"
"But I do mean it," returned Fenton, becoming more animated from the
pleasure of defending an extravagant position. "What is the object of
art but to perpetuate and idealize the emotions of the race; and how
does it touch men, except by flattering their vanity with the
assumption that they individually share the grand passions of mankind."
A chorus of protests arose; but Arthur went on, laughingly over-riding
it.
"Really," he said, "we all care for the Apollo Belvidere and the Venus
of Milo because it tickles our vanity to view the physical perfection
of the race to which we belong; it is our own possibilities of anguish
that we pity in the Laocoon and the Niobe; it is"--
"Oh, come, Fenton," interrupted Rangely; "we all know that you can be
more deliciously wrongheaded than any other live man, but you can't
expect us to sit quietly by while you abuse art."
"That is more absolute Philistinism," put in Hubbard, "than anything I
have heard from Mr. Irons even."
"Oh; Philistinism," was Fenton's rejoinder, "is not nearly so bad as
the inanities that are talked about it."
"That sounds like a personal thrust at Mr. Hubbard," Kent observed; and
as Arthur disclaimed any intention of making it so, Mrs. Fenton gave
the signal for rising.
XXVI
O, WICKED WIT AND GIFT.
Hamlet; i.
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