There seems to me to be in art, to take the metaphor of the temple at
Jerusalem, three gradations or regions, which may be typified by the
Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Into the Court many
have admittance, both writers and readers; it is just shut off from the
world, but admittance is easy and common. All who are moved and
stirred by ideas and images can enter here. Then there is the Holy
Place, dark and glorious, where the candlestick glimmers and the altar
gleams. And to this place the priests of art have access. Here are to
be found all delicate and strenuous craftsmen, all who understand that
there are secrets and mysteries in art. They can please and thrill the
mind and ear; they can offer up a fragrant incense; but the full
mystery is not revealed to them. Here are to be found many graceful
and soulless poets, many writers of moving tales, and discriminating
critics, who are satisfied, but cannot satisfy. Those who frequent
this place are generally of opinion that they know all that is to be
known; they talk much of form and colour, of values and order. They
can make the most of their materials; and indeed their skill outruns
their emotion.
But there is the inmost shrine of all within, where the darkness
broods, lit at intervals by the shining of a divine light, that
glimmers on the ark and touches the taper wings of the adoring angels.
The contents indeed of the sacred chest are of the simplest; a withered
branch, a pot of food, two slabs of grey stone, obscurely engraved.
Nothing rich or rare. But those who have access to the inner shrine
are face to face with the mystery. Some have the skill to hint it,
none to describe it. And there are some, too, who have no skill to
express themselves, but who have visited the place, and bring back some
touch of radiance gushing from their brows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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