The Law is for All

Chapter II A Verse 21 107 has so far uttered itself. Now then, let us suppose that some Soul, having penetrated thus far, should discover in its “Name” that it is a Son truly begotten by the Spirit of Being upon the Body of Form, and that it has power to understand itself and its Father, with all that such heirship implies. Suppose further that it be come to puberty, will it not be impelled to assert itself as its Father’s son? Will it not shake itself free from the Form that bore and nourished and trained it, and turn from its brothers and sis­ ters and playmates? Will it not glow and ache with the impulse to be utterly itself, and find a Form fit to impress with its image, even as did its Father aforetime? If such a Soul be indeed its Father’s son, he will not fear to show lack of filial reverence, or presumption, if he forget its fam­ ily in the fervour of founding one of his own, of begetting boys not better or braver indeed than his brothers, girls not softer or sweeter indeed than his sisters, but wholly his own, with his own defects and desires evoked by enchantment of ecstasy when he dies to himself in the womb of the witch who lusts for his life, and buys it with the Coin that bears his Image and Superscription. Such is the secret of the Soul of the Artist. He knows that he is a God, of the Sons of God; he has no fear or shame in showing himself of the seed of his Father. He is proud of that Father’s most precious privilege, and he honours him no less than himself by using it. He accepts his family as of his own royal stock; everyone is as princely as he is himself. But he were not his Father’s son unless he found for himself a Form fit to express himself by multi­ plex reproductions of his Image. He must admire himself in many costumes, each emphatic of some elected elegance of excellence in himself which would otherwise elude his homage by being hidden and hushed in the harmony of his heart. This Form which shall serve him must be softness’ self to his impress, with exact elastic­ ity adapting itself to the strongest and subtlest salients, yet like steel to resist all other stress than his own, and to retain and reproduce surely and sharply the image that his acid bites into its surface. There must be no flaw, no irregularity, no granulation, no warp in its substance; it must be smooth and shining, pure metal of true temper.