divers ways, differing according to the special processes of
consciousness which they call into play. And while it may be crude or
cultivated, it is safe to say that in all of its modes it is present to
some degree in every individual human life. The simple-minded person
who hisses the villain of the melodrama, and he who takes pleasure in
the inevitableness of the Greek tragedy, are exhibiting the same
interest in the emotions evoked by the spectacle of life. There is
only a difference of training and sophistication between the man who
enjoys a cheap chromo for the color or the "likeness," and one who
appreciates Velasquez's treatment of light or the characterization of
Franz Hals.

In the enjoyment of the highest forms of art these various modes of
apprehension will be united, each so contributing to the enhancement of
the {190} rest that it is impossible sharply to divide them. Nor do I
venture any opinion as to which of these modes, if any, is fundamental
in the different arts or in fine art as a whole. It is sufficient for
our purposes to know that art does exercise and develop human nature in
all of these ways.

We are now in a position to define a programme of criticism. Art
thrives because it fulfils a complex and multiform interest. It is
supported by an interest which it supplies with its proper objects.
Hence it falls within the circle of life where questions of prudence,
justice, and good-will are paramount. But, because moral
considerations must thus in the nature of the case take precedence over
purely aesthetic considerations, this proves nothing whatsoever
concerning the way in which this precedence should be established. It
was Plato's belief that society should employ a rigorous censorship,
and banish the offending poet:

We will fall down and worship him as a sweet and holy and wonderful
being; but we must also inform him that there is no place for such as
he is in our State--the law will not allow them. And so when we have
anointed him with myrrh, and set a garland of wool upon his head, we
shall send him away to another city.[8]

But there is another way of protecting society from whatever may be the
evil effects of art, and that is to educate the individual and the
{191} community in their use of art. This would mean, in place of a
regulation of the supply, a regulation of the demand. It would mean
that the aesthetic interest itself, like every other interest within
the moral