And
world-perfections come into existence too slowly for men to reject
all the teaching and experience of their predecessors: the labour of
learning is trifling compared to the labour of finding out; the first
implies only days, the last, hundreds of years. The discovery of the
new world without the compass would have been sheer chance; but with
it, it became an absolute certainty. So, and in such manner, the
modern artist seeks to use early mediaeval art, as a fulcrum to raise
through, but only as a fulcrum; for he himself holds the lever,
whereby he shall both guide and fix the stones of his art temple; as
experience, which shall be to him a rudder directing the motion of
his ship, but in subordination to his control; and as a compass,
which shall regulate his journey, but which, so far from taking away
his liberty, shall even add to it, because through it his course is
set so fast in the ways of truth as to allow him, undividedly, to
give up his whole soul to the purpose of his voyage, and to steer a
wider and freer path over the trackless, but to him, with his rudder
and compass, no longer the trackless or waste ocean; for, God and his
endeavours prospering him, that shall yield up unto his hands
discoveries as man-worthy as any hitherto beheld by men, or conceived
by poets.
Pages:
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313