S2 EMILE BOUTROUX 



that, in order to take their proper place in 

 hfe, letters and art must become entirely con- 

 scious of their essential nature, and that this 

 principle peculiar to them, is seen to be, when 

 looked at in its purity, feeling entirely separa- 

 ted from intelligence. This doctrine is what 

 we may call Aestheticism. It affirms the in- 

 dependence and the sovereignty of art, the 

 supremacy of life and intuition, the superna- 

 tural and almost divine nature of genius as an 

 infinite and arbitrary power of creation. 



Such a doctrine is very opportune and has 

 a useful place in epochs when humanity is 

 tempted to believe that the creative power of 

 the mind is an illusion, when learned men try 

 to persuade us that what we call new, original, 

 a work of genius, appears to be such only 

 because we do not know all its antecedents. 

 By exalting beyond measure the aesthetic fac- 

 ulty, this doctrine may awaken and excite it. 

 In order to develop the forces we possess it is 

 sometimes useful to think we have forces we 

 do not possess. 



It is, however, worth noticing that the idea 

 of an art which rests on intuition alone, on 



