bstitute for life. If for one reason or another the
opportunity to realize art in terms of life is not accorded us, it is
better to accept the situation quite frankly and happily, and not try to
cheat ourselves with the semblance. But if it is indeed the reality,
then we maybe content with the minutes of experience, though we
are denied the hours or the years. "The messages of great poems,"
says Whitman, "to each man and woman are, Come to us on equal
terms; only then can you understand us." The power of response
must be in us, and that power is the fruit of experience. The only
mystery of art is the mystery of all life itself. In nature the artist
finds the manifestation of a larger self toward which he aspires, and
this is what his work expresses. Alone with his spirit, he cries to us
for that intimate mystic companionship which is appreciation, and
our response gives back the echo of his cry. He reaches out across
the distance to touch other and kindred spirits and draw them to
himself. Says the poet,--

"Thou reader throbbest life and pride and love the same as I,
Therefore for thee the following chants."

We appreciate the artist's work as in it we live again and doubly.

Thus art links itself with life. The message of art to the individual
defines itself according to his individual needs. Life rises with each
man, to him a new opportunity and a new destiny. We create our
own world; and life means to us what we are in ourselves. In art we
are seeking to find ourselves expressed more fully. The works that
we care for, if we consider it a moment, are the works we
understand; and we understand them because they phrase for us our
own experience. Life and the truth of life are relative. Truth is not in
the object but in our relation to it. What is true for me may or may
not be true for another. This much is true for me, namely, whatever
tallies with my experience and reveals to me more of the underlying
purpose of the universe. We are all, each in his own way, seeking
the meaning of life; and that meaning is special and personal to the
individual, each man deciding for himself. By selection here, by
rejection there, we are trying to work toward harmony. The details
of life become increasingly complex with the years, but living grows
simpler because we gradually fix a selecting and unifying principle.
When we have truly found ourselves, we come to feel that the
external incidents do not signify; which chance