So we see that a deliberate search for personality and "style" is
not only impossible, but comparatively unimportant. The close
relationship of art throughout the ages, is not a relationship in
outward form but in inner meaning. And therefore the talk of
schools, of lines of "development," of "principles of art," etc.,
is based on misunderstanding and can only lead to confusion.

The artist must be blind to distinctions between "recognized" or
"unrecognized" conventions of form, deaf to the transitory
teaching and demands of his particular age. He must watch only
the trend of the inner need, and hearken to its words alone. Then
he will with safety employ means both sanctioned and forbidden by
his contemporaries. All means are sacred which are called for by
the inner need. All means are sinful which obscure that inner
need.

It is impossible to theorize about this ideal of art. In real art
theory does not precede practice, but follows her. Everything is,
at first, a matter of feeling. Any theoretical scheme will be
lacking in the essential of creation--the inner desire for
expression--which cannot be determined. Neither the quality of
the inner need, nor its subjective form, can be measured nor
weighed.

[Footnote: The many-sided genius of Leonardo devised a system of
little spoons with which different colours were to be used, thus
creating a kind of mechanical harmony. One of his pupils, after
trying in vain to use this system, in despair asked one of his
colleagues how the master himself used the invention. The