But style and conscience in work cost nothing. Feeling for art is,
however, inherent in human nature. The weapons of primitive peoples are
beautiful. The prehistoric hatchets of the Stone Age are perfect in
their contours. There is, therefore, no question of creating a feeling
for art in the people, but of awakening it.

Music holds so important a place in the modern world, that we ought to
begin with that. There is plenty of gay music, easy to understand, which
is in harmony with the laws of art, and the people ought to hear it
instead of the horrors which they cram into our ears under the pretence
of satisfying our tastes. What pleases people most is sentimental music,
but it need not be a silly sentimentality. Instead, they ought to give
the people the charming airs which grow, as naturally as daisies on a
lawn, in the vast field of opéra-comique. That is not high art, it is
true, but it is pretty music and it is high art compared with what is
heard too often in the cafés. I am not ignorant of the fact that such
establishments employ talented people. But along with the good, what
frightful things one hears! And no one would listen to their
instrumental repertoire anywhere else!

Every time anyone has tried to raise the standards and employ real
singers and real _virtuosi_, the attendance has increased. But, very
often, even at the theatres, the managers satisfy their own tastes under
the pretence of satisfying that of the public. That is, of course,
intensely human. We judge others by ourselves.

A famous manager once said to me, as he pointed to an empty house, "The
public is amazing. Give them what they like, and they don't come!"

One day I was walking in a garden. There was a bandstand and musicians