[177] "Forward go the banners of the King," or more commonly, "The
royal banners forward go." One of the seven great hymns of the Church.
See the Episcopal Hymnal, 94.
[178] Dante, _Inferno_, 3. 60. "Who made through cowardice the great
refusal." Longfellow's tr.
[179] _Lyridas_, 109.
[180] Nelson's famous signal at Trafalgar.
[181] Milton's _Il Penseroso_, 170 ff.
[182] _Psalms_ i, 3.
THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS
And now I pass to the arts with which I have special concern, in
which, though the facts are exactly the same, I shall have more
difficulty in proving my assertion, because very few of us are as
cognizant of the merit of painting as we are of that of language; and
I can only show you whence that merit springs, after having thoroughly
shown you in what it consists. But, in the meantime, I have simply to
tell you, that the manual arts are as accurate exponents of ethical
state, as other modes of expression; first, with absolute precision,
of that of the workman; and then with precision, disguised by many
distorting influences, of that of the nation to which it belongs.
And, first, they are a perfect exponent of the mind of the workman:
but, being so, remember, if the mind be great or complex, the art is
not an easy book to read; for we must ourselves possess all the mental
characters of which we are to read the signs.
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