160 CAKICATURE, 



Greeks and Orientals ; but I contend that Teutons have the 

 merit of applying humour to caricature and the fantastic, 

 so as to educe from both in combination what we call 

 grotesqueness. 



For obvious reasons I must omit all mention of what 

 strikes us as grotesque in the art-work of races with whom 

 we are imperfectly in sympathy. Hindoo idols, Chinese and 

 Japanese bronzes, Aztec bas-reliefs, and such things, seem 

 to us grotesque. But it is almost impossible to decide how 

 far this apparent grotesqueness is due to inadequate com- 

 prehension on our part, or to religious symbolism. We cannot 

 eliminate the element of genuine intentional grotesqueness 

 which things so far remote from us contain. 



IV 



Closely allied to caricature and the grotesque we find 

 obscenity. This indeed has generally entered into both. 

 The reason is not far to seek. Nothing exposes human 

 beings to more contemptuous derision than the accentuation 

 in their persons of that which self-respect induces them to 

 hide. Indecency is therefore a powerful resource for satirical 

 caricaturists. Nothing, again, in the horse-play of the fancy 

 comes readier to hand than the burlesque exhibition of things 

 usually concealed. It appeals to the gross natural man, upon 

 whose sense of humour the creator of grotesque imagery 

 wishes to work, and with whom he is in cordial sympathy. 



Indecency has always been extruded from the temple of 

 art, and relegated to slums and dubious places in its precincts. 

 Why is this ? Perhaps it would suffice to answer that art is a 

 mirror of human life, and that those things which we exclude 

 from social intercourse are consequently excluded from the 

 aesthetic domain. This is an adequate account of the matter. 

 But something will be gained for the understanding of art in 

 general if we examine the problem with more attention. 



Shelley lays it down as an axiom that all obscenity implies 

 a crime against the spiritual nature of man. This dictum 

 takes for granted an advanced state of society, when merely 



