REALISM AND IDEALISM 109 



shine, violet-scent, and dewdrops. Realism, a brawny bit of 

 carnal actuality, presented with sensual gusto as the truest 

 truth of life and art. 



Is there any solid foundation, I asked myself, for this 

 current conception of the antithesis between the Ideal and 

 Real ? Is there at bottom any antagonism between the two 

 terms ? Are they not rather correlated and inextricably inter- 

 woven both in nature and in art ? Suppose we concede for 

 the sake of argument that they may be regarded as exclusive, 

 each of the other, are we therefore to assume that Idealism is 

 moonshiny and insipid, Realism meretricious and revolting ? 

 There must surely be some deep misconception of the problem 

 on both sides. Why have the Idealists exposed their prin- 

 ciples to such caricature as this by pretending to dispense 

 with nature? Why do the Realists so confidently assert 

 that nothing has truth in it but what is libidinous or ugly, 

 commonplace or vicious ? 



In the reality of human nature it is certain that beauty 

 and modesty, the chastity of saints and the severe strength 

 of athletes, the manhood of Regulus and the temperance of 

 Hippolytus, are quite as much in their own place as ugliness 

 and impudicity, the licentiousness of harlots and the flaccid 

 feebleness of debauchees, the effeminacy of Heliogabalus 

 and the untempered lusts of Roderigo Borgia. What we 

 call the intellectual and moral attributes of men are no less 

 real than their appetites and physical needs. The harmony 

 of a sane mind in a sane body is as matter-of-fact as the 

 deformity derived from cramping and distorting limitations. 

 All those things, therefore, to which our nature aspires, and 

 which we name ideal, must be the legitimate sphere of a 

 logical and sober Realism. Nay more, it is just these things 

 which are the most real in life, and which realistic art is 

 consequently bound to represent ; for they are the source 

 of strength, and permanence, and progress to the species. 

 Science teaches us convincingly that the superiority of each 

 race in the struggle for existence consists precisely in its 

 aptitude for the development of virtues. Badness, in one 

 word, is less real than goodness. 



