THE MEANING OF THE ESTHETIC IMPULSE. 



227 



into relation with others and is based on the Reality which is 

 Love ; and that it must therefore be beautiful. Does not 

 this give us the clue to the place of Beauty in Life ? Does it 

 not furnish us with a guide to the practical applications of 

 ^Esthetic ? Should not the creations of men of every kind be 

 consciously, as they are already unconsciously, designed for 

 the purpose of entering into relation with others, while at the 

 same time the final, Godward meaning of that relation is kept 

 deep in the heart's understanding ? 



Somewhere in this region, I venture to say, lies the true ^Esthetic. 

 The Beauty we create expresses our intuition of Reality for 

 ourselves, that we may enter into relation with God, and for 

 others it acts externally to make them see our vision, and to 

 draw them too into that same relation. I would exclude no 

 technical mode of external expression from the scope and the 

 demands of this conception, be it religious picture or ballet, 

 concerto or model dwelling. Each gives our intuition to other 

 men, and makes them see what we saw. If we saw low things, 

 through our eyes they will see them too. Sometimes to see 

 low things is desirable, for without understanding them we 

 might understand little. So long as we do not pretend that 

 they are high things it will be all right. But if we lose touch 

 with truth, making low things high, and high things low, we 

 shall produce something ugly, and do a good deal of harm to 

 taste, and therefore to its practical application in morals, and 

 moreover by lying about beauty we shall blind both ourselves 

 and others to beauty and to truth and to goodness. For these 

 three are very closely linked, and you cannot define any of 

 them but in terms of one of the others. Anyway, it is safer 

 as a rule to see and express the higher things in so far as we 

 can. But the first need of all is artistic honesty that has clear 

 intuitions and gives its whole heart and soul to their expression. 



I do not mean in any way to suggest that Art should be 

 trammelled by moral considerations. The attempt to impose 

 such a censorship is bound to bring both Art and Morals into 

 disrepute, if for no other reason, because the practical application 

 of moral imperatives in any given time and place is so much 

 at the mercy of social conventions masquerading as the real 

 thing. But there is a more fundamental reason than that. 

 Art, Reason, and Morals each attempt to get into touch with 

 Reality, but each has its proper method of approach. Each is 

 based on the expression of an intuition, and so far depends upon 



