who should be heard. I will give a few extracts:

"I count," he said, "on the novelty, the absolute novelty, of the
things which I shall teach you: Art is the subject of this conversation.

"Art is divine in its principle, divine in its essence, divine in its
action, divine in its aim.

"Ah! gentlemen, there are no pleasures at once more lasting, more noble
and more sacred than those of Art.

"Let us glance around us: not a pleasure which is not followed by
disappointment or satiety; not a joy which does not entail some trouble;
not an affection which does not conceal some bitterness, some grief, and
often some remorse!

"Everything is disappointing to man. Everything about him changes and
passes away. Everything betrays him; even his senses, so closely allied
to his being and to which he sacrifices everything, like faithless
servants, betray him in their turn; and, to use an expression now but
too familiar, they go on a strike, and from that strike, gentlemen, they
never return.

* * * * *

"The constituent elements of the body sooner or later break into open
rebellion, and tend to fly from each other as if filled with mutual
horror.

"But under the ashes a youthful soul still lives, and one whose
perpetual youth is torture; for that soul loves, in spite of the
disappointments of its hard experience; it loves because it is young; it
loves just because it is a soul and it is its natural condition to love.

"Such is the soul, gentlemen. Well! for this poor, solitary and
desolate soul, there are still unutterable joys; joys not to be measured
by all which this world can offer. These joys are the gift of Art. No
one grows old in the realms of Art."

After a pungent criticism of the official teaching of art as hitherto
practiced, Delsarte explained the chief elements of aesthetics. He said:

"AEsthetics, henceforth freed from all conjecture, will be truly
established under the strict forms of a _positive science_."

But, as in the course of his lecture he had more than once touched the
giddy regions of supernaturalism, this formula seemed a contradiction to
certain minds, yet enthusiastic applause greeted the orator from all
parts of the hall.

One paper, _L'Union_, said in this connection:

"M. Delsarte is a spontaneous soul, his mind is at once Christian
and free, his only passion is the proselytism of the Beautiful, and
this is the charm of his speech....I d