r an incalculable whimsical and often cruel force. The idol is a step
towards, not a step from, the ideal. Ritual makes these idols, and it is
the business of science to shatter them and set the spirit free for
contemplation. Ritual must wane that art may wax.

But we must never forget that ritual is the bridge by which man passes,
the ladder by which he climbs from earth to heaven. The bridge must not
be broken till the transit is made. And the time is not yet. We must not
pull down the ladder till we are sure the last angel has climbed. Only
then, at last, we dare not leave it standing. Earth pulls hard, and it
may be that the angels who ascended might _de_scend and be for ever
fallen.

* * * * *

It may be well at the close of our enquiry to test the conclusions at
which we have arrived by comparing them with certain _endoxa_, as
Aristotle would call them, that is, opinions and theories actually
current at the present moment. We take these contemporary controversies,
not implying that they are necessarily of high moment in the history of
art, or that they are in any fundamental sense new discoveries; but
because they are at this moment current and vital, and consequently form
a good test for the adequacy of our doctrines. It will be satisfactory
if we find our view includes these current opinions, even if it to some
extent modifies them and, it may be hoped, sets them in a new light.

We have already considered the theory that holds art to be the creation
or pursuit or enjoyment of beauty. The other view falls readily into two
groups:

(1) The "imitation" theory, with its modification, the idealization
theory, which holds that art either copies Nature, or, out of natural
materials, improves on her.

(2) The "expression" theory, which holds that the aim of art is to
express the emotions and thoughts of the artist.

The "Imitation" theory is out of fashion now-a-days. Plato and Aristotle
held it; though Aristotle, as we have seen, did not mean by "imitating
Nature" quite what we mean to-day. The Imitation theory began to die
down with the rise of Romanticism, which stressed the personal,
individual emotion of the artist. Whistler dealt it a rude,
ill-considered blow by his effective, but really foolish and irrelevant,
remark that to attempt to create Art by imitating Nature was "like
trying to make music by sitting on the piano." But, as already noted,
the Imitation theory of art