268 DEMOCRATIC ART 



superficial affectation, expressed the poetry of simple life 

 with a wonderful sense of music ; of Frederick Walker, whose 

 young working-men and vagrant women assumed the grandeur 

 of Pheidias without loss of reality ; of Hamo Thornycroft, 

 whose statue of the 'Mower' deserves to be placed in the 

 same rank with Walker's picture, ' At the Gate.' 



These instances are not meant to be exhaustive ; nor are 

 all the works mentioned of equal merit. I fear that, with the 

 exception of Millet's pictures and the Russian novels, they 

 would find but little favour in the eyes of our aspiring and 

 exacting critic Whitman. Such as they are, however, they 

 illustrate to some extent the ideality which must in course of 

 time be extracted from the people, if art is to regain vitality 

 under the conditions of a Democratic age. 



The duty of art in the immediate future is to manifest the 

 immanence of the divine in nature and man. While doing so 

 pursuing her own chase of beauty, not moralising and not 

 preaching, but seeing and unmasking the God hidden in the 

 husk of things art will once more serve the permanent 

 spiritual needs of humanity. This is Democratic Art. The 

 kingdom of the Father has passed ; the kingdom of the Son 

 is passing ; the kingdom of the Spirit begins. 



