to do is to help him
all I can in the hard task he has set himself, or, if I can't help, at
least to bear witness to the goodness of the seed he has set himself to
sow among thorns. For, indeed, the principles on which he is working are
altogether true and sound; and the definitions and defense of them, in
this pamphlet, are among the most important pieces of Art teaching which
I have ever met with in recent English literature; in past
Art-literature there cannot of course be anything parallel to them,
since the difficulties to be met and mischiefs to be dealt with are
wholly of to-day. And in all the practical suggestions and
recommendations given in the following pages I not only concur, but am
myself much aided as I read them in the giving form to my own plans for
the museum at Sheffield; nor do I doubt that they will at once commend
themselves to every intelligent and candid reader. But, to my own mind,
the statements of principle on which these recommendations are based are
far the more valuable part of the writings, for these are true and
serviceable for all time, and in all places; while in simplicity and
lucidity they are far beyond any usually to be found in essays on Art,
and the political significance of the laws thus defined is really, I
believe, here for the first time rightly grasped and illustrated.

267. Of these, however, the one whose root is deepest and range widest
will be denied by many readers, and doubted by others, so that it may be
well to say a word or two farther in its interpretation and defense--the
saying, namely, that "faith cannot dwell in hideous towns," and that
"familiarity with beauty is a most powerful aid to belief." This is a
curious saying, in front of the fact that the primary force of
infidelity in the Renaissance times was its pursuit of carnal beauty,
and that nowadays (at least, so far as my own experience reaches) more
faith may be found in the back streets of most cities than in the fine
ones. Nevertheless the saying is wholly true, first, because carnal
beauty is not true beauty; secondly, because, rightly judged, the fine
streets of most modern towns are more hideous than the back ones;
lastly--and this is the point on which I must enlarge--because
universally the first condition to the believing there is Order in
Heaven is the Sight of Order upon Earth; Order, that is to say, not the
result of physical law, but of some spiritual power prevailing over it,
as, to take ins