which has overwhelmed the civilization of modern Europe. Does Mr. Babbitt forget that Japan, whose art is Buddhistic, has been a party to this overthrow? No doubt romanticism as the "age of vital forces" has been too thoroughly discredited to go on as before. At the same time, let us not forget that during the last four hundred years it was the West and not the East that furthered human progress. Even in the field of ethics, Jean Jacques has his permanent values. The Contrat Social still contains workable ideas. The difficulty with all metaphysical systems is that they are one-sided. "La métaphysique," said Michelet, "est l'art de s'égarer avec méthode." It is not given men to see all angles at once. Thus human error is inextricably mingled in all human action, and the world will go on as before: the plaything of forces which the human mmd will never fully fathom.
On the other hand, the artist—unlike the philosopher, the politician, the man of affairs—is a being apart. He does not join in the procession, he represents it. In the words of Conrad:
"The changing wisdom of successive generations discards ideas, questions facts, demolishes theories. But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition—and, therefore, more permanently enduring."
