SPIRIT OF THE CHASE 5 



the poet. I think I can divine what he would have 

 said. The mind of the artist is something more 

 than a sensitised plate. It is a plate that has been 

 used before. It compares one set of impressions with 

 another set or other sets. The contrast is necessary. 

 There could be no reasoning, no art, without it. 

 That explains and justifies certain undertakings 

 often flouted by superior persons as ridiculous. It 

 accounts for each and all of the many " best hundred 

 books " ; for the fact that our most equitable men 

 cannot propose Science as a subject at the Universi- 

 ties without speaking despitefully of Greek ; and for 

 the inevitability with which the School of Humanities 

 uphold the Classics by denouncing Science in terms 

 that cannot be printed on a page so polite as this. 

 Contrast is essential in all critical or artistic actions 

 of the mind. Has some one, for example, stalked 

 the red-deer and written a narrative of the chase ? 

 It may be that there seemed to be no conscious 

 contrast with anything else in his enjoyment of the 

 actual sport ; but his narrative, if it be artistic, will 

 be found to derive piquancy from a skilfully conveyed 

 sense that the sport was a delightful interlude in 

 humdrum occupations. Probably he will go so far 

 as to treat his particular recreation as the best of 

 sports. Why not ? If he does, he falls in with a 

 usage of the mind which, though it may be the 

 source of antipathetic fallacies, has a result to be 

 warmly welcomed. He becomes enthusiastic, as a 

 poet is when at his best, and says what he has to 

 say in words which, being the most cunningly 



