B. TYPE OF WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED IF CRUDEST EXPRESSION OF VISUAL
APPEARANCE HAD BEEN ATTEMPTED]

If so early the sense of vision is neglected and relegated to be the
handmaiden of other senses, it is no wonder that in the average adult it
is in such a shocking state of neglect. I feel convinced that with the
great majority of people vision is seldom if ever consulted for itself,
but only to minister to some other sense. They look at the sky to see if
it is going to be fine; at the fields to see if they are dry enough to
walk on, or whether there will be a good crop of hay; at the stream not
to observe the beauty of the reflections from the blue sky or green
fields dancing upon its surface or the rich colouring of its shadowed
depths, but to calculate how deep it is or how much power it would
supply to work a mill, how many fish it contains, or some other
association alien to its visual aspect. If one looks up at a fine mass
of cumulus clouds above a London street, the ordinary passer-by who
follows one's gaze expects to see a balloon or a flying-machine at
least, and when he sees it is only clouds he is apt to wonder what one
is gazing at. The beautiful form and colour of the cloud seem to be
unobserved. Clouds mean nothing to him but an accumulation of water dust
that may bring rain. This accounts in some way for the number of good
paintings that are incomprehensible to the majority of people. It is
only those pictures that pursue the visual aspect of objects to a
sufficient completion to contain the suggestion of these other
associations, that they understand at all. Other pictures, they say, are
not finished enough. And it is so seldom that a picture can have this
petty realisation and at the same time be an expression of those larger
emotional qualities that constitute good painting.