Nor is the reason far to seek.

Art aims at expressing an ideal; and this ideal is the transfiguration of human elements into something nobler, felt and apprehended by the imagination.

Such an ideal, such an all-embracing glorification of humanity only exists for simple and unsophisticated societies in the form of religion.

Religion is the universal poetry which all possess; and the artist, dealing with the mythology of his national belief, feels himself in vital sympathy with the imagination of the men for whom he works.

More than the painter is required for the creation of great painting, and more than the poet for the exhibition of immortal verse.