And what is this about transgressing the piano? As you say, Paderewski makes the piano capable of everything. That is what nearly all other pianists have tried to do. But the piano isn’t capable of everything. It is capable of some very special things, and Bauer is the first man to prove it. He has stood for that all alone in a world of ignorant criticism. No “spirit”? And then what do you mean by “out of the ordinary in technical skill”? Is that one of your criterions of an art? Don’t you remember Arthur Symons saying that it isn’t what you can perform but what you can conceive?—_M. C. A._] Alice Groff Again! _Alice Groff, Philadelphia:_ In answer to Clive Bell, in the November issue, I would say, _words_ are easy. What does “significant form” mean? Who is to decide what _is_ “significant form”? An art form may be divinely significant to one mind, and be utterly insignificant, indeed without form at all, to another. There is only one absolutely necessary condition to a good work of art, without which indeed no work of art can be brought into being, even; and that is: creative artistic faculty in the mind of some one artist. There is no human being or group of human beings capable of deciding whether such expression or embodiment of an artist’s creative faculty is a work of art or not. The artist alone can decide as to his own work and leave it to evolution and time to bring a portion at least of humanity to agree with him. Meanwhile the petty critics continually spew out of their mouths the greatest miracles of art that have ever been given to the world. [Answer this now, if words are so easy. I suppose if the sun were taken out of the universe tomorrow everything would hold its place as now and keep on going? The universe would hold without its significant form? Do you think we are talking of the _shape_ of a vase when we say it has significant form? I don’t see where you get the word insignificant out of this talk either. You are like those people who talk about good and bad art. There isn’t any such thing as bad art: there is Art and rotten stuff. And who decides whether or not a man has “creative artistic faculty”? According to your generosity any one can elect himself an artist. You are the woman who is always writing about art being the embodiment of an ideal. What’s the ideal in _Œdipus Rex_ or in _Salome_ or in the _Mona Lisa_—in any of them? And speaking of ideals, what is the art in _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_? “I am sick at my heart and I want to lie down.”—_An Artist._] Let Them Fight It Out! _Louise Gebhard Cann, Seattle:_