Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1912 (Heft 37))

it is clearly not on that account that he interests us most. But he is uni-
versally accepted and regarded as a living character. In this sense only
is he universally true. The same holds good of all the other products of art.
Each of them is unique, and yet, if it bear the stamp of genius, it will come
to be accepted by everybody. Why will it be accepted ? And if it is unique of
its kind, by what sign do we know it to be genuine? Evidently, by the very
effort it forces us to make against our predispositions in order to see sincerely.
Sincerity is contagious. What the artist has seen we shall probably never see
again, or at least never see in exactly the same way; but if he has actually
seen it, the attempt he has made to lift the veil compels our imitation. His
work is an example which we take as a lesson. And the efficacy of the lesson
is the exact standard of the genuineness of the work. Consequently, truth
bears within itself a power of conviction, nay, of conversion, which is the sign
that enables us to recognize it. The greater the work and the more profound
the dimly apprehended truth, the longer may the effect be in coming; but, on
the other hand, the more universal will that effect tend to become. So the
universality here lies in the effect produced, and not in the cause.