148 LITEEAEY VALUES 



wrong, that is a vice ; it is contrary to the self-efiface- 

 ment which art demands. To obtrude your indiffer- 

 ence is of the same order of faults as to obtrude your 

 preferences. The innate necessities of the situation 

 may alone speak. 



To suppress or to ignore the world of vice and 

 sin is not to be moral ; to portray it is not to be im- 

 moral. But to gloat over it, to dwell fondly upon it, 

 to return to it, to exaggerate it, to roll it under the 

 tongue as a sweet morsel, — that is to be immoral ; 

 and to treat it as time and nature do or as the great 

 artists do, as affording contrasts and difficulties, and 

 disturbing but not destroying the balance of life, is 

 within the scope of the moral. Art must make us 

 free of the whole ; every work must in a measure 

 reflect the whole of life ; if it dwell too much on 

 that part called sin and evil, it is false to its ideal ; 

 it must keep the balance ; it must be true to the 

 integrity of nature. All things are permissible in 

 their time and place. That a thing is real and 

 true is no reason why it should go into the ar- 

 tist's picture ; but that it belongs there, that it is 

 organic there, a part of a vital whole, and that that 

 whole is a fair representation of human life — in 

 this is the justification. Not every scene in nature 

 composes well into a picture, and not every phase 

 of human life is equally significant in a creative 

 work. That nature does this or that is no reason 

 why the artist should do it, unless he can show an 

 equal insouciance and an equal prodigality and power. 

 He must take what he can make his own and imbue 



