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 



