The Terrible Thing About Death

Always, However Brutal An Age May Actually Have Been, Its Style Transmits Its Music Only.

The Great Christian Art Did Not Die Because All Possible Forms Had Been Used Up; It Died Because Faith Was Being Transformed Into Piety. Now, The Same Conquest Of The Outside World That Brought In Our Modern Individualism, So Different From That Of The Renaissance, Is By Way Of Relativizing The Individual. It Is Plain To See That Man's Faculty Of Transformation, Which Began By A Remaking Of The Natural World, Has Ended By Calling Man Himself Into Question.

A Large Share Of Our Art Heritage Is Now Derived From Peoples Whose Idea Of Art Was Quite Other Than Ours, And Even From Peoples To Whom The Very Idea Of Art Meant Nothing.

If Modern Painters Feel Qualms About Applying The Term "masterpiece" To Describe A Work Of Capital Importance, This Is Because It Has Come To Convey A Notion Of Perfection: A Notion That Leads To Much Confusion When Applied To Artists Other Than Those Who Made Perfection Their Ideal.

Athirst For Personal Salvation, The West Forgets That Many Religions Had But A Vague Notion Of The Life Beyond The Grave; True, All Great Religions Stake A Claim On Eternity, But Not Necessarily On Man's Eternal Life.