The multitude
are teachable--teachable as a child; but, like a child, they are
self-willed and obstinate, and will learn in their own way, or not at
all. And, if the artist wishes to raise them unto a fit audience, he
must consult their very waywardness, or his work will be a Penelope's
web of done and undone: he must be to them not only cords of support
staying their every weakness against sin and temptation, but also,
tendrils of delight winding around them. But I cannot understand why
regeneration can flow to them through sacred art alone. All pure art
is sacred art. And the artist having soul as well as nature--the
lodestar as well as the lodestone--to steer his path by--and seeing
that he must circle earth--it matters little from what quarter he
first points his course; all that is necessary is that he go as
direct as possible, his knowledge keeping him from quicksands and
sunken rocks.
_Christian._ Yes, Kalon;--and, to compare things humble--though
conceived in the same spirit of love--with things mighty, the artist,
if he desires to inform the people thoroughly, must imitate Christ,
and, like him, stoop down to earth and become flesh of their flesh;
and his work should be wrought out with all his soul and strength in
the same world-broad charity, and truth, and virtue, and be, for
himself as well as for them, a justification for his teaching.
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