Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/539

Rh Art, too, artistic creation, becomes democratised. Doubtless the view still widely prevails that the artist as man of genius occupies an aristocratic position in society; free creation is not labour, and the creative activity of the artist makes him godlike; the artist's exceptional gifts are, as it were, revelation, special manifestations of God's grace.

We cannot here discuss the fundamental problems of aesthetics, or attempt to ascertain the nature of genuinely democratic art. For our purposes it will suffice to point out that art, like politics, has been modified by modern science and by modern philosophical criticism. We speak of "poet-thinkers"; we expect the artist to grasp truth and to expound reality. Poets, in fact, are the true teachers of the people, more definitely so than are philosophers. Let me again recall Goethe's phrase concerning "exact fantasy," and point out that in artistic creation modern psychology is competent to discover elements of the spirit of industry. What Goethe said about political poesy has long ere this been refuted by the fact that literature and art are intimately related to the social and political evolution of modern society, guiding this evolution as well as preparing the ground.

Obviously, art does not become democratic merely by devoting itself to the exposition of the democratic program; by composing anti-aristocratic lays; by producing representations of the revolutionary struggle, of working-class life, or of artistic and literary Bohemia. Zola, for example, cannot be considered a democratic author. The artist's attitude towards the world and society must spring from the spirit of democracy—for democracy is a special way of regarding the universe and life.

In this connection the analogous question arises, which varieties of art are peculiarly democratic. We think especially of the possibility of influencing the masses, and of influencing large numbers of persons simultaneously (music, the drama, oratory, etc.), and of artistic education (the theatre, museums, inexpensive reproductions of works of art, and so on); but what we are really concerned with is to secure an intimate understanding of the essential nature of the particular type of artistic creation, and to decide whether it be democratic or aristocratic.

These questions have hardly as yet been seriously considered. Exponents of aesthetics have merely touched the Rh