From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. Books are well written, or badly written. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The artist is the creator of beautiful things. Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young On the Sale By Auction of Keats’ Love LettersĮssays, Selected Journalism, Lectures and LettersĪ Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated La Sainte Courtisane, or the Woman Covered with JewelsĪ Fragment From the Agamemnon of Aeschylos
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