ARTIST AGAINST SOCIETY
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and multiply American art. To say this is not to suggest that we de–
sist from the fight for culture, or give up what brings us pleasure,
but simply to plead for patience and soberness. Let us not press so
hard for results, for geometrical adjustments of artist to situation
and situation to art. Let us not have too many theories--even
historical ones- but rather empirical judgment and the nerve to
seize happy chances. Above all, let us keep amid our incorrigible good
deeds a little capacity for wonder and surprise. For art is not just "a
good thing" among other good things. It stands with the supreme
goods, next to life, analogous though unlike; and
it
shares with life
that which must put it forever beyond our mere industry or our
mere acceptance-namely the secret of incarnation.
