In the art which most completely achieves expression the medium is not perceived as distinct from the emotion of which the medium is the embodiment. In order to render expressive the material employed in its service, art seeks constantly to identify means and end, to make the form one with the content. The wayfarer out of his need of shelter built a hut, using the material which chance gave into his hand and shaping his design according to his resources; the purpose of his work was not the hut itself but shelter. So the artist in any form is impelled to creation by his need of expression; the thing which he creates is not the purpose and end of his effort, but only the means. Each art has its special medium, and each medium has its peculiar sensuous charm and its own kind of expressiveness. This power of sensuous delight is incidental to the real beauty of the work; and that beauty is the message the work is framed to convey to the spirit. In the individual work, the inspiring and shaping idea seeks so to fuse its material that we feel the idea could not have been phrased in any other way as we surrender to its ultimate appeal,--the sum of the emotional content which gave it birth and in which it reaches its fulfillment. V THE BACKGROUND OF ART SCENE: The main hall of the Accademia in Venice. Time: Noon of a July day. Dramatis personae: A guide; two drab-colored and tired men; a group of women, of various ages, equipped with red-covered little volumes, and severally expressive of great earnestness, wide-eyed rapture, and giggles. _The guide, in strident, accentless tones:_ Last work of Titian. Ninety-nine years old. He died of smallpox. _A woman:_ Is that it? _A high voice on the outskirts:_ I'm going to get one for forty dollars. _Another voice:_ Well, I'm not going to pay more than fifty for mine. _A straggler:_ Eliza, look at those people. Oh, you missed it! _(Stopping suddenly?)_ My, isn't that lovely! _Chorus:_ Yes, that's Paris Bordone. Which one is that? He has magnificent color. _The guide:_ The thing you want to look at is the five figures in front. _A voice:_ Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. _A man:_ Foreshortened; well, I should say so! But I say, you can't remember all these pictures. _The other man:_ Let's get out of this! _The guide, indicating a picture of the Grand Canal:_ This one has been restored. _A girl's voice:_ Why, that's the house where we are staying! _The guide:_ The next picture . . . The squad shuffles out of range.