APPENDIX 413 



This common perception is not the sense of the majority at any 

 moment. Contemporaries are notoriously inadequate to judge with 

 accuracy. It was only a small minority who appreciated Shelley 

 and Keats in their lifetime. 



It is not even the sense of the whole world at any given epoch. 

 For instance, we are now sure that Gothic architecture possesses 

 eminent qualities ; and in the fourteenth century no other style was 

 considered beautiful. But Palladio and Wren, with the consent of all 

 cultivated persons in Europe, judged it barbarous. What is there 

 in common between L. B. Alberti and Pugin on the subject of 

 pointed architecture ? 



Each individual has but a limited perceptive faculty, and this is 

 still further limited by the prevalent state of the age in which he 

 lives. 



It follows that a final verdict regarding works of art can only 

 be arrived at very slowly, and after considerable variations of 

 opinion among those even who are the best qualified to judge. 

 The consensus regarding Homer, Pheidias, Virgil, Dante, Shake- 

 speare, now amounts to certainty. The agreement about a poet like 

 D. G. Eossetti has not reached that point. A man who utters 

 authoritative opinions for or against Eossetti carries the weight 

 only of his own perception, backed up in either case by the per- 

 ceptions of a limited number of men who feel like him. In the 

 long-run, Eossetti will be definitely placed by the accumulation of 

 such perceptions. 



The greatest art communicates the greatest amount of satisfac- 

 tion to the greatest number of normal human beings through the 

 greatest length of time. Inferior art, the art of a Merino in poetry 

 or of a Bernini in sculpture, may enjoy temporary applause. But 

 even during the furore it creates, men of pure and trained percep- 

 tion will recognise its inferiority to the art of Ariosto and Michel 

 Angelo. Art of first-rate quality may never win more than limited 

 applause, because it appeals to highly specialised perceptions ; but 

 it is sure, in the lapse of ages, to win ' fit audience, though few.' 

 Popularity implies the adaptation of the work to aggregate per- 

 ceptions. Eeally corrupt art is only adapted to corrupt perceptions, 

 and in a corrupt age it may be popular. It cannot maintain this 

 popularity, for the final court of appeal is the Areopagus of 

 sound and normal human beings. These will unanimously reject 

 Merino and accept Shakespeare. They may differ about Eossetti ; 

 yet it is much to have obtained a minority of votes from the 

 Areopagus. 



