Chapter II A Verses 21-22
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The Artist calls our attention away from Nature, whose 
immensity bewilders us so that she seems incoherent, and unintel­
ligible, to his own interpretation of himself and his relations with 
various phenomena of nature expressed in a language more or 
less common to us all.
The smaller the Artist, the narrower his view, the more vulgar 
his vocabulary, the more familiar his figures, the more readily is 
he recognized as a guide. To be accepted and admired, he must 
say what we all know, but have not told each other till it is 
tedious, and say it in simple and clear language, a little more 
emphatically and eloquently than we have been accustomed to 
hear; and he must please and flatter us in the telling by soothing 
our fears and stimulating our hopes and our self-esteem.
When an Artist—whether in Astronomy, like Copernicus, 
Anthropology, like Ibsen, or Anatomy, like Darwin—selects a set 
of facts too large, too recondite, or too “regrettable” to receive 
instant assent from everybody; when he presents conclusions 
which conflict with popular credence or prejudice; when he 
employs a language which is not generally intelligible to all; in 
such cases he must be content to appeal to the few. He must wait 
for the world to awake to the value of his work.
The greater he is, the more individual and the less intelligible 
he will appear to be, although in reality he is more universal and 
more simple than anybody. He must be indifferent to anything 
but his own integrity in the realization and imagination of 
himself.
22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright 
glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To 
worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell 
my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at 
all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of 
innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of 
sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for 
this.
Commentary: Drunkenness is a curse and a hindrance only 
to slaves. Shelley’s couriers were “drunk on the wind of their own