The newspaper
lies as it would lie across the space between the tables. The colour,
almost a monochrome, is very beautiful, a deep, rich harmony. More
marvellous work the world never saw, and will never see again: a maze
of assimilated influences, strangely assimilated, and eluding
definition--remembrances of Watteau and the Dutch painters, a good
deal of Ingres' spirit, and, in the vigour of the arabesque, we may
perhaps trace the influence of Poussin. But these influences float
evanescent on the canvas, and the reading is difficult and
contradictory."
I have written many a negligent phrase, many a stupid phrase, but the
italicised phrase is the first hypocritical phrase I ever wrote. I
plead guilty to the grave offence of having suggested that a work of
art is more than a work of art. The picture is only a work of art, and
therefore void of all ethical signification. In writing the abominable
phrase "_but it is a lesson_" I admitted as a truth the ridiculous
contention that a work of art may influence a man's moral conduct; I
admitted as a truth the grotesque contention that to read _Mdlle. de
Maupin_ may cause a man to desert his wife, whereas to read _Paradise
Lost_ may induce him to return to her. In the abominable phrase which
I plead guilty to having written, I admitted the monstrous contention
that our virtues and our vices originate not in our inherited natures,
but are found in the books we read and the pictures we look upon.
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