The Essence Of Beauty Is

And Here We Come To The Vital Distinction Between The Advocacy Of Temperance And The Advocacy Of Prohibition. Temperance And Self-control Are Convertible Terms. Prohibition, Or That Which It Implies, Is The Direct Negation Of The Term Self-control. In Order To Save The Small Percentage Of Men Who Are Too Weak To Resist Their Animal Desires, It Aims To Put Chains On Every Man, The Weak And The Strong Alike. And If This Is Proper In One Respect, Why Not In All Respects? Yet, What Would One Think Of A Proposition To Keep All Men Locked Up Because A Certain Number Have A Propensity To Steal?

Such A Divine Profession Is Art! When Everything Else Looks So Stale And Disgustingly Vacuous, So Enthralls Even The Littlest Real Effort Of Art Our Innermost And Carries Us From Town, From Country, From Earth, As That It Must Be Truely A Blessing Of The Gods.

This Is What I Think Art Is And What I Demand Of It: That It Pull Everyone In, That It Show One Person Another's Most Intimate Thoughts And Feelings, That It Throw Open The Window Of The Soul.

Though Everything Else May Appear Shallow And Repulsive, Even The Smallest Task In Music Is So Absorbing, And Carries Us So Far Away From Town, Country, Earth, And All Worldly Things, That It Is Truly A Blessed Gift Of God.

These, Too, Seem To Me So Ambiguous, So Vague, So Easily Misunderstood In Comparison To Genuine Music, Which Fills The Soul With A Thousand Things Better Than Words.