to the gross popular appetite as possible. It is a very degrading
position for any body of educated men to be placed in, and I have
no doubt that most of them feel it acutely.

However, let us leave what is really a very sordid side of the
subject, and return to the question of popular control in the
matter of Art, by which I mean Public Opinion dictating to the
artist the form which he is to use, the mode in which he is to use
it, and the materials with which he is to work. I have pointed out
that the arts which have escaped best in England are the arts in
which the public have not been interested. They are, however,
interested in the drama, and as a certain advance has been made in
the drama within the last ten or fifteen years, it is important to
point out that this advance is entirely due to a few individual
artists refusing to accept the popular want of taste as their
standard, and refusing to regard Art as a mere matter of demand and
supply. With his marvellous and vivid personality, with a style
that has really a true colour-element in it, with his extraordinary
power, not over mere mimicry but over imaginative and intellectual
creation, Mr Irving, had his sole object been to give the public
what they wanted, could have produced the commonest plays in the
commonest manner, and made as much success and money as a man could
possibly desire. But his object was not that. His object was to
realise his own perfection as an artist, under certain conditions,
and in certain forms of Art. At first he appealed to the few: now
he has educated the many. He has created in the public both taste
and temperament. The public appreciate his artistic success
immensely. I often wonder, however, whether the public understand
that that success is entirely due to the fact that he did not
accept their standard, but realised his own. With their standard