They lost
themselves in the melancholy of Hamlet, and luxuriated in their own
sorrows. That was not the case with Goethe himself; there never was
an artist who was less irresolute.
One of the reasons, I think, why we are weak in art, at the present
time, is because we refer everything to conventional ethical
standards. We are always arraigning people at the bar of morality,
and what we judge them mainly by is their strength or weakness of
will. Blake thought differently. He always maintained that men
would be judged for their intellectual and artistic perception, by
their good or bad taste.
But surely it is all a deep-seated mistake; one might as well judge
people for being tall or short, ugly or beautiful. The only thing
for which I think most people would consent to be judged, which is
after all what matters, is whether they have yielded consciously to
mean, prudent, timid, conventional motives in life. It is not a
question of success or failure; it is rather whether one has acted
largely, freely, generously, or whether one has acted politely,
timidly, prudently.
In the Gospel, the two things for which it seems to be indicated
that men will be judged are, whether they have been kind, and
whether they have improved upon what has been given them.
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