IntentionsVIVIAN. Enjoy Nature! I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty. People tell us that Artmakes us love Nature more than we loved her before; that it reveals her secrets to us; and that aftera careful study of Corot and Constable we see things in her that had escaped our observation. Myown experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really revealsto us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutelyunfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannotcarry them out. When I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects. It is fortunate for us, however, that Nature is so imperfect, as otherwise we should have no art at all. Art is our spiritedprotest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. As for the infinite variety of Nature, that is a pure myth. It is not to be found in Nature herself. It resides in the imagination, or fancy, or cultivated blindness of the man who looks at her.CYRIL. Well, you need not look at the landscape. You can lie on the grass and smoke and ta |