Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/114

90 Whether it is possible for colour, when intensified to the glaring transparency of light, to stimulate us aesthetically by a mere indication of sequential action, I cannot say. The science of optics would be against the assumption; for the eye, unlike the ear, cannot accommodate itself to intense and prolonged sensations. This, however, belongs to the future, and Mr Wright only prophesies—he makes no definite explanations. He argues that the human organism in the exciting stress of modern life can no longer react to so tepid an art as painting. It would be well for him to consult the high-school texts in biology in order to learn how man under necessity can adjust himself to the exigencies of any environment. Besides, as I have affirmed again and again, it is not a question of aesthetics: the study of the beautiful is not a science of substance, but of meanings, and any research dealing exclusively with procedure is a technical matter..

It is to be hoped that the experiments of Mr S. MacDonald-Wright, the Synchromist, will prove successful; for they will open a field for those modern artists—happily decreasing in number—who are endeavouring to make a specious formula take the place of the philosophic content in painting. Mr S. MacDonald-Wright as a colourist is distinguished; he is artistic in everything he touches; and he is better equipped than any one I can think of to direct an enterprise devoted to the ordering of light sensations.