328 A WAY TO SOMETHING BETTER 
Doubtless there are exceptions, and I find one in 
a distinguished composer of vocal music, who says 
that speech is infinitely more beautiful than song. 
It is a truth known to many who are not musical 
artists, but it was astonishing to have it from a 
professor in the art. The one dyer whose hands had 
not been subdued to the material they worked in. 
To return. A means and a way, then, to something 
better than art, or at all events more satisfying, not 
only to the artistic-minded person and to those who 
specialise in some form of art, but to people generally 
to everyone. Something, it may be added, which 
will inevitably come in due time if the world and its 
human inhabitants continue to exist for a sufficiently 
long period without the usual periodic set-backs. 
But such a change could never take the world by 
violence. And here I recall Sir Arthur Keith's 
recent speculations about future developments in 
the human mind, and I would qualify his statement 
that it is impossible to foresee any coming change, 
any new factor in the evolution of the brain, which 
may be imminent, yet will take us by surprise. 
Thus, as to art, one would imagine that any changes 
which may come (and may possibly even now be 
coming) to our minds as to its meaning, its value 
and true place in our lives, would come slowly and 
not to mankind generally. It would be in the West, 
in races that have developed the restless, inquisitive, 
progressive mind, while the East would remain un- 
affected. There have been some new developments 
during the last few centuries which have not come 
