IMAGE OF A CLOUDY SKY 325 



not given me the full self-expression I sought for. 

 Nor could they, seeing that the feeling I desired to 

 express was fundamentally one and comprehensive, 

 and earth and aU life on earth evoked it; whereas 

 in art it is as if this feeling was many distinct feelings, 

 each occupying a separate compartment in the mind, 

 to be tended like rare and delicate plants in glass 

 frames. Now, after having nursed and brought to 

 flower many of these plants, I think there must be 

 some other and better way — a means of self-expres- 

 sion which I have not found, and to which man has 

 not yet attained." 



Or we may change this illustration for another; 

 instead of plants, an evening cloud, a uniform grey 

 low down in the west which at sunset appears to 

 break up into many clouds and cloudlets, floating 

 against larger clouds, showing many different brilliant 

 colours; why should that emotion it is desired to 

 express be concentrated on one particular cloud or 

 cloudlet, its form and colour, when presently, even 

 while we gaze, the brilliant colour will fade and the 

 clouds will reunite in one, and all again a uniform 

 grey? In other words, why should the artist, shut 

 in his studio, concentrate on a block of marble and 

 toil for months with chisel and hammer to bring it 

 into a semblance of a human form and expression, 

 incidentally suppressing or starving all other emotions 

 just in order to overfeed this one? The imaginary 

 discontented artist would say: "O yes, it will serve 

 its purpose and make mankind gasp with astonished 

 admiration for a long time to come; but rather than 



