with the patriotic citizens of Munich who in 1865 succeeded in turning
Wagner out of a position which he ought never to have held, it is only
fair to point out that even from the standpoint of material gain the
lavish expenditure of those art-loving princes has proved a splendid
investment, of which the results may now be seen. What is it that has
enabled Munich to double its population in about twenty years and has
raised it from being a rather sleepy old-fashioned German town to its
present flourishing condition and made it the most delightful capital
in Europe, a meeting-place for the cultured of every country of Europe
and America? What else but the art-collections and musical
performances? Had Wagner then succeeded in founding his art-school and
theatre, with Semper, the builder of Dresden, as his architect, and
his own supreme mind directing the whole, who can say what the result
might have been?


II

PLATO AS AN ART-CRITIC

I ought to say here that I find nothing more admirable in Plato than
his criticism of poetry, and I cannot understand the difficulties
which scholars find in his treatment of artists in the _Republic_
and elsewhere. After all, scholars have as a rule little experience of
any art that lies outside the narrow range of their own studies.
Plato's remarks appear to me the perfection of common sense. Would any
sane statesman, when devising such a revolutionary political scheme as
is contemplated in the _Republic_, not take the opportunity of
putting a bridle upon the mischievous vapourings of political poets,
reformers, dreamers, schemers, _et hoc genus omne_? It should