processes, though he may be able to analyze in detail how or why he
made or found a thousand other things.

It is not only true that Genius originates in something antecedent to
conscious reflection or intellect, but also that men have produced
marvelous works of art almost without knowing it, while others have
shown the greatest incapacity to do so after they had developed an
incredible amount of knowledge. Thus Mr. WHISTLER reminded RUSKIN that
when the world had its greatest artists, there were no critics.

And it is well to remember that while the Greeks in all their glory of
Art and Poetry were unquestionably rational or consciously
intelligent, there was not among them the thousandth part of the
anxious worrying, the sentimental self-seeking and examination, or the
Introversion which worms itself in and out of, and through and
through, all modern work, action and thought, even as mercury in an
air-pump will permeate the hardest wood. For the Greeks worked more in
the spirit of Instinct; that is, more according to certain transmitted
laws and ideas than we realize--albeit this tradition was of a very
high order. We have lost Art because we have not developed tradition,
but have immensely increased consciousness, or reflection, out of
proportion to art It was from India and Egypt in a _positive_ form
that Man drew the poison of sentimental Egoism which became
comparative in the Middle Ages and superlative in this our time.

It is very evident that as soon as men become self-conscious of great
work, or cease to work for the sake of enjoying Art, or its results,
and turn all their attention to the genius or cleverness, or character
or style, self, _et cetera_, of the _artist_, or of themselves, a
decadence sets in, as there did after the Renaissance, when knowledge