To preserve him from this corruption of his
art, let him erect for his guidance a standard awfully high above
himself. Let him think of Christ; and what he would not show to as
pure a nature as His, let him never be seduced to work on, or expose
to the world.
_Kosmon._ Oh, Kalon, whither do we go! Greek art is condemned, and
Satire hath got its death-stroke. The beautiful is not the beautiful
unless it is fettered to the moral; and Virtue rejects the physical
perfections, lest she should fall in love with herself, and sin and
cause sin.
_Christian._ Nay, Kosmon. Nothing pure,--nothing that is innocent,
chaste, unsensual,--whether Greek or satirical, is condemned: but
everything--every picture, poem, statue, or piece of music--which
elicits the sensual, viceful, and unholy desires of our nature--is,
and that utterly. The beautiful was created the true, morally as well
as physically; vice is a deformment of virtue,--not of form, to which
it is a parasitical addition--an accretion which can and must be
excised before the beautiful can show itself as it was originally
made, morally as well as formally perfect. How we all wish the
sensual, indecent, and brutal, away from Hogarth, so that we might
show him to the purest virgin without fear or blushing.
_Sophon._ And as well from Shakspere.
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