gnorant and
superstitious trust in the wrong priest. For as religion is merely
mischievous unless it is tested in matters of conduct, so taste is mere
pedantry or frivolity unless it is tested on things of use. These have
their sense or nonsense, their righteousness or unrighteousness, which
anyone can learn to see for himself, and, until he has learned, he will
be at the mercy of charlatans.

I have written all these essays as a member of the public, as one who
has to find a right attitude towards art so that the arts may flourish
again. The critic is sure to be a charlatan or a prig, unless he is to
himself not a pseudo-artist expounding the mysteries of art and telling
artists how to practise them, but simply one of the public with a
natural and human interest in art. But one of these essays is a defence
of criticism, and I will not repeat it here.

A. CLUTTON-BROCK
_July_ 30, 1919
FARNCOMBE, SURREY

CONTENTS

"THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI" 1

LEONARDO DA VINCI 13

THE POMPADOUR IN ART 27

AN UNPOPULAR MASTER 37

A DEFENCE OF CRITICISM 48

THE ARTIST AND HIS AUDIENCE 58

WILFULNESS AND WISDOM 74

"THE MAGIC FLUTE" 86

PROCESS OR PERSON? 97

THE ARTIST AND THE TRADESMAN 110

PROFESSIONALISM IN ART 120

WASTE OR CREATION? 132

ESSAYS ON ART

"The Adoration of the Magi"

There is one beauty of nature and another of art, and many attempts have
been made to explain the difference between them. Signor Croce's theory,
now much in favour, is that nature provides only the raw material for
art. The beginning of the artistic process is the perception of beauty
in nature; but an artist does not see beauty as he sees a cow. It is his
own mind that imposes on the chaos of nature an order, a relation, which
is beauty. All men have the faculty, in some degree, of imposing this
order; the artist only does it more completely than other men, and he
owes his power of execution to t