 ,on ,marchand ,i said my say two
 years ago when ,i wrote a preface for  
his show at ,carfax3 he is pre-eminently
 solid and architectural1 and obviously 
he is highly sensitive--by which ,i mean
 that his reactions to what he sees are 
intense and peculiar4 ,but these        

reactions1 one fancies1 he likes to take
 home1 meditate1 criticize1 and reduce  
finally to a rigorously definite        
conception4 ,and this conception he has 
the power to translate into a           
beautifully logical and harmonious form4
 ,power he seems never to lack3 it would
 be almost impossible to paint better4  
,i do not know which of ,marchand's     
three pictures is the best2 but         
whichever it be1 it is the best picture 
in the gallery4  ,with de ,vlaminck it  
is from a word to a blow1 from a        
thrilling emotion to a finished picture4
 ,if ,marchand is like a minor          
,milton--the comparison is not one to be
 pressed--de ,vlaminck is like ,keats4  
,he is the most lyrical of the younger  
,frenchmen2 the flash and sparkle of his
 pictures is the wonderfully close      
expression of a tremblingly delighted   
sensibility4 ,yet there is nothing      
sketchy about them4 ,consider his       
landscape 7,no4 #fe71 and you will be   
astonished to find what a solid1        

self-supporting design these delicately 
graded tones and lightly brushed forms  
compose4  ,only one ,englishman holds   
his own with the ,french painters1 and  
he1 of course1 is ,duncan ,grant4 ,the  
challenge to another very interesting   
young ,englishman is1 however1 more     
marked since the de ,vlaminck of which  
,i have just spoken has as its rival on 
the wall1 at right angles to it1 ,the   
,mill 7,no4 #cb71 by ,mark ,gertler4    
,the comparison made1 what first strikes
 one is that the ,gertler1 for all its  
assertion of strength and its emphatic1 
heavy accents1 looks flimsy beside its  
lightly brushed and airy neighbour4 ,but
 ,the ,mill is not the piece by which   
,gertler should be judged2 let us look  
rather at his large and elaborate ,swing
 ,boats4 ,i have seen better ,gertlers  
than this2 the insistent repetition of  
not very interesting forms makes it come
 perilously near what ,mr4 ,fry calls in
 his preface merely ornamental          
pattern-making1 but it is a picture that

 enables one to see pretty clearly the  
strength and weakness of this remarkable
 person4  ,with a greater artistic gift1
 ,mark ,gertler's conviction and        
conscience would suffice to make him a  
painter of the first magnitude4         
,unfortunately1 his artistic gift1 one  
inclines to suppose1 is precisely that  
irreducible minimum without which an    
artist cannot exist4 ,that is his       
weakness4 ,his strength is that he      
exploits that minimum uncompromisingly  
to its utmost possibility4 ,gertler is  
one who will never say an idle word in  
paint1 no matter how charming or        
interesting or amusing it might be4 ,in 
his pictures you will look in vain for a
 single brush-stroke that does not serve
 his single purpose2 he admits no       
adventitious dainties1 there is nothing 
to quote4 ,happy touches are not in his 
way4 ,should he find some part of his   
picture empty he will not fill it with  
nicely balancing daisies1 clouds1 or    
bric--brac2 he will begin it again4 ,to 

him it will seem either that he has     
failed to conceive his work as a whole  
or that he has failed to realize his    
conception4 ,similarly1 you will not    
easily discover a favourite passage2 for
 if he felt that he had succeeded beyond
 expectation in one passage1 that some  
note was sharper and truer than the     
rest1 he would set himself to key the   
rest to that note4 ,in art1 such a      
process means incredible labour and     
agony2 ,gertler sweats blood and shows  
it4 ,he labours terribly1 and his       
pictures are terribly laboured4 ,he is  
not artist enough to paint as a bird    
sings2 he paints as a desperate soldier 
might dig himself in4  ,what he has to  
express is not1 it must be confessed1 of
 the highest quality1 because his       
reactions are limited and rather        
undistinguished4 ,he has only two or    
three notes1 and they are neither rich  
nor rare4 ,for an artist he is          
unimaginative1 and often in their blank 
simplicity his conceptions are all but  

commonplace4 ,in actual expression1 too1
 though a first-rate craftsman who      
paints admirably1 he lacks sensibility4 
,in his handwriting--his lines and      
dashes1 smudges and contours1 that is to
 say--there is neither charm nor        
temperament4 ,his colours do their work1
 saying what they have to say1 but are  
without beauty in themselves or in their
 relations4 ,there is something slightly
 depressing in the unlovely sincerity of
 his execution that reminds me rather of
 ,fra ,bartolomeo1 and his imaginative  
limitations might be compared with those
 of ,lesueur4 ,i am taking a high       
standard1 you perceive4 ,and any one who
 cannot respond to the conviction and   
conscience with which he not only       
excludes whatever is irrelevant or      
fortuitous or false1 but does positively
 realize his conceptions is1 in my      
judgment1 incapable of appreciating     
visual art4  ,no art could be more      
different from the art of ,gertler than 
that of ,duncan ,grant4 ,for him it     

seems impossible to scrabble a line or  
wipe his brush on a bit of paper without
 giving delight4 ,as the saying goes1 he
 is all over an artist4 ,men endowed    
with this prodigious sensibility1       
facility1 and sense of beauty are not   
uncommon in ,england4 ,in my time there 
have been four--,conder1 ,steer1 ,john1 
and ,duncan ,grant4 ,the danger is1 of  
course1 that they will fall into a trick
 of flicking off bits of empty          
prettiness to the huge contentment of a 
public that cannot bear artists to      
develop or be serious4 ,but ,duncan     
,grant shows no bad symptoms3 from his  
early picture ,lemon ,gatherers 7,no4   
#ce7 7justly and almost universally     
admired for its great beauty and        
delightful references to ,piero della   
,francesca7 to the little still life in 
the north corner of the room1 there is a
 vast progression2 and beneath these gay
 and delicious paintings--so delicious  
one could fancy them good to eat--is a  
struggle with the problems of design and

 space-composition as vital as anything 
here to be found1 unless it be in the   
work of ,marchand4 ,i noticed1 by the   
way1 that in ,lemon ,gatherers1 a       
picture on cardboard1 something is going
 wrong with the colours1 and of this ,i 
take rather a serious view as the       
picture belongs to me4 ,duncan ,grant is
 the hope of patriotic amateurs3 blessed
 with adorable gifts and a powerful     
intellect1 he should1 if he has the     
strength to realize his conceptions and 
the courage to disdain popularity1      
become what we have been awaiting so    
long1 an ,english painter in the front  
rank of ,european art4  ,of the         
remaining ,british artists1 the most    
interesting1 to my mind1 is ,vanessa    
,bell4 ,the influence of ,duncan ,grant 
on her work is unmistakable1 and ,i     
hope1 unlike most artists1 who seem to  
suppose that for them the laws of cause 
and effect and the influence of         
environment are inoperative1 she will   
not mind my saying so4 ,why1 in artists 

so original as ,giotto1 ,el ,greco1 and 
,czanne1 at least #ej per cent is       
derivative6 ,vanessa ,bell1 like all    
artists1 and especially women artists1  
is impressionable1 but as the effect on 
her work of familiarity with one or two 
,english painters and the modern ,french
 masters is altogether for the good1 ,i 
see no harm in that4 ,at the same time1 
she has very personal gifts4 ,besides a 
large simplicity of style1 there is     
about her drawing something oddly       
sympathetic1 and what ,i should call1   
for want of a better word1 amusing2     
while a sense of the peculiar           
significance to her of certain forms and
 relations of forms comes through and   
gives to her work an air of intimacy    
that you will get from nothing else in  
this exhibition4 ,any woman who can make
 her work count in the art of her age   
deserves to be criticized very          
seriously4 ,in literature the authoress 
stands firm on her own feet2 only quite 
uneducated people--subaltern-poets and  

young ,latin philosophers--believe that 
women cannot write2 but it is a mere    
truism to say that no woman-painter1    
pace ,madame ,vige-,lebrun1 has yet held
 her own with contemporaries even4      
,to-day there are at least three--,marie
 ,laurencin1 ,goncharova1 and ,vanessa  
,bell--whose claim to take rank amongst 
the best of their generation will have  
to be answered very carefully by those  
who wish to disallow it4 ,behind them   
press half a dozen less formidable but  
still serious candidates1 and ,i wish   
,mr4 ,fry would bring together a small  
collection of their works4 ,it would be 
interesting to see how and how much they
 differ from the men2 and1 unless ,i    
mistake1 it would effectively give the  
lie to those who fancifully conclude    
that because the ,muses were women it is
 for women to inspire rather than       
create4  ,,footnote3  #bj ,this article 
was written for the ,nation1 but owing  
to a series of misfortunes could not be 
published until the exhibition was over4

 ,it then seemed best to reserve it for 
this collection4     ,,contemporary     
,,art ,,in ,,england   ,sidenote3       
,burlington ,magazine ,july #aiag  ,only
 last summer1 after going round the     
,london galleries1 a foreign writer on  
art whose name is as well known in      
,america as on the ,continent1 remarked 
gloomily1 and in private of course1 that
 he quite understood why ,british art   
was almost unknown outside ,great       
,britain4 ,the early work of            
,englishmen1 he admitted1 showed talent 
and charming sensibility often1 but1    
somehow or other1 said he1 their gifts  
fail to mature4 ,they will not become   
artists1 they prefer to remain ,british 
painters4 ,they are hopelessly          
provincial1 he said2 and so they are4   
,of our elder living artists--those1    
that is to say1 who had found themselves
 and developed a style before the       
influence of ,czanne became paramount on
 the ,continent--,mr4 ,sickert is       
probably the only one whom a continental

 amateur would dream of collecting2 and 
he1 be it noted1 escaped early from     
,british provincialism and plunged into 
the main stream of ,european art4 ,on   
the other hand1 the names of ,mr4       
,steer1 ,mr4 ,john1 ,mr4 ,orpen and ,mr4
 ,mc,evoy1 here only less familiar than 
those of ,cabinet ,ministers or ,county 
,cricketers1 abroad are as obscure4 ,mr4
 ,steer1 to be sure1 has his portrait in
 the ,uffizi1 but then1 as likely as    
not1 the ,poet ,laureate has his        
birthday ode in the ,bibliothque        
,nationale4 ,if ,mr4 ,steer and ,sir    
,edward ,poynter are treated civilly    
abroad1 that may be because ,england is 
an important country rather than because
 they are important artists4  ,no wonder
 patriots are vexed to find ,english art
 esteemed on the ,continent and in      
,america below the art of ,germany or   
,scandinavia1 seeing that ,english      
artists seem to possess more native     
sensibility than either ,germans or     
,scandinavians and1 perhaps1 as much as 

,russians4 ,yet it is a fact that their 
work1 by reason of its inveterate       
suburbanity1 so wholly lacks            
significance and seriousness that an    
impartial historian1 who could not      
neglect the mediocre products of ,north 
and ,east ,europe1 would probably       
dismiss ,english painting in a couple of
 paragraphs4 ,for it is not only poor2  
it is provincial3 and provincial art1 as
 the historian well knows1 never really 
counts4  ,it would be pleasant to fancy 
that ,england was working out1 in       
isolation1 an interesting and           
independent art2 but clearly she is     
doing no such thing4 ,there is no live  
tradition1 nothing but fashions as stale
 as last week's newspaper4 ,all that is 
alive is a private schoolboy rivalry1 an
 ambition to be cock of the walk or to  
ape the cock1 to be primus inter pares  
or amico di primus4 ,there is no live   
,english tradition2 and as ,english     
painters refuse obstinately to accept   
the ,european1 and as artists do not    

spring up unaccountably as groundsel and
 dandelions appear to do1 this is a     
rather serious misfortune4 ,art does not
 happen1 it grows--not necessarily in   
the right direction4 ,the fact that the 
development of art traced through       
schools and movements squares pretty    
well with historical fact proves        
conclusively the existence of influences
 in art4 ,no one will deny that         
,botticelli was an original and         
extremely personal artist or that he is 
the obvious successor of ,lippo ,lippi4 
,el ,greco is called by some the most   
lonely figure in the history of art--yet
 it needs no wizard to divine that      
,titian was his master or that he was   
reared in the ,byzantine tradition4     
,artists1 though they hate being told   
so1 are1 in fact1 like other things1    
subject to the law of cause and effect4 
,young artists1 especially1 are         
influenced by their surroundings and by 
the past1 particularly the immediate    
past1 by the men from five to thirty    

years older than themselves4  ,art lives
 on tradition1 of which contemporary    
culture is nothing but the last         
development4 ,but ,english artists1 for 
the most part1 ignore the real          
tradition1 and what passes for          
development here is no more1 as a rule1 
than a belated change of fashion4 ,all  
that is vital in modern art is being    
influenced by the ,french               
masters--,czanne1 ,gauguin1 ,van ,gogh1 
,matisse1 ,rousseau1 ,picasso1 ,bonnard1
 ,maillol1 who1 in their turn1 were     
influenced by the ,impressionists1 and  
who all have been nourished by that     
great ,french tradition which1 of late1 
has been so surprisingly affected by the
 influx of ,oriental art4 ,english      
painting1 however1 has been left high   
and dry2 and our younger men either     
imitate their teachers1 too often       
second-rate drawing masters1 enjoying at
 best a dull acquaintance with the      
,italian fifteenth and ,english         
eighteenth centuries1 or1 in revolt1 set

 up for themselves as independent1      
hedgerow geniuses1 ignorant1            
half-trained1 and swollen by their      
prodigious conceit to such monsters as  
vastly astonish all those who can       
remember them as children4  ,it is worth
 noting1 perhaps1 that when men of      
talent make great men of themselves1    
wrapping up in the cloak of genius and  
fronting the world mysteriously1 and    
when this attitude is tolerated by the  
public1 there is reason to suspect that 
art fares ill4 ,since every extension   
lecturer knows that ,raphael was part of
 a civilization greater than himself it 
seems unnecessary to treat a fashionable
 portrait-painter as though he were as  
inexplicable as an earthquake and as    
remote as the ,matterhorn4 ,one of the  
things to be desired in ,england is more
 respect for art and less reverence for 
artists4  ,english literature has a     
great tradition--the tradition of the   
greatest literature in the world4 ,i say
 that in ignorance1 to be sure1 of      

,chinese1 but not unmindful of          
,athenian4 ,it would be inexact to      
describe that tradition as part of the  
main continental tradition which1 since 
the middle of the seventeenth century1  
has been predominantly ,french1 coloured
 in the eighteenth century by ,english1 
in the early nineteenth by ,german1 and 
in the twentieth by ,russian literature4
 ,yet the ,english tradition1 rich and  
splendid as it is1 has never allowed    
itself for long to lose touch with the  
,european current4 ,the curious have    
only to turn from the works of our young
 writers to those of ,nietzsche1        
,dostoievsky1 ,tchekov1 ,mallarm1       
,rimbaud1 ,laforgue1 and ,claudel to    
appreciate the sensitiveness of ,english
 literature1 which has never fallen into
 that insularity on which our lean      
visual art seems to pride itself4 ,at   
moments--in mid-,victorian days1 for    
instance--,english literature may have  
appeared provincial2 it was never       
suburban4  ,the tendency of ,british    

visual art to sink into a feeble        
barbarism seems to have existed always  
and to have asserted itself whenever we 
lost touch with the centre4 ,the        
earliest ,english art1 early ,saxon     
sculpture1 is good2 it is a respectable 
part of that great ,byzantine tradition 
which from the middle of the eighth to  
the middle of the ninth century appears 
to have been as vital in the north of   
,england and in ,ireland as in any part 
of ,western ,europe4 ,the ,normans kept 
,england close to the centre and left us
 a little superb architecture2 but from 
the beginning of the thirteenth century 
,english visual art--architecture1      
painting1 and sculpture--begins to take 
on that absurd air of being out of it   
which has since become the unfailing    
characteristic of an exhibition of      
home-made arts and crafts4 ,in the      
seventeenth century we again got into   
touch with the movement and the genius  
of ,inigo ,jones and ,wren gave us some 
admirable architecture4 ,in the         

eighteenth we produced two painters of  
note1 ,blake and ,crome1 both of whom   
suffered desperately from their         
deplorable surroundings4 ,what was      
interesting in ,constable and ,turner   
was seized and made use of more quickly 
and far more intelligently by ,french   
than by native artists4 ,here they were 
treated as isolated geniuses2 there they
 were absorbed into the tradition of    
painting4  ,a student of contemporary   
art who found himself in the company of 
painters and amateurs in any great      
central city abroad--,paris1 ,stockholm1
 ,copenhagen1 ,moscow1 ,munich1 ,vienna1
 ,geneva1 ,milan1 or ,barcelona--would  
be able to discuss1 and doubtless would 
discuss1 the contemporary movement4     
,that movement1 as every one outside    
,england seems to know1 radiates from   
,france4 ,he would discuss1 therefore1  
the respective merits of ,matisse1      
,picasso1 ,marquet1 ,marchand1 ,friesz1 
,derain1 ,bonnard1 de ,vlaminck1        
,maillol1 ,laprade1 ,segonzac1          

,delaunay1 etc4 etc42 and not only      
discuss and criticize their works1 but  
the direction in which each was moving1 
the influence of one on another1 and the
 influence of ,czanne1 ,gauguin1 ,van   
,gogh1 or the douanier ,rousseau on all4
 ,such a company would know something   
about the development of the movement in
 other countries2 it would have         
something to say about ,kandinsky and   
the ,munich painters1 about ,goncharova 
and ,larionoff1 about the ,barcelona    
school1 and even about the ,italian     
futurists4 ,in a word1 it would be able 
to talk about contemporary ,european    
painting4 ,only in an ,english studio   
would such conversation be hard to come 
by3 there one might learn that ,mr4     
,smith was a greater genius than ,miss  
,jones1 that ,mrs4 ,robinson would never
 finish her picture in time for the ,new
 ,english ,exhibition1 that ,mr4 ,john  
was the greatest painter in the         
world--though ,mr4 ,innes had once run  
him hard--and that the greatest sculptor

 was some one whose name ,i cannot      
recall4 ,of contemporary ,french        
painting at most a perfunctory word2 yet
 to ignore it is to put oneself beyond  
the pale of contemporary culture4 ,and  
there1 it seems1 is just where we must  
look for ,english art2 in ,european     
civilization it has no place4 ,it is out
 of it2 it is suburban4  ,educated      
people1 enjoying some knowledge of what 
has been happening abroad during the    
last fifty years1 can scarcely conceive 
the ignorance and insularity of         
contemporary ,british painters4 ,it was 
only the other day that one of the best 
of them1 fired by ,mr4 ,roger ,fry's    
article in the ,burlington ,magazine1   
walked into the ,national ,gallery and  
saw for the first time a ,renoir4 ,he   
was duly impressed2 and hurried off1 ,i 
am glad to say1 to buy a book of        
reproductions4 ,another promising       
painter1 who was in ,paris just before  
the war1 not only never saw a ,czanne1 a
 ,gauguin1 a ,matisse or a ,picasso1 but

 was equally neglectful of the          
,impressionist masters1 never taking the
 trouble to visit the ,luxembourg and   
inspect the ,caillebotte bequest4       
,imagine a continental man of science   
who in #ahhj had never taken the trouble
 to read ,the ,origin of ,species or    
investigate the theory of evolution6    
,the state of mind produced in most     
,english painters by this outlandish    
ignorance is calamitous4 ,unconscious of
 what is going on abroad1 dimly1 at     
best1 aware of what has been done in the
 past1 and lacking effective1           
well-informed criticism from writers in 
the newspapers and from their           
fellow-artists1 they work without       
standards1 ideals or artistic           
seriousness1 and soon fall into that    
ghastly complacency in which a man is   
content to satisfy the market with      
endless repetition of some popular      
success4 ,modesty is a virtue hardly    
attainable by the prize student from the
 ,slade or the ,academy who is persuaded

 that in a few years he will be the     
prize painter of the world1 and is1 in a
 few years1 by press and public duly    
confirmed in his delusion4 ,his first   
ambition will be to get a picture       
accepted by the ,royal ,academy or the  
,new ,english ,art ,club1 his next to   
wheedle the quidnuncs--i4e4 the         
newspaper men--into giving him a place  
amongst the local worthies1 his last to 
discover a formula that shall be the    
strong-box of his lucky hit4 ,this      
accomplished1 commissions and paragraphs
 begin to roll in with comfortable      
regularity1 and he rests replete--a     
leading ,british artist4 ,is he ever    
plagued with nightmares1 ,i wonder1 in  
which he dreams that outside ,england no
 competent amateur could possibly take  
him seriously8  ,some ,british artists1 
when they were young--and some of them  
must once have been so--are said to have
 studied in ,paris4 ,does it ever occur 
to them that their proper rivals1 the   
men whose rivalry is stimulating and not

 merely disquieting1 are not to be found
 in ,london8 ,and does it occur to them 
that1 instead of hunting for tips in    
,bond ,street and ,burlington ,house    
they might go for lessons to the        
,national ,gallery and ,south           
,kensington8 ,whatever people may think 
of the art of ,henri ,matisse1 his fame 
is beyond cavil4 ,just before the war   
commissions and entreaties were pouring 
in on him1 not from ,france only1 but   
from ,russia1 ,germany1 ,scandinavia1   
and ,america4 ,he had--he has1 for that 
matter--what no ,english painter1 with  
the possible exception of ,constable1   
ever had--a ,european reputation4 ,yet  
in the spring of #aiad1 looking with a  
friend at a picture by ,chardin1 he is  
said to have remarked that if he could  
believe that one day he would paint as  
good a thing as that he would be        
extremely happy4 ,if one of our famous  
portrait-painters would go for once to  
the ,national ,gallery and stand1 not   
before a great master1 but before a     

,philippe de ,champaigne or a ,vivarini1
 ,i wonder what he would say4  ,it is   
hard to conjecture2 for our             
portrait-painters live in a world which1
 though not insensitive to prettiness1  
and impressed by obvious manifestations 
of ability1 cares nothing for art or    
good painting4 ,in such a world an      
artist--who is1 after all1 little better
 than a human being--can hardly be      
expected to develop his critical        
faculty4 ,if some of our gifted men were
 to take their talents to ,paris1 where 
is a press and public that knows how to 
be serious about art1 they would1 one   
fancies1 begin to feel dissatisfied with
 their facile triumphs and appetizing   
confections4 ,they would feel1 too1 that
 they were surrounded by people who     
could recognize and appreciate          
conviction and science even though these
 were presented in forms too recondite  
for the mob4 ,they would find that in   
,paris a painter can have praise enough 
without stooping for the applause of    

,mayfair4 ,it is significant that1      
whereas ,english painters once they have
 found a style that hits the public     
taste1 are not much inclined to change  
it1 in ,paris such an artist as         
,picasso1 who has taken the fancy of    
amateurs and dealers in at least three  
different manners1 goes on from         
experiment to experiment1 leaving the   
public to follow as best it can4  ,but  
this difference between the atmosphere  
of ,london and of ,paris brings up a    
question that had best be stated at     
once4 ,what are the causes of ,british  
provincialism8 ,though its existence is 
a fact that runs right through the      
history of ,british art1 it would be    
rash to assume that the causes have     
always been the same4 ,for instance1 the
 geographical isolation of ,england may 
at one time have been a cause2 that has 
been removed by railways and steamboats4
 ,it will be sensible to speak in this  
article only of present causes of       
present ills4  ,some people will have it

 that the insignificance of ,english art
 is very simply to be explained by a    
complete absence of native talent2 but  
the mere inspection of ,english         
children's and students' work suffices  
to dispose of this too convenient       
hypothesis4 ,in no country1 perhaps1    
except ,france1 is there more of that   
raw material from which good art is     
made4 ,more plausible is the theory that
 the vast and towering greatness of     
,english literature overhangs and       
starves all other forms of expression4  
,in such a land as this it seems natural
 that any sense of art or power of      
creation should drift towards           
literature1 and almost inevitable that  
the painters themselves should be half  
poets at heart1 hardly convinced of the 
intrinsic value of their own medium1    
tending ever to substitute literary for 
plastic significance4 ,every critic is  
on the watch for a literary symbol and  
the chance of an allegorical            
interpretation1 every cultivated amateur

 is eager to spy out an adroitly placed 
anecdote or shaft of pictorial satire2  
only with great pains is any one induced
 to regard a picture as an independent  
creation of form4 ,in so literary a     
society it seems paradoxical almost to  
believe in pure painting2 and1 in       
despair1 we cry out that no country can 
be expected to excel1 at one time1 in   
two arts4 ,we forget ,athens and        
,tuscany2 we also forget ,france4 ,for  
more than two hundred years ,france has 
led the visual art of ,europe2 and if   
,english painting were ever to become   
one-tenth part as good as ,french       
literature ,i1 for my part1 should be as
 pleased as surprised4 ,of music ,i say 
nothing2 yet in that art too ,france was
 beginning1 just before the war1 to     
challenge1 not very formidably perhaps1 
the pre-eminence of ,germany and to     
stand as the fair rival of ,russia4     
,what hampers ,english artists most is1 
unless ,i mistake1 the atmosphere in    
which they work4 ,in ,france--in        

,germany too1 they say--there is a      
fairly large1 authoritative1 and        
intensely serious public composed of    
artists1 critics1 and competent         
amateurs4 ,this public knows so well    
what it is about that no painter1 be he 
never so grandly independent1 can make  
himself impervious to its judgments4 ,it
 is an unofficial areopagus which       
imposes its decisions1 unintentionally  
but none the less effectively1 on the   
rich floating snobisme of ,paris and of 
continental ,europe4 ,those who go to   
the ,salon for their art or invest in   
,henners and ,bougereaus are reckoned   
hopelessly bourgeois even by the        
cultivated pressmen4 ,it is a fastidious
 public1 intelligent1 learned1 and      
extremely severe3 painting it regards as
 an end in itself1 not as a branch of   
journalism or a superior amenity2 and no
 artist can begin to abuse his talent or
 play tricks with the currency without  
getting from this formidable body the   
sort of frown that makes even a         

successful portrait-painter wince4      
,indeed1 many popular continental       
likeness-catchers1 some of whom enjoy   
the highest honours in this country1    
having come under its ban1 are now ruled
 out of contemporary civilization4#ba   
,in ,england1 on the other hand1 the    
artist's public consists of that fringe 
of the fashionable world which dabbles  
in culture and can afford to pay long   
prices2 from it the press obsequiously  
takes the cue2 and any honest burgher   
who may wish to interest himself in the 
fine arts goes1 ,i presume1 for         
instruction to the place from which     
instruction comes--,i mean the ha'penny 
papers4  ,patronage of the arts in      
,england is an expensive pleasure4 ,in  
,france the prices of the most promising
 young men range from one hundred to one
 thousand francs1 and many an amateur   
with a first-rate collection of modern  
work has never paid more than five      
hundred francs for a picture4 ,the      
,englishman who would possess the works 

of native geniuses must be able to put  
down from #ej to #bjjj4 ,thus it comes  
about that a few of the richer people in
 the more or less cultivated class form 
in ,england the artist's public4 ,to    
them he must look for criticism1        
sympathy1 understanding1 and orders2 and
 most of them1 unluckily1 have no use   
either for art or for good painting4    
,what they want is furniture and a      
background--pretty things for the       
boudoir1 handsome ones for the hall1 and
 something jolly for the smoking-room4  
,they want1 not art1 but amenity2       
whether they get it is another matter4  
,what is certain is that their          
enthusiasms and disappointments1 likes  
and dislikes1 fancies and prejudices1   
have nothing whatever to do with art4   
,behind the patrons and their decorators
 there is1 of course1 that odd little   
world sometimes called ,bohemia1 about  
which very little need be said4 ,every  
master1 be he academician1 ,new         
,englisher1 or comic illustrator1 is    

followed by a tail of lads and lasses   
whose business it is to sing the great  
man's praises and keep up1 in the face  
of disheartening indifference1 the      
pathetic tradition of ,british          
immorality4 ,they give tips to the      
critics sometimes1 but no one else marks
 them4  ,such being the public1 not     
unnaturally the more serious and        
independent painters endeavour to set up
 small coteries of their own as far from
 ,mayfair and the ,chelsea embankment as
 possible4 ,thus arose the ,camden ,town
 group under ,mr4 ,sickert1 thus arose  
the ,friday ,club and the ,london group4
 ,and here we may pause in our miserable
 and comminatory progress to admit      
gladly that in such societies are to be 
found plenty of talent and of what is   
much rarer1 sincerity4 ,here are men who
 take art seriously2 here are men who   
have no prospective sitter1 no rich     
patron1 no terrible drawing-master in   
mind2 here are men to whom painting is  
the most important thing in the world4  

,unfortunately1 in their isolation they 
are apt1 like the rest1 to come on the  
parish4 ,theirs is no vulgar            
provincialism2 but in its lack of       
receptivity1 its too willing aloofness  
from foreign influences1 its tendency to
 concentrate on a mediocre and rather   
middle-class ideal of honesty1 it is1 ,i
 suspect1 typically ,british4 ,there is 
nothing ,tennysonian about these men1   
nothing ,kiplingesque2 their art is     
neither meretricious nor conceited2 but 
it reminds one oddly of perpendicular   
architecture4  ,these are the men that  
might profit by good criticism1 for they
 are intelligent and fair-minded4 ,alas6
 ,english criticism is more woefully out
 of it than painting even4 ,the         
ignorance of our critics is             
appalling4#bb ,seven years ago there was
 brought over to ,london a collection of
 pictures by ,czanne1 ,gauguin1 and ,van
 ,gogh4 ,every man and woman on the     
,continent who claimed acquaintance with
 modern art had already come to some    

conclusion about these painters whose   
works were in the public collections of 
,germany and the ,north and in the      
private collections of directors of     
,french galleries4 ,some thought that   
they took rank amongst the very great   
painters of the world2 others that there
 was a general disposition to overrate  
them2 no one denied that they were      
considerable men or that ,czanne was a  
master4 ,in ,london no one had heard of 
them1 so it was decided out of hand that
 they were immoral aliens fit only to be
 thrown on the nearest bonfire4 ,czanne 
was a butcher1 ,gauguin a farceur1 ,van 
,gogh a particularly disagreeable       
lunatic3 that is what the critics said1 
and the public said ,hee-haw4 ,they     
reminded one of a pack of ,victorian    
curates to whom the theory of natural   
selection had been too suddenly broken4 
,two years later ,roger ,fry and ,i     
collected and arranged at the ,grafton  
,galleries an exhibition of contemporary
 ,french art--,matisse1 ,picasso1       

,maillol1 etc4 ,every one abroad had    
recognized these men as interesting     
artists of varying merit2 no one doubted
 that the movement they represented was 
significant and of promise4 ,only the   
,english critics had learnt nothing4    
,they never do2 they only teach4 ,here  
was something going on under their noses
 that might well turn out to be as      
important as the early fifteenth-century
 movement in ,tuscany1 and they went on 
directing the attention of their pupils 
to the work of ,alfred ,stevens4 ,here  
was the art of the ,east--of ,china1    
,persia1 and ,turkestan--being revealed 
to us by ,european scholars1 and they   
went on messing about with ,english     
choir-stalls and sanctuary-rings4  ,our 
critics and teachers provided1 and      
continue to provide1 an artistic        
education comparable with the historical
 education provided by our              
board-schools4 ,people who have been    
brought up to believe that the history  
of ,england is the history of           

,europe--that it is a tale of unbroken  
victory1 leadership1 and power--feel1   
when they hear of the ascendancy of     
,france or of the ,house of ,austria or 
of the comparative insignificance of    
,england till the dawn of the eighteenth
 century1 angry first and then          
incredulous4 ,so they give themselves   
the least possible chance of hearing    
such unpalatable nonsense by living     
snugly in the slums and suburbs1 where1 
persuaded that they have nothing to     
learn from damned foreigners1 they      
continue to entertain each other with   
scraps of local and personal gossip4    
,that is what our art criticism sounds  
like to cultivated people from abroad4  
,a few months ago an extraordinarily    
fine ,renoir1 a recognized masterpiece  
of modern art1 was hung in the ,national
 ,gallery4 ,any young painter who may   
have seen and profited by it need not   
thank those directors of public taste1  
the critics4 ,it was passed by in       
silence or with a nod by the bulk of our

 paid experts1 who were much more       
pleased by a particularly poor but very 
large ,puvis1 which possibly reminded   
them in some obscure way of a           
pre-,raphaelite picture4#bc ,but when   
there was question of selling a block of
 unimportant water-colours by our       
national ,turner and buying with the    
proceeds two or three great masterpieces
 of ,italian art the hubbub of these    
patriot-geese rose for a moment above   
the noise of battle4 ,such is the       
atmosphere in which young ,british      
artists are expected to mature4  ,one   
wonders what is going to happen to      
them--these young or youngish           
,englishmen of talent4 ,there are at    
least half a dozen on whom a discerning 
critic would keep a hopeful eye--,mr4   
,duncan ,grant1 ,mr4 ,lewis1 ,mr4       
,stanley ,spenser1 ,mr4 ,gertler1 ,mr4  
,roberts1 ,mr4 ,bomberg1 ,mrs4 ,bell1   
and ,mr4 ,epstein--for it would be      
absurd to omit from this list an artist 
possessed of such skill1 scholarship1   

and surprising powers of improvisation  
and development as the last-named4 ,of  
these some already have been touched by 
that breath of life which1 blowing from 
,paris1 has revolutionized painting     
without much discomposing the placid    
shallows of ,british culture4 ,standing 
in the broad light of ,european art1    
these can hardly detect that sacred     
taper which the ,new ,english ,art ,club
 is said to shield from the reactionary 
puffings of the ,royal ,academy4 ,and1  
although it is a dangerous thing in the 
suburbs to ignore nice points of        
precedence and venerable feuds1 such    
magnanimity makes for progress4 ,mr4    
,grant1 ,mr4 ,lewis1 ,mr4 ,epstein1 and 
,mrs4 ,bell1 at any rate1 are all cut by
 ,tooting1 for they have seen the sun   
rise and warmed themselves in its rays2 
it is particularly to be regretted1     
therefore1 that ,mr4 ,lewis should have 
lent his great powers to the canalizing 
7for the old metaphor was the better7 of
 the new spirit in a little backwater   

called ,english vorticism1 which already
 gives signs of becoming as insipid as  
any other puddle of provincialism4 ,can 
no one persuade him to be warned by the 
fate of ,mr4 ,eric ,gill1 who1 some ten 
years ago1 under the influence          
presumably of ,malliol1 gave arresting  
expression to his very genuine feelings1
 until1 ridden by those twin hags       
insularity and wilful ignorance1 he     
drifted along the line of least         
resistance and1 by an earnest study of  
,english ecclesiastical ornament1       
reduced his art to something a little   
lower than ,english alabasters8 ,the    
danger is there always2 and unless our  
able young men make a grand struggle1   
they too will find themselves sucked    
into the backwater1 impotent1           
insignificant1 and prosperous4  ,it is  
not treasonable1 ,i think1 to hope that 
the war will some day be over4 ,and let 
no one imagine that when the war is over
 it will be found that the new movement 
in ,france is dead or dying4 ,in little 

periodicals1 photographs1 brochures1    
letters1 and stray works that from time 
to time cross the ,channel there is     
plenty of evidence that it is as vital  
as ever4 ,even a ,european war cannot   
kill a thing of that sort4 ,the question
 is whether1 after the war1 young       
,english artists will realize that they 
too1 by reason of their vocation1 of the
 truth that is in them1 belong to a     
communion wider and far more significant
 than the conventicle to which they were
 bred4 ,england1 we hear1 is to wake up 
after the war and take her place in a   
league of nations4 ,may we hope that    
young ,english artists will venture to  
take theirs in an international league  
of youth8 ,that league existed before   
the war2 but ,english painters appear to
 have preferred being pigmies amongst   
cranes to being artists amongst artists4
 ,aurons-nous chang tout a8 ,qui vivra  
verra4 ,the league exists2 its permanent
 headquarters are in ,paris2 and from   
,london to ,paris is two hundred and    

fifty miles--a journey of seven and a   
half hours in times of peace4           
,,footnotes3  #ba ,since these words    
were written the ,british ,press1 or the
 ,government maybe1 has had the bright  
idea of interning one of them4 ,to be   
sure he was a very bad painter2 but the 
punishment seems rather severe for an   
offence which usually incurs nothing    
worse than a knighthood4  #bb ,there    
are1 of course1 exceptions4 ,the critics
 of the ,times1 the ,westminster        
,gazette1 and the ,evening ,standard1   
for instance1 are neither ignorant nor  
stupid2 but they are all1 one fancies1  
hampered by nervous and ill-educated    
editors4  #bc ,i have referred already  
to ,mr4 ,roger ,fry's article in the    
,burlington ,magazine1 and would draw   
attention also to his article in the    
,nation4     ,,art ,,and ,,war#bd   ,an 
acquaintance of mine1 a ,french artist1 
who used to live in ,england and paint  
pictures for which ,i care nothing but  
on which the cultured dote1 started     

early in ,august to join his regiment1  
leaving behind him his wife and five    
children4 ,so miserable was the prospect
 before these that a benevolent lady    
wrote to such of her rich friends as    
happened to be amateurs of painting     
praying them to buy a picture or two and
 so help the family of their unfortunate
 favourite4 ,one and all refused1       
severely giving the lady to understand  
that this was no time to think about    
art4 ,of charity they said nothing2 but 
they were generous1 ,i dare say1 in some
 more patriotic and conspicuous fashion4
  ,charity1 however1 is beside my point4
 ,what interests me in this little story
 is the unanimity with which the        
cultivated people agree that this is no 
time for art4 ,it interests me because  
,i have lately been taken to task for   
saying that the cultured regard art as  
no more than an elegant amenity4 ,the   
war has put my opinion to the proof and 
,i am shocked to discover how much ,i   
was in the right4 ,from every quarter   

comes the same cry--,this is no time for
 art6 ,those galleries and exhibitions  
which are not closed are visited chiefly
 by homeless refugees2 if literary taste
 goes beyond the newspapers it is only  
to salute the verse of ,mr4 ,begbie and 
the prose of ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells2 even  
at concerts our ears are exasperated by 
national platitudes and the banalities  
of our ,allies4 ,this is no time for    
art4 ,good taste is unpatriotic2 the man
 who continues to care for painting1    
poetry1 or music is little better than a
 ,hun4  ,that people who in times of    
peace treat art as an amenity should    
feel that this is no time for art is1 ,i
 suppose1 natural4 ,that they should    
expect those who feel that art is the   
most important thing in the world to do 
the same seems to me unreasonable4 ,to  
those who care seriously for art1 to    
those for whom it is a constant source  
of passionate emotion1 the notion that  
this is no time for art seems as        
ludicrous as to a ,christian mystic of  

the ninth century would have seemed the 
notion that that tortured age was no    
time for religious ecstasy4 ,people who 
are capable of ecstasy1 be it religious 
or sthetic1 are apt to distinguish      
between ends and means4 ,they know that 
empires and dominations1 political      
systems and material prosperity and life
 itself are valuable only as means to   
those states of mind which alone are    
good as ends4 ,thus it comes about that 
the things which to the majority are of 
primary importance1 because to the      
majority they seem to be ends1 are to a 
handful of mystics and artists of       
secondary importance because to them    
they are no more than means4 ,they      
cannot forget about art and think       
exclusively about war1 because if they  
forgot about art the world and its ways 
would seem unworthy of thought4 ,public 
activities and operations they feel are 
of consequence only in so far as they   
affect the things that matter--the      
raptures of art and religion1 that is to

 say1 and abstract thought and personal 
relations4  ,it is not reasonable to    
expect us to turn our backs on absolute 
good and consider exclusively what may  
be a means to good4 ,besides1 we could  
not do so if we would4 ,the artist must 
think more about art1 the philosopher   
more about truth1 the mystic more about 
,god1 the sthete more about beauty1 and 
the lover1 they tell me1 more about the 
beloved1 than about anything else4 ,the 
fact is1 we are not practical people2 we
 cannot adjust ourselves to             
circumstances1 so we must be content to 
appear imprudent and unpatriotic4 ,we   
are not masters of our fate2 not only   
have we got hold of what we believe to  
be the greatest thing in the world1 the 
greatest thing in the world has got hold
 of us4  ,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 to4 ,i am making no    

moral judgment2 ,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 choice4 ,i have always   
supposed that it was perfectly well with
 one who had lost himself in an ecstasy 
of creation or contemplation4 ,how can  
he be better off who has already        
attained beatitude8 ,to invite such a   
one to relinquish the best and bestir   
himself about what may be a means to    
good seems to me absurd4 ,that has      
always been my opinion and ,i cannot    
conceive the circumstances that would   
compel me to change it4 ,those who      
reject it1 those who deny that certain  
states of mind1 amongst which is the    
state of sthetic contemplation1 are     
alone good as ends1 will find themselves
 in an intellectual position which      
appears to me untenable3 ,i shall not   
quarrel with them1 however1 so long as  
they leave us alone and refrain from    
cant4 ,according to them there are      

better things than ,beauty or ,truth or 
the contemplation of either4 ,i simply  
disagree3 it is only when ,i catch them 
wringing their hands over the ruins of  
,reims that ,i protest4  ,take not the  
name of art in vain3 at least be ashamed
 to use it for political purposes4 ,any 
stick may be good enough to beat        
,germans with4 ,beat them if you can3 ,i
 shall have no tears for them and their 
strong military government4 ,it is not  
people like me who will weep for        
,prussia4 ,but1 though any stick may be 
good enough1 some are too good4         
,besides1 however much we love ,france  
and the ,french1 let us have the justice
 to remember that if1 as seems possible1
 ,french soldiers were using the        
cathedral as a post of observation1 the 
,germans1 according to what are called  
the rules of war1 were in the right4 ,in
 that case it was the ,french themselves
 who first transgressed that law which1 
they now tell us1 makes neutral and     
inviolate works of art4 ,for my own     

part1 ,i utterly deny that it can ever1 
in any circumstances1 be right to       
destroy or put in jeopardy beautiful    
things4 ,but for any of those           
governments which took a hand in the    
deliberate ruin of the summer palace at 
,pekin to prate of vandalism and pose as
 defenders of art is not only           
disingenuous but silly4 ,the spectacle  
of ,european soldiers and statesmen who1
 to admonish such evil ,chinamen as     
might persist in defending their liberty
 and their religion1 destroyed without  
demur the masterpieces of ,oriental art1
 the spectacle1 ,i say1 of these people 
whimpering over the late ,gothic of     
,louvain or the early ,gothic of ,reims1
 strikes me as being what the ,french1  
if their sense of humour had not        
suffered more than their monuments1     
would call un peu trop fort4  ,reims is1
 or was--,i am not sure whether we are  
more conscious of what existed before   
the bombardment or of what we imagine   
remains--,reims is or was a typical     

thirteenth-century building2 and1 like  
most thirteenth-century buildings1 is or
 was1 to my feeling1 of no great        
artistic significance4 ,that it is a    
venerable focus of sentiment no one     
denies2 so1 ,i suppose1 is the          
monstrosity of ,cologne and the ,albert 
,memorial4 ,i am not concerned with     
sentiment1 but with art4 ,therefore1 ,i 
must note that of such artistic value as
 the cathedral ever possessed the       
greater part was not destroyed by the   
,german bombardment3 it was destroyed   
when1 some years ago1 the upper part of 
the church was made as good as new by   
the ,ministry of ,fine ,arts4 ,only the 
glass1 and the sculpture over the little
 door in the north transept1 and a few  
twelfth-or very early thirteenth-century
 figures which had escaped restoration  
will be a great loss to the world2 and1 
for our comfort1 we may remember that   
the glass was not comparable with the   
glass at ,chartres or ,bourges1 while   
finer sculpture is to be seen in scores 

of ,romanesque churches4 ,i can listen  
with admirable patience to tales of     
damage done to ,reims cathedral2 but    
should the abbey church of ,st4 ,remi   
have been injured it would be less easy 
to pardon the responsible party4 ,st4   
,remi is a masterpiece of the eleventh  
century1 and was still1 when last ,i saw
 it1 a work of splendour and            
significance in spite of having suffered
 at the hands of ,french architects     
worse things than it is likely to have  
suffered from ,german gunners4  ,it is a
 mistake for the ,english upper classes 
to assure the world that they prize a   
work of art above a victory2 the world  
knows better4 ,are not these the people 
who were telling us just now that this  
was no time for art8 ,is it seemly in   
them1 is it prudent even1 to revile     
their own class in ,germany for caring  
as little about art as themselves8 ,when
 the ,germans sacked ,louvain and       
shelled ,reims our politicians and press
 discovered suddenly that art is a      

sacred thing and that people who        
disrespect it are brutes4 ,agreed3 and  
how have the moneyed classes in ,england
 respected art8 ,what sacrifices1       
material1 moral or military1 have they  
made8 ,here1 in the richest country in  
the world1 with what difficulty do we   
raise a few thousand pounds to buy a    
masterpiece4 ,what institution do we    
starve so abjectly as we starve the     
,national ,gallery8 ,has any one met a  
rich man who denied himself a motorcar  
to keep a genius8 ,how dare the people  
who fill our streets and public places  
with monuments that make us the         
laughing-stock of ,europe1 the people   
who cannot spare a few guineas to save a
 picture1 who cheerfully improve away   
respectable architecture1 who allow     
artists to perish and put up the        
,admiralty ,arch--how dare such people  
pose as the champions of culture and    
expose their wounded feelings in the    
penny and halfpenny papers4 ,in times of
 peace they used art as a hobby and a   

means of self-advertisement1 in wartime 
they would brandish it as a stick       
against their foes4 ,the old abuse was  
vulgar1 the new one is worse4  ,we can  
measure the sensibility of these politic
 amateurs when we overhear their chatter
 about patriotic art and catch them1 as 
we caught them lately1 attempting to ban
 ,german music4 ,give us patriotic art1 
they cry4 ,as if art could be patriotic 
or unpatriotic6 ,one might as well cry  
for patriotic mathematics4 ,the essence 
of art is that it provokes a peculiar   
emotion1 called sthetic1 which1 like    
religious emotion or the passion for    
truth1 transcends nationality4 ,art's   
supreme importance lies precisely in    
this3 its glory is to share with truth  
and religion the power of appealing to  
that part of us which is unconditioned  
by time or place or public or personal  
interests4 ,a work of art satisfies us  
sthetically1 just as a true proposition 
satisfies us intellectually1 whether it 
was made in ,germany or elsewhere3 by   

whom it was created1 when it was        
created1 and where it was created are   
matters of no consequence to any one but
 an archologist4  ,there is no such     
thing as patriotic art4 ,the qualities  
in a poem1 a picture1 or a symphony that
 lead people to describe the work as    
patriotic are purely adventitious and   
have nothing to do with its sthetic     
significance4 ,wordsworth's so-called   
patriotic sonnets1 in so far as they are
 works of art--and what superb works of 
art they are6--are as appreciable in    
,berlin as in ,london4 ,they appeal as  
directly to the sthetic sensibility of  
any ,german who can read ,english and   
appreciate poetry as to the sensibility 
of an ,englishman2 and unless a man be  
sthetically sensitive he will never     
really appreciate them no matter where  
he was born4 ,the state of mind which   
art provokes and which comprehends and  
reacts to art is one in which           
nationality has ceased to exist4 ,i am  
not saying that an ardent patriot cannot

 appreciate art2 ,i say that when he    
appreciates it he is carried into a     
world in which patriotism becomes       
meaningless4 ,if he has not been carried
 into that world he has not appreciated 
art4 ,i shall not deny that at the      
present moment an ,englishman may find  
something peculiarly sympathetic in the 
ideas and memories associated with the  
poetry of ,wordsworth4 ,it is           
conceivable that a ,frenchman may find  
unpalatable certain memories and ideas  
associated with the music1 or more      
probably with the name1 of ,bach4 ,but  
these memories and ideas are not a part 
of the music2 they are only the         
contribution of an unsthetic auditor4   
,the man who says that he can no longer 
appreciate the music of ,bach merely    
admits that he has never appreciated the
 music of any one4  ,two things above   
all others give value to a civilization1
 art and thought4 ,it were well that    
those even who cannot appreciate ,beauty
 and ,truth should bear this in mind4   

,instead of blustering about this being 
no time for art they should rejoice that
 there are some who1 rising above       
tumultuous circumstance1 continue to    
create and speculate4 ,so long as a     
sense of art and the disinterested      
passion for truth persist1 the world    
retains some right to respectful        
consideration2 once these disappear its 
fate becomes a matter of indifference4  
,the continued existence of a stupid and
 insensitive world1 incapable of sthetic
 rapture or metaphysical ecstasy1 is not
 particularly desirable4 ,it may be wise
 to wage war for the sake of            
civilization2 that is a question of     
probabilities with which ,i am not at   
present concerned3 but a war that leaves
 the world poorer in art or thought is1 
whatever its political consequences1 a  
victory for barbarism and for humanity a
 disaster4 ,a nation that would defend  
the cause of civilization must remain   
civilized2 and that a nation may emerge 
civilized from fierce and exhausting    

war1 that it may preserve unabated its  
power for good1 it is necessary that    
during its horrid and circumscribing    
labours there should have been men who1 
detached and undismayed1 continued to   
serve interests higher and wider than   
the interests of any ,state or          
confederacy4 ,in times of storm and     
darkness it is the part of artists and  
philosophers to tend the lamp4 ,this    
duty they perform unconsciously by      
simply minding their own business4      
,artists and philosophers and those who 
are apt to handle truth and beauty are1 
in fact1 the vestals of civility4 ,to be
 sure1 they are not appointed or        
elected1 neither are they consecrate nor
 shorn nor always chaste2 nevertheless1 
they tend the lamp4 ,because they alone 
can project their thoughts and feelings 
far beyond the frontiers of ,states and 
,empires1 because their sympathies and  
interests are universal1 because they   
can lose themselves in timeless         
abstractions1 because their kingdom is  

not of this world1 they alone in times  
of division and calamity and            
shortsighted passion can keep the flame 
alive4 ,thus do they unintentionally    
serve the ,state4 ,so far as they are   
concerned their beneficence is quite    
adventitious1 their service             
supererogatory4 ,for they do not live to
 serve humanity1 but to serve their     
masterful and inhuman passion2 by       
serving that faithfully they save the   
world4 ,let them continue to think and  
feel1 watching1 untroubled1 the         
cloudless heavens1 till men1 looking up 
from their beastly labours1 again catch 
sight of the unchanging stars4  ,mens   
equa in arduis3 calm and unconcerned in 
the hurricane3 the mind set steadily on 
indestructible things3 that1 ,i think1  
is how it should be in these days with  
artists and philosophers4 ,when the     
,roman soldiers entered ,syracuse they  
found ,archimedes absorbed in a         
mathematical problem4 ,he never raised  
his head and they killed him where he   

sat4  ,i want to save those nice1       
cultivated people who go about saying   
that this is no time for art from doing 
some harm and making themselves         
ridiculous4 ,to them1 not to the        
artists1 is my mission4 ,they are in    
danger of becoming coarse and absurd and
 of saying things that their enemies    
will never allow them to forget4 ,they  
are not formidable3 besides1 art is     
fearless4 ,for art cannot die2 neither  
can the desire for art4 ,if history     
teaches nothing else worth remembering1 
it teaches that4 ,artists will create   
though they must starve for it1 and art 
we will have though our days be         
numbered4 ,artists and those who care   
for art may be a mere handful in the    
human mass1 but theirs is the passionate
 faith that conquers somehow in spite of
 battles and holds the world in fee4    
,art survives3 the state of this chilly1
 quarrelsome little planet has never    
grown so desperate that artists have    
lost faith4 ,after all1 why should they8

 ,art is not less important because some
 men are bad and most are wretched2 and 
it is no part of an artist's business to
 straighten out the contortions of      
humanity4 ,the loss of hue to           
river-banks1 observed ,ch'ng ,hao1 the  
,sung poet1 is the river-banks' affair4 
,art has seen worse days than these4    
,between #icg and #ajei1 if we may      
believe ,glaber1 there were forty-eight 
years of pestilence and famine4 ,from   
,constantinople to ,exeter the world was
 one miserable sore4 ,cannibalism became
 chronic4 ,in the market-place of       
,tournus human joints were exposed for  
sale4 ,man had sunk to such depths of   
impotence that the wolves came out and  
disputed with him the mastery of        
,europe4 ,war seems to have been the    
only activity for which the leaders of  
the people were not too feeble3 let us  
hope that they kept honour bright and   
preserved nicely the balance of         
,neustria1 ,austria1 and the kingdom of 
,italy4 ,and over all hung1 as well it  

might1 the terror of judgment and the   
end of the world4 ,yet art survived4    
,the years that lie round about the     
millennium are precisely those in which 
artists seem to have been unable almost 
to do wrong4 ,then it was that the      
sthetic sense1 rising calm above        
confusion1 detached and remote from     
human woes1 expressed itself gravely in 
that early ,romanesque architecture and 
sculpture which remains the imperishable
 glory of the ,middle ,age4  ,there have
 been wars as great as this2 there may  
be greater4 ,empires and continents have
 gone down and may again go down into   
misery4 ,art survives4 ,what remains of 
,egypt but her monuments8 ,in ,babylonia
 there were kings and princes before the
 coming of the ,assyrians2 there were   
statesmen1 generals1 and priests3 but   
the glory and story of that land would  
be for us a vague1 bad dream were it not
 that the sculpture of the vanquished   
,sumerians remains splendid and         
unobscure4 ,kublai ,khan1 that conquerer

 of ,china and scourge of all the ,east1
 lives1 if he live at all1 in the verse 
of an ,english poet1 while the art of   
the people he came to destroy is the    
great glory of ,asia and the inspiration
 of half the world4  ,to be or not to be
 thinking about art is not a matter of  
choice4 ,art is imperious4 ,as well tell
 an artist not to breathe as not to     
create4 ,artists will be artists2 and so
 far as ,i can see the spirit has never 
foundered in the wreck of material      
things4 ,if those ancient ministers of  
the devil1 fire and sword1 pestilence   
and famine1 could not force men to stop 
creating and feeling1 ,i do not suppose 
that journalists and politicians and    
inactive colonels and fire-eating       
curates will be more successful4 ,there 
never was a time that was no time for   
art4 ,in the darkness of the darkest    
ages the sthetic sense shines clear4    
,were not the masterpieces of ,attic    
comedy written in a beleagured ,state in
 the throes of a disastrous war8 ,and   

was it not in #affg that ,england       
suffered what has been called her       
greatest humiliation8 ,certainly it was 
in #affg she received her greatest epic4
  ,few1 indeed1 can look steadily at    
their own times4 ,to the ephemera that  
tossed on the waters of the past the    
ripples were mountainous2 to us the past
 is a sad1 grey lake1 scarcely ruffled1 
from which emerge the tall lights of art
 and thought4 ,it must be a defective   
sense of proportion1 ,i think1 that     
makes people who cite ,aristophanes1 but
 never heard of ,conon1 who are deep in 
,paradise ,lost but neither know nor    
care who won the battle of ,lowestoft1  
assert so confidently that this is no   
time for art4 ,let them1 for their own  
sakes1 consider what sort of figure in  
history one would cut who had adjured   
young ,shakespeare--thirty years of age 
and1 if one may draw inferences from    
tradition1 able at least to shoot--to   
give over his precious fooling and join 
the expeditionary force in ,portugal4   

,yet the moment was grave3 we had lost  
,the ,revenge and failed ignominiously  
before ,cadiz2 we still expected        
invasion4 ,shakespeare and the rest of  
them might surely have done something   
for their country4  ,,footnote3  #bd    
,this essay was written for a ,hampstead
 literary society--,i forget the        
name--and read some time in ,october    
#aiad4 ,it was printed the following    
year in the ,international ,journal of  
,ethics4     ,,before ,,the ,,war       
,sidenote3 ,cambridge ,magazine ,may    
#aiag  ,it is to me a strange thing that
 since the beginning of the war         
,utopia-building has gone on more       
merrily than ever4 ,almost every one has
 a scheme for social reconstruction2 and
 of these schemes1 though most are of   
that familiar kind which discovers in   
compulsory strike-arbitration the true  
and only panacea1 some are in themselves
 attractive enough1 being more or less  
intelligent attempts to combine         
,socialist economics with the maximum of

 personal liberty4 ,and yet ,i can take 
no interest in any of them1 though my   
apathy1 ,i know1 vexes my friends who   
complain that in old days1 before the   
war1 no castle-builder was more reckless
 than ,i4  ,very true3 but things have  
changed since then4 ,before the war     
,england was immensely rich2 and the    
upper classes1 before the war1 were     
beginning to find barbarism boring4     
,consequently the lower and             
lower-middle1 as they got money and     
pushed up towards the light1 entered a  
world that could afford to be liberal1  
about which floated1 vaguely enough1    
ideas that in time might have been      
turned to good account4 ,that is where  
the ,edwardian-,georgian age differed   
most hopefully from the ,victorian4 ,in 
,victorian days when a man became rich  
or ceased to be miserably poor he still 
found himself in a society where        
money-making was considered the proper  
end of existence3 intellectually he was 
still in the slums4 ,in the spring of   

#aiad society offered the new-comer     
precisely what the new-comer wanted1 not
 cut-and-dried ideas1 still less a      
perfect civilization1 but an            
intellectual flutter1 faint and feverish
 no doubt1 a certain receptivity to new 
ways of thinking and feeling1 a mind at 
least ajar1 and the luxurious tolerance 
of inherited wealth4 ,not1 ,i suppose1  
since #aghi have days seemed more full  
of promise than those spring days of    
#aiad4 ,they seem fabulous now1 and a   
fairy-tale never comes amiss4  ,the     
generation that takes its first look at 
the world in the years that follow the  
war will hardly be persuaded that in the
 years that just preceded it the        
governing class was drifting out of     
barbarism4 ,yet so it was4 ,the brighter
 and better educated1 at any rate1 were 
beginning to discover that clever people
 are more entertaining than stupid ones1
 and that social experiment is as good  
an extravagance as another4 ,england was
 fantastically rich2 and some of the    

very rich allowed some of the very      
clever to wheedle from them great sums  
of money1 knowing all the time that     
these would be applied to such          
unsettling activities as the education  
of thankless labourers or anti-sweating 
propaganda4 ,even towards ,art rolled a 
few coppers2 indeed1 the best painter in
 ,england tells me that about this time 
he was earning as much as two hundred a 
year4 ,it was thought odd but not       
shameful in ,mr4 ,thomas ,beecham to    
spend some part of his father's fortune 
on producing modern music and the operas
 of ,mozart4 ,in fact1 it was coming to 
be a question whether there was anything
 essentially ridiculous about a         
musician1 a poet1 or a ,socialist4      
,punch was rarely seen in the best      
houses4 ,for a few dizzy years it was   
wildly surmised that to found a         
civilization might be as thrilling as to
 found a family1 and that one could be  
as romantic and snobbish about ,art as  
about bull-dogs or battleships4 ,to be  

open-minded became modish2 people with  
interesting1 subversive things to say   
were encouraged to talk--always provided
 they talked with an air of not taking  
quite seriously what they said4 ,the    
poor were repressed as firmly as ever1  
but the job was left to such paid       
bullies as constables1 magistrates1 and 
judges1 whom the nicer patricians       
employed1 but took leave to despise4    
,in #aiad what in ,england is called    
,society gave promise of becoming what  
it had not been since the ,french       
,revolution--something that a fastidious
 person could tolerate4 ,it was becoming
 open-minded4 ,now open-mindedness is   
the sine qua non of what is called      
brilliant society1 and brilliant society
 is by far the best manure with which to
 fertilize the soil in which revolutions
 are to be cultivated4 ,only when       
,society becomes clever and inquisitive1
 and wants to be amused1 does it open   
its doors to reformers1 and only in such
 society can most reformers--reformers1 

that is to say1 who have not been born  
with an exceptional gift of             
self-criticism--acquire that sense of   
humour and dash of cynicism lacking     
which they perish4  ,society to be good 
must be open-minded2 without that there 
can be neither wit nor gaiety nor       
conversation worth the name4 ,prejudices
 and pruderies1 respect of persons1     
reverence of sentiments1 and            
consideration for the corns of the dull 
are fatal4 ,on such terms even fun and  
high spirits soon degenerate to         
buffoonery and romps4 ,there must be no 
closed subjects at the mention of which 
faces lengthen1 voices become grave1 and
 the air thickens with hearty           
platitudes3 the intellect must be       
suffered to play freely about everything
 and everybody4 ,wit is the very salt   
and essence of society1 and you can no  
more have wit that hurts nothing ,queen 
,victoria respected than you can have   
truth that hurts nothing she believed4  
,now wit is purely an affair of the     

intellect1 and so is society when it is 
at all good2 no one but a fool dreams of
 going there for fine feelings and      
profound emotions4 ,but the intellect to
 be nimble must be free3 'tis a sprite  
will play you the prettiest tricks an   
you give it the run of the house2 close 
but one door though1 and it sits sulking
 in the lobby4 ,delightful are the games
 it can play you3 wit1 irony1 criticism1
 thrilling ideas1 visions of fantastic  
anarchy and breathless                  
generalizations--all these it can give2 
but the earth and all things above and  
below must be its toy-box2 from the     
deferential intellect expect nothing    
better than puns1 anecdotes1 comfortable
 platitudes1 elaborate facetiousness1   
and the ,saturday ,westminster4  ,i do  
not suggest that in the spring of #aiad 
,english society was brilliant or       
anything of that sort3 ,i think it was  
tired of being merely decent4 ,one or   
two fine ladies had made open-mindedness
 and a taste for ideas fashionable3     

snobisme was doing the rest4 ,and we may
 as well recognize1 without more ado1   
that1 ,athens and ,florence being things
 of the past1 a thick-spread            
intellectual and artistic snobisme is   
the only possible basis for a modern    
civilization4 ,thanks chiefly to the    
emergence of a layer of this rich and   
rotten material one had hopes in #aiad  
of some day cultivating a garden in     
which artists and writers would flourish
 and prophets learn not to be silly4    
,society before the war showed signs of 
becoming what ,french society before the
 ,revolution had been--curious1 gay1    
tolerant1 reckless1 and reasonably      
cynical4 ,after the war ,i suppose it   
will be none of these things4 ,like the 
eighteenth century1 having learnt its   
lesson1 it will borrow a sober tone and 
simpler tastes from the bourgeoisie4    
,for the ,edwardian culture did not go  
very deep2 the country gentlefolk and   
elder business men1 the middling        
professionals and half-pay officers1    

never abandoned the ,victorian          
tradition4 ,they could not but deplore  
the imprudence of their too affable     
leaders1 whom1 nevertheless1 it was     
their duty and pleasure to admire4 ,they
 knew that ,mr4 ,balfour was addicted to
 the plays of ,bernard ,shaw1 that      
,anatole ,france had been entertained at
 the ,savoy1 and that ,cunninghame      
,graham--a man who was once sent to     
prison for rioting--sat down to dinner  
at the tables of the nobility4 ,it made 
them uneasy and irritable2 it also made 
them fancy that they1 too1 should keep  
abreast of the times4 ,so they let their
 wives subscribe to some advanced       
fashion-paper with                      
,beardsleyesque-,brunelleschi drawings  
and felt1 quite rightly1 that it was    
rather nasty4 ,the heart of ,england was
 sound4 ,all over the country were homes
 in which ladies were permitted neither 
to smoke cigarettes nor read the plays  
of ,ibsen nor pronounce1 without a      
shudder1 the name of ,mr4 ,lloyd        

,george4 ,by the majority the use of    
cosmetics was still reckoned a sin1     
,wagner a good joke1 and ,kipling a good
 poet4 ,the ,spectator was still read4  
,nevertheless1 the student of           
paulo-pre-war ,england will have to     
recognize that for a few delirious years
 a part of the ruling                   
faction--cosmopolitan plutocrats and    
some of the brisker peeresses--listened 
more willingly to the clever than to the
 good4 ,there was a veneer of culture   
or1 as ,i have hinted1 of intellectual  
snobisme4  ,heaven may delude those whom
 it wills to destroy1 but the very      
infirmities of its favourites it shapes 
to their proper advantage4 ,the         
governing classes of ,europe effectually
 upset the apple-carts of their fanciful
 friends by getting into a war4 ,when   
that happened these dream-pedlars surely
 should have perceived that the game was
 up4 ,they had always known that only by
 devoting its first half to the         
accumulation of wealth and culture could

 the twentieth century hope in its      
second to make good some part of its    
utopic vision4 ,wealth was the first and
 absolute necessity3 ,socialism without 
money is a nightmare4 ,to live well man 
must be able to buy some leisure1       
finery1 and elbow-room4 ,anything is    
better than a poverty-stricken communism
 in which no one can afford to be lazy  
or unpractical4  ,if1 as seems probable1
 the energies of ,europe during the next
 fifty years must be devoted to         
re-amassing the capital that ,europe has
 squandered1 the concentration on       
business will be as fatal to the hopes  
of social reformers as the poverty that 
provokes it4 ,one foresees the hard1    
unimaginative view of life regaining the
 ascendancy1 laborious insensibility    
re-crowned queen of the virtues1        
,self-help by ,smiles again given as a  
prize for good conduct1 and the grand   
biological discovery that the fittest to
 survive do survive adduced again as an 
argument against income-tax4 ,when one  

remembers the long commercial tyranny   
that followed the ,napoleonic wars1 the 
tyranny under which money-making became 
the chief duty of man1 under which ,art 
foundered and middle-class morality     
flourished1 one grows uneasy4 ,and if   
one cannot forget the stragglers from   
the ,age of ,reason1 the old1           
pre-,revolutionary people who1 in the   
reign of ,louis ,,xviii1 cackled        
obsolete liberalism1 blasphemed1 and    
span wrinkled intrigues beneath the     
scandalized brows of neo-,catholic      
grandchildren1 one becomes exceedingly  
sorry for oneself4  ,even before the war
 we were not such fools as to suppose   
that a new world would grow up in a     
night4 ,first had to grow up a          
generation of civilized men and women to
 desire and devise it4 ,that was where  
the intellectual dilettanti came in4    
,those pert and unpopular people who    
floated about propounding unpleasant    
riddles and tweaking up the law wherever
 it had been most solemnly laid down    

were1 in fact1 making possible the ,new 
,age4 ,not only did they set chattering 
the rich and gibbering with rage the    
less presentable revolutionaries1 it was
 they who poured out the ideas that     
filtered through to the trades-union    
class2 and1 if that class was soon to   
create and direct a brand-new ,state1 it
 was high time that it should begin to  
handle the sort of ideas these people   
had to offer4 ,doubtless the            
trade-unionists would have developed a  
civilization sweeter and far more solid 
than that which flitted so airily from  
salon to studio1 from ,bloomsbury to    
,chelsea2 before long1 ,i dare say1 they
 would have dismissed our theories as   
heartless and dry and absurd to boot2 in
 the end1 perhaps1 they would have had  
our heads off--but not1 ,i think1 until 
they had got some ideas into their own4 
,the war has ruined our little patch of 
civility as thoroughly as a revolution  
could have done2 but1 so far as ,i can  
see1 the war offers nothing in exchange4

 ,that is why ,i take no further        
interest in schemes for social          
reconstruction4   ,,the ,,end           
,,index ,,of ,,names   ,abbas1 ,shah1   
#afc  ,abbassi1 ,riza1 #afb  ,abraham1  
,miss ,e41 #ac1 #acb  ,adeney1 #agh     
schylus1 #cb  ,alexander1 #bd  ,alfieri1
 #cc  ,anet1 ,claude1 #aeg1 #aei1 #afj  
,angelo1 ,michael1 #ahe  ,archer1 #bi   
,archibald1 ,raymond ,clare1 #hb1 #hd   
,archimedes1 #bdb  ,ariosto1 #ee        
,aristophanes1 #ii-ajc1 #ajf-aaa1 #bdf  
,aristotle1 #be1 #cd  ,arnold1 ,matthew1
 #hf  ,asselin1 #ahf  ,athenum1 the1 #c1
 #d1 #e  ,auchinleck1 ,laird of1 #hj    
,bach1 #bdj  ,bakst1 #abi1 #aca         
,balfour1 #beb  ,balzac1 #ii  ,beecham1 
,sir ,thomas1 #bdi  ,begbie1 ,harold1   
#bcb  ,bell1 ,vanessa1 #bjf1 #bjg1 #bbh1
 #bbi  ,bennett1 ,arnold1 #a1 #c1 #h1   
#i-aa1 #ac-ae  ,bergson1 #hi  ,berkley1 
#hi  ,behzad1 #aef1 #aei1 #afa-afc      
,binyon1 #ace  ,bjrnsen1 #ad  ,blake1   
#abe1 #bad  ,bloy1 ,lon1 #hi  ,bonnard1 
#aid1 #bjj1 #baa1 #bae  ,boswell1       

,james1 #gd-ha  ,botticelli1 #adj1 #baa 
,bougereau1 #bbb  ,bourget1 ,paul1 #ae  
,brock1 ,clutton1 #adf-adi1 #aea        
,brougham1 ,lord1 #ef  ,browne1 ,sir    
,thomas1 #ef  ,buchanan1 ,robert1 #ea   
,burlington ,magazine1 the1 #g1 #aeg1   
#aei1 #afc1 #ahh1 #baf  ,byron1 ,lord1  
#id1 #aae1 #aag1 #aah1 #abd   ,csar1 #bd
  ,cambridge ,magazine1 the1 #g         
,canning1 #eg  ,carlyle1 ,alexander1 #ig
  ,carlyle1 ,mrs41 #id1 #if1 #ig        
,carlyle1 ,thomas1 #ge1 #hb-ih1 #aeb    
,cato1 #bd1 #be  ,catullus1 #ii         
,czanne1 #aa1 #bh-cj1 #ahc1 #aid1 #aie1 
#aif1 #bja1 #bjf1 #bji1 #baa1 #bae1     
#baf1   #bbe1 #bbf  ,champaigne1        
,philippe de1 #bai  ,chardin1 #aif1 #bah
  ,chteaubriand1 #hf  ,chaucer1 #ajj    
,chesterton1 ,g4 ,k41 #hh1 #ajf         
,chrysostom1 ,st41 #ajj  ,cicero1 #id   
,cimabue1 #aeg  ,clairmont1 ,claire1    
#aag1 #aai-aba  ,clarke1 ,mrs41 #ea     
,claude1 #bac  ,cole1 ,sir ,henry1 #ea  
,coleridge1 #ad  ,coleridge1 ,miss      
,mary1 #da-di  ,conder1 #bje  ,conon1   

#bdf  ,conrad1 ,joseph1 #aa1 #ad        
,constable1 #bad1 #bah  ,creighton1 #hf 
,crome1 #bad   ,dante1 #ii  ,darwin1    
#ih1 #abe  ,davies1 ,randall1 #afe1     
#aff1 #afh1 #agj-agc  ,delaunay1 #ahc1  
#bae  ,derain1 #aha1 #bjj1 #baa1 #bae   
,dixon1 ,canon1 #dh  ,doren1 ,carl ,van1
 #fb-fe  ,dostoievsky1 #ac1 #bac        
,doyle1 ,sir ,arthur ,conan1 #ad        
,drummond1 ,malcolm1 #agh   ,edwards1   
,george1 #acc  ,emerson1 #hf            
,epictetus1 #hf  ,epstein1 #agf1 #bbh1  
#bbi  ,etchells1 #agh   ,faguet1 #hh    
,ferrers1 #hh  ,fildes1 ,sir ,luke1 #aha
  ,finch1 ,madame ,rene1 #agh           
,fitz,gerald1 #id1 #abi  ,flammarion1   
,,mm41 #ag  ,flaubert1 #ajh  ,forman1   
,h4 ,buxton1 #aae  ,france1 ,anatole1   
#aa1 #bb1 #ij1 #beb  ,francis1 ,sir     
,philip1 #gd-gf   ,st41 #hf  ,freeman1  
,a41 #fb1 #fd1 #fe  ,friesz1 #aha1 #bjj1
 #bae  ,frith1 #agj  ,fry1 ,roger1 #agj1
 #baf1 #bbf   ,galsworthy1 ,john1 #aa1  
#ab1 #acb  ,galt1 #aj  ,garnett1        
,richard1 #ea  ,garrod1 #acc  ,gauguin1 

#aha1 #aie1 #baa1 #bae1 #baf1 #bbe1 #bbf
  ,george ,v1 #agg  ,george1 ,lloyd1    
#bec  ,gertler1 ,mark1 #bjc1 #bjd1 #bbh 
,gibbon1 #ii  ,giles1 ,prof41 #ace      
,gill1 ,eric1 #bbi  ,gilman1 #agg       
,ginner1 #agh  ,giotto1 #aeg1 #afa1 #bjf
  ,glaber1 #bdb  ,godwin1 #hf  ,gogh1   
,van1 #aha1 #baa1 #bae1 #bbe1 #bbf      
,goldoni1 #cc1 #ea  ,goncharova1 #bjg1  
#bae  ,gordon1 ,margaret1 #hb1 #hc      
,gore1 ,s4 ,f41 #agg1 #ahd  ,gournay1   
,mlle4 de1 #ah  ,grahame1 ,cunninghame1 
#beb  ,grant1 ,duncan1 #aif1 #bjb1 #bje1
 #bjf1 #bbh1 #bbi  ,gray1 #id  ,greco1  
,el1 #bjf1 #baa  ,gris1 #bjj   ,hals1   
,frans1 #adj  ,hamilton1 #ahf  ,hao1    
,ch'ng1 #bdc  ,hardie1 ,keir1 #aaa      
,hardy1 ,thomas1 #aj1 #aa  ,harvey1     
,martin1 #abh  ,henner1 #bbb  ,herbin1  
#aha  ,herramaneck1 #aei  ,hobson1 #ahh1
 #ahi1 #aia  ,homer1 #ac1 #da  ,horace1 
#ci1 #ia  l',hote1 #aha1 #bjj           
,houghton1 ,lord1 #ea  ,hoyles1 ,lady1  
#hd  ,hume1 ,david1 #gf1 #hj   ,ibsen1  
,henrik1 #bh-dj1 #bec  ,ingres1 #aig    

,international ,journal of ,ethics1 the1
 #g  ,irving1 ,sir ,henry1 #aib         
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 #abg   ,,printed ,,at ,,the ,,complete 
,,press ,,west ,,norwood ,,london       
99       99       99       99       99  
,,by ,,the ,,same ,,author  ,,art       
,fourth ,impression4 ,illustrated ,cr4  
#hvo4 ,cloth1 gilt top4 #es4 net  ,for  
,press ,opinions see over         99    
99       99       99       99  ,,press  
,,opinions ,,on ,,art ,,by ,,clive      
,,bell   ,a book of absorbing interest4 
,no one who reads it will1 ,i am sure1  
find the brief and somewhat             
comprehensive title either arrogant or  
misleading4 ,it contains some of the    
profoundest1 truest and most courageous 

considerations stated with connected and
 well-supported conviction4 ,the book is
 not only racy and readable1 but--rarest
 of all things on this subject--it is   
comprehensible4 ,the value of the book  
as an illuminant to thought on painting 
is henceforth impossible to             
ignore4--,mr4 ,,walter ,,sickert in the 
,new ,age4  ,certainly one of the most  
brilliant1 provocating1 suggestive      
things that have ever been written on   
the subject4 ,what a breath of fresh air
 this iconoclast brings in with him1    
what masses of mouldy snobbism he sweeps
 into the dust-heap1 how salutary even  
for the idols themselves is such a      
thorough turning out6 ,it will be seen  
that this is a book that all who care   
for art must read2 the surprising good  
fortune that has befallen them is that  
it is so eminently readable4--,mr4      
,,roger ,,fry in the ,nation4  ,by      
reason of its originality of thought and
 virility of expression ,mr4 ,clive     
,bell's ,art is entitled to rank as a   

remarkable contribution to the          
literature of art4 ,the contemporary    
movement has found no abler defender and
 exponent4--,glasgow ,herald4  ,lovers  
of art owe ,mr4 ,clive ,bell thanks for 
the most stimulating1 not to say the    
most provoking1 book on art that has    
recently appeared4--,athenum4  ,mr4     
,bell says many wise and witty things4  
,few people will agree with them all1   
many will get angry with the            
remorselessness of his logic1 but nobody
 can read the book through carefully    
without clearing up their own minds on  
the subject and incidentally acquiring a
 sounder understanding of what art is   
and means4--,sunday ,times4  ,he utters 
paradoxes as if they were the tritest   
things in the world2 all epigram and    
impudence he trails his coat            
assiduously1 and1 while his brilliance  
is vastly entertaining1 his method of   
bouncing us into liking what he likes1  
and hating what he hates1 is likely to  
infuriate quite as many readers as it   

takes by storm4--,manchester ,guardian4 
,the rather sterile literature of art   
criticism has been seriously enriched by
 a brilliant if wilful manifesto4 ,the  
refreshing absence of obscurity common  
to art criticism will be particularly   
welcome4 ,for genuine students the book 
possesses significant form1 and will be 
indispensable4--,westminster ,gazette4  
,this is the best and most entertaining 
book about art that we have ever        
read4--,standard4  ,this book is of     
first-rate importance4 ,but nobody need 
be frightened of it on that account4    
,unlike most important works on the     
theory of art1 it is thoroughly         
entertaining from beginning to end4 ,its
 main thesis is a generalization which1 
if true1 is applicable to all schools   
and all epochs4 ,the book is stimulating
 and suggestive4--,cambridge ,review4   
,mr4 ,bell's book has been generally    
recognized as the most interesting and  
stimulating appreciation that has yet   
appeared in this country of the movement

 which we call post-impressionism4 ,the 
book is1 however1 much wider in its     
scope4 ,a book upon sthetics at once    
serious 7on the whole71 sane1 and       
extremely entertaining4--,welsh         
,outlook4   ,,published ,,by ,,chatto   
,,and ,,windus3 ,,london #ig1 #ii1 ,,st4
 ,,martin',s ,,lane1 ,w4,c4#b