Page:Benois - The Russian School of Painting (1916).djvu/238

 of the individual human soul may be, this is nothing in comparison with the "psychic organism" of several souls. Only such an organic union of personalities possesses the real power, which can further the individual creation of works of true might, beauty, and usefulness. Proud isolation leads to impotence, hollowness, and nonentity. This is the great cosmical mystery. Only through Communion does Divinity manifest itself in us,—Divinity that gives us the necessary power for high deeds or guides us to revelations. But, of course, the mysterious laws of the "common soul" demand that this communion be one of life and freedom, that it should be neither a lifeless ritual like an Academy, nor an inner slavery after the manner of the "purpose painting" of the sixties.

It seems to us that individualism has served its time, and that it should cease to sway our art. This is all the more necessary because, though individualism is bad as a system, it is forever an attribute of human existence. In free communion the individual can by no means perish, for a truly masterful personality can at most be infected by another one, but never completely lost in it. We consider it desirable that the next phase of Russian art should restore the "School," that is, common work for a common aim. But, of course, we do not wish a programme forced upon our art even by