Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/69

A Puritan Bohemia which you paint the hardship and the sadness and the pathos of common people's lives."

"This is the way in which I make a symbol of it. I am not painting a single object. My aim is broader than that. The merely individual is eliminated for the sake of the typical. That figure embodies a truth"

"Not anatomical truth," said Anne dryly.

"Frankly, not anatomical truth."

"Wouldn't it be just as symbolic if Art looked able to stand up, if she chose?"

"That isn't the point," answered Howard. "She has something else to do. She clothes as with a garment a spiritual verity."

"I'd rather paint the things I see than the things I dream," said Anne sturdily.

"I prefer to paint the things I both see and dream," retorted Howard. "The artist cannot afford to let brute fact master him. Art is no servile copyist. Her own divine idea must shape her work."