The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

THE EQUINOX “Art,” said he, " and do not imagine that Art or anything else is other than High Magic I—is a system of holy hieroglyph. The artist, the initiate, thus frames his mysteries. The rest of the world scoff, or seek to understand, or pretend to under- stand; some few obtain the truth. The technical ability of the artist is the lucidity of his language ; it has nothing to do with the degree of his illumination. Bougereau is better technically than Manet; he explains more clearly what he sees. But what does he see? He is the priest oia false God. Form has no importance except in this sense; we must not be revolted by the extravagance of new symbolic systems. Gauguin and Matisse may live to be understood. We acquiesce in the eccentricities of Raphael.” Ida gave a little laugh of pleased scorn of him. “ My good girl, perspective is an eccentricity, a symbol; no more. How can one ever represent a three—dimensional world in two dimensions? Only by symbolism. We have acquiesced in the method of the primitives—d0 you think men and women are really like Fra Angelicos pictures look to the eye of the untaught? We may one day acquiesce in all the noughts and crosses of Nadelmann ! It’s the same everywhere. I draw a curve and a circle and a waggle up and down; and everybody who can read English is perfectly satisfied that I mean that placid ruminant, female, herbivorous, and lactiferous, to which we compare our more domesticated courtesans and our less domesticated policemen. So Being is not in Form ; it is however only to be understood through Form. Hence incarnations. The Universe is only a picture in the Mind of the Father, by which He wishes to convey—what? It is our Magnum Opus to discover what He means l Hence ‘the eye 138