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172 COUNTERCHECK QUARRELSOME
have realized that, far from making a claim
to
infallibility
in aesthetic judgments, I in-
sisted on the fact that we might all disagree
about particular works of art and yet agree
about aesthetics. But if Mr. Davies had been
able to catch the general drift of my book, he
would have understood that whether Paddington
Station moves me or whether it leaves me
cold is a matter of secondary importance.
The point of first is importance whether a
person who is moved in the same sort of way
by Paddington Station and a Sung bowl and
Sta. Sophia and a Persian carpet can find any
quality common and peculiar to all save that
which I have called Significant Form.
That is the problem. It is not quite so
simple as I have had to make it appear. Some
day I hope to answer the pertinent questions
raised by Mr. Roger Fry and other critics.
In my book I have examined my own experience
in the hope of inducing my readers
to examine theirs. What do ? they say Are
they really talking nonsense when they speak
of " works of art," including under that head
pictures, pots, buildings, textiles, etc. ? If
they are not, what characteristic distinguishes
the species ? Do they not feel as much
emotion for a picture of a round of beef as
for a picture of the Crucifixion, and do they
feel less for a Sassanian textile ? If what