I do not think that
even a Swift or a Voltaire could have been irreconcilably opposed to
a world which offered them so much merriment. The satire, which begins
in moral fervor, must end in understanding. The bond that binds us to
our fellows is too strong to be broken by the aloofness of our
condemnation. The same intelligence that discerns the incongruity
between what men ought to be and what they are, cannot fail to penetrate
the impelling reasons for the failure. Only in humor is sympathetic
insight complete. Satire has the temporal usefulness of a practical
expedient, humor the eternal value of beauty.
CHAPTER VII
THE STANDARD OF TASTE
Our interest in art is seldom a matter of mere feeling or appreciation;
usually it is a matter of judgment as well. Beginning in feeling, the
sthetic experience passes over into comparison and estimation--into
criticism, and there finds its normal completion. This, which is
evidently true of the aesthetic life of artists and connoisseurs, is
true also of average men. We all enjoy the beautiful in silence, but
afterwards we want to talk about it to our friends. If conversation
about art were suppressed, the interest in it would hardly survive.
On this side, the enjoyment of art is intensely sociable, for to the
civilized man sociability means discourse.
But, as Kant pointed out, it is characteristic of conversation about
art that the participants try to reach agreement in their judgments
without acknowledging common principles with reference to which disputes
can be decided.
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