THOU SHALT NOT PEEACH 143 



punishing, not mutilating, transferring them to us 

 intact and separate, and leaving "us the right of 

 judging if we desire it," — if this is his attitude, 

 says the Reverend Washington Gladden in his late 

 brochure on " Art and Morality," he is guilty of in- 

 differentism. " His work hegins to be the work of 

 a malefactor, and he himself is preparing to be fit 

 company for fiends." Mr. Gladden misapprehends 

 Taine, whom he quotes, and he misapprehends the 

 spirit and method of art. If the artist does really 

 convey to us the impression that he is personally 

 indifferent as to which triumphs in life, good or evil, 

 and that he is as well pleased with the one as with 

 the other, then he is culpable and merits this harsh 

 language. 



What art demands is that the artist's personal 

 convictions and notions, his likes and dislikes, do 

 not obtrude themselves at all ; that good and evil 

 stand judged in his work by the logic of events, as 

 they do in nature, and not by any special pleading 

 on his part. He does not hold a brief for either 

 side ; he exemplifies the working of the creative en- 

 ergy. He is neither a judge nor an advocate ; he is 

 a witness on the stand ; he tells how the thing fell 

 out, and the more impartial he is as a witness, the 

 better. We, the jury, shall watch carefully for any 

 bias or leaning on his part. We shall try his testi- 

 mony by the rules of evidence ; in this case, by our 

 acquaintance with other imaginative works and by 

 liiiu^Tpprience of life. The great artist works in 

 censure it m and from moral ideas ; his works are 



