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THE FLIGHT OF THE DRAGON 137
nings ; whether they are Buddhist or Byzantine,
Greek or Egyptian, Assyrian or Mexican,
their
primitives have two qualities
in common,
profundity and directness. And in their
histories, so far as we may judge from the
scanty records of ancient civilizations, all
have a general resemblance. Always, as the
sense of
reality decays, the artist labours to
conceal under technical proficiency the poverty
of his emotional experience. For the inspired
artist technique was nothing but a means ;
for his hungry successors it becomes an end.
For the man who has little to say the manner
of saying it gains consequence, and in a
manner which has been elaborated into an
intricate craft the greatest emotions cannot
be expressed. The circle is vicious. With
the exaltation and elaboration of craftsman-
and then
ship expression first falls into neglect
becomes impossible. Those who are not
content to marvel at cleverness, but still ask
emotion of art, must be satisfied with such as
craftsmen can supply. If pictures no longer
express feeling they may at least provoke it.
If painting is to be a mere question of pattern-
making, at least let the patterns be pretty.
Sensuous beauty and cunning delineation
become rivals for the throne whence expression
has been ousted. So, with occasional irregularities,
the path winds down the hill. Skill