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168 COUNTERCHECK QUARRELSOME
pardize the drawing-room
furniture. Not far
from the house in which Mr. Davies lives
stands a building so large and so silly that it
can scarcely have escaped his admiration.
It is the Victoria and Albert Museum ; and
any one who cares to step
inside can see a fair
collection of Oriental carpets hanging picturewise
against the wall hanging
in frames too.
I shall be very much surprised if the more
sensitive of those who trouble to pay them a
visit do not feel that these carpets are as
aesthetically satisfactory on the wall as they
would be on the floor, and I shall be amazed
if they do not feel also that they are as
definitely works of art as the objects that
adorn the walls of the Tate Gallery.
My purpose is to discover the quality common
and peculiar to works of art. I have
suggested that this is
quality what I call
Significant Form i.e. combinations of lines
and colours that are in themselves moving.
A good many people besides Mr. Davies have
blamed me for giving the name Significant
Form to just that form which seems to signify
nothing. I adopted the term with hesitation,
and I shall sacrifice it without if pain some-
thing better can be found to take its place.
All the same, I did try to explain what I
meant it. by I speak of Significant Form
in contradistinction to Insignificant Beauty