basis is a slow business, and at first seemingly blind and
aimless. The artist must train not only his eye but also his
soul, so that he can test colours for themselves and not only by
external impressions.

If we begin at once to break the bonds which bind us to nature,
and devote ourselves purely to combination of pure colour and
abstract form, we shall produce works which are mere decoration,
which are suited to neckties or carpets. Beauty of Form and
Colour is no sufficient aim by itself, despite the assertions of
pure aesthetes or even of naturalists, who are obsessed with the
idea of "beauty." It is because of the elementary stage reached
by our painting that we are so little able to grasp the inner
harmony of true colour and form composition. The nerve vibrations
are there, certainly, but they get no further than the nerves,
because the corresponding vibrations of the spirit which they
call forth are too weak. When we remember, however, that
spiritual experience is quickening, that positive science, the
firmest basis of human thought, is tottering, that dissolution of
matter is imminent, we have reason to hope that the hour of pure
composition is not far away.

It must not be thought that pure decoration is lifeless. It has
its inner being, but one which is either incomprehensible to us,
as in the case of old decorative art, or which seems mere
illogical confusion, as a world in which full-grown men and
embryos play equal roles, in which beings deprived of limbs are
on a level with noses and toes which live isolated and of their
own vitality. The confusion is like that of a kaleidoscope, which
though possessing a life of its own, belongs to another sphere.