The future of genius lies with science and the State, because the State has effected a corner in power and romance. For art and letters there is little hope in a growingly mechanical civilisation, because the modern powerful depend upon the mob and not upon each other; therefore, as Napoleon said, they must be a little like the mob—be the super-mob. In their view, as in the view of those who follow them, art cannot rival money and domination. The mob hates the arts whenever they rise high, for the arts can be felt, but not understood; at other times it scorns them. Therefore, the arts must suffer from the atmosphere of indifference they must breathe. They will not vanish, for mankind needs always to express itself, its aspiration, its content, its discontent; those three can be expressed only in the arts. But this does not mean that the arts can aspire to thrones or be worthy of them; as science and the State dwarf them, they must become little stimulants, sing little songs that will less and less be heard amid the roar of the spinning world.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Published in the U.S.A. and Canada under the title, 'Until the Day Break'
[2] Published in the U.S.A. and Canada under the title, 'The Little Beloved'
[3] See Special Chapter.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Following on the second part of King Henry IV., Dr Johnson's edition, 1765.
[6] Account of the Life and Writings of Shakespeare.
[7] December, 1785.
[8] See Mr Thomas Seccombe's brilliant introduction to the Lawrence and Bullen edition, 1895.
[9] Hence, if the colour relations are maintained, it is correct to represent a blue-eyed rubicund man by red eyes and a violet face.
GLASGOW: W. COLLINS SONS AND CO. LTD.