sterpieces in the Louvre _still_
give out impulses--beautiful impulses--to many of us, thank heaven!

SILVIA

But that's just it! The impulses you mean aren't those of art at all.
They--

JOE

Those pictures don't give out impulses to the _artist_. The impulses they
do give out are only the emotions that satisfy the student who has learned
some rules and then sees the rules worked out. The artist produced the
rules as a side issue, but you are trying to make the rules produce the
artist. That's the difficulty when people as a whole lose the creative
sense. They are satisfied with things at second-hand. Second-hand
expressions of life, and second-hand philosophies to justify the
expressions. It's a kind of conspiracy in which everybody works against
everybody else. Only the few real artists in any generation break through
it into the light.

SILVIA

The light of the sun!

MR. WENTWORTH

I fear we are hopelessly at odds in this question. Well, as the Romans
said, there's no disputing about tastes. Every one to his own taste.

JOE

No!

MR. WENTWORTH

What do you mean?

JOE

I mean that it's a disgrace that Americans only study and only buy old
masters. It's a burning shame that all they know about art is what they
have been taught in books. They let their own artists starve--they make
them come over here--while they bid up a Raphael like a block of shares.
What good does it do Raphael? He had his day. And look how it holds back
our own possible Raphaels!

MR. WENTWORTH

Raphael? Ah, you are still very young. You don't understand the attitude
of the majority, Mr. Carson. Raphael is one of our great inspirers of
beauty.

JOE

You mean culture!

SILVIA

Oh, it's getting quite dark. Joe, light the light.

MR. WENTWORTH

Dear me, so it is! What time is it? It must be getting late--Good
gracious! I have an engagement.

SILVIA

You can't stay for a little dinner with us in the Quarter, Mr. Wentworth?
Afterward we could go to one of the cafes.

MR. WENTWORTH

I'm afraid I can't, Silvia. It's been a great pleasure to meet you both, I
assure you. These little differences of opinion....

SILVIA

Oh, that's all right. We argue art and religion every day, don't we, Joe?
Of course, though, we _do_ feel strongly about the young artists--the
young American artists. They come over here, and then they have to burn
their bridges ... and we see how wonderful America could be if they were
given thi