Much is said unwisely about the elevating and educative power of art. The man in the street has come to believe that the elevating force resides in the theme which a work of art presents--that a picture of Galahad riding for the Grail is a lofty thing, and that a picture of the wings of the theatre during a ballet is a base one. Hence has arisen that unspeakably childish modern school of middle-class painters whose "pictures with a story"--generally a sentimental or edifying story--are the terror of the art-lover. After them, no wonder that even the Cubists came as a relief. As every artist knows, the elevating power that resides in the mere subject of a picture has at best no more force than a moral maxim; the mind may assent to it, but the heart is unmoved. The same may be said in the case of a poem. The glory of poetry is not that it furnishes elevated sentiments in rhyme for public speakers to quote, but that it embodies music and thought combined in so fitly proportioned and expressive a structure that the reader carries away with him a certain acquaintance with perfection and a lasting desire for ideal beauty in everything. Thus it is only through its power to cultivate the spectator's sense of form that art may be called elevating. Close familiarity with the productions of great artists gradually develops in the spectator an understanding of proportion, harmony, and conscious design, evoking in him the ability to perceive and even create order and freedom. Because of the fact that the best Japanese prints are so superb an expression of the sense of form, they may be rated high as cultural agents. In them the eye finds little or no distraction occasioned by mere subject. Here speak the pure elements of artistic creation, liberated from combination with elements of accidental and personal charm. They contain the quintessence of all those harmonious and significant qualities which men desire of life. He who really takes them into his consciousness will be repelled by disorder, dullness, and indeterminateness all his days. And probably the world will be saved by its hatred of these things. Therefore the Japanese print cannot be regarded as primarily a pattern for future designers of wood-engraving; it appears to have a far wider and deeper office to perform. INDEX INDEX Actors, 134, 304, 306 Anchi, _see_ Kwaigetsudō Ando, _see_ Kwaigetsudō Anshin, _see_ Yasunobu Ashikuni, 356 Ashimaro, 299 Ashiyuki, 356 Banki, 298 Banto, 173 Bokusen, 375 Buddhism, 55 BUNCHO, 185, 209, 426 Bunkaku, _see_ Okumura Masanobu Bunro, 299 Chikamaro, _see_ Kiosai Chikanobu, 299 Chikashige, 353 Chincho, 91 Chiryu, 173 CHOKI, 319, 427 Chōshō, _see_ Nagamatsu Condition, 418 Courtesan, _see_ Yoshiwara Denroku, 108 Dohan, _see_ Kwaigetsudō Doshin, _see_ Kwaigetsudō Doshu, _see_ Kwaigetsudō Forgeries, 432 Fujinobu, 108, 173 Furuyama, 75 Fusanobu, 108 Fuyo, 299 Gakutei, 374 Gangakusai, 375