284 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



enjoy the beauty of works of art in the same simple 

 unquestioning way, for behind the work of art is the 

 artist, a man like ourselves, however superior, who 

 expresses all his character in his work, his infirmities 

 as well as his virtues; and we like or dislike his work 

 as we like or dislike his character. It bears the mark 

 of his age and race and a hundred other marks of 

 circumstance, all of which have some kind of signifi- 

 cance and association for us, pleasant or disagreeable. 

 And thus we are never quite just to works of art, and 

 never can see their beauty with disinterested eyes. 

 There is always something involved in it which affects 

 other faculties besides our sense of beauty. Now- 

 adays, for instance, the beauty of Italian Primitive 

 pictures is heightened for us, because we think of 

 them as produced in the springtime of the modern 

 world. Their promise, like the promise of Crocuses 

 and Daffodils, is more delightful to us than the mid- 

 summer pomps of the high Renaissance. In the same 

 way, the beauty of the Bologna eclectics is hidden 

 from us because it has the sickly taint of a declining 

 age. Our historical sense interferes with our sense 

 of beauty. We have learnt to believe that no Italian 

 of the seventeenth century had a real faith or real 

 emotions, and we scent unreality and pretence in all 

 their works. Luckily, we have no historical sense 

 about flowers. It may be that we love the flowers 

 of spring better than those of autumn; but, unless 

 we are morbid, we are reconciled to the succession of 

 the seasons and can take a delight in it. It is in the 



