A Treatise on Parents and Children

But there are more dangerous influences than ragtimes waiting for people / brought up in ignorance of fine art. Nothing is more pitiably ridiculous / than the wild worship of artists by those who have never been seasoned / in youth to the enchantments of art. Tenors and prima donnas, pianists / and violinists, actors and actresses enjoy powers of seduction which in / the middle ages would have exposed them to the risk of being burnt / for sorcery. But as they exercise this power by singing, playing, and / acting, no great harm is done except perhaps to themselves. Far graver / are the powers enjoyed by brilliant persons who are also connoisseurs / in art. The influence they can exercise on young people who have been / brought up in the darkness and wretchedness of a home without art, and / in whom a natural bent towards art has always been baffled and snubbed, / is incredible to those who have not witnessed and understood it. He (or / she) who reveals the world of art to them opens heaven to them. They / become satellites, disciples, worshippers of the apostle. Now the / apostle may be a voluptuary without much conscience. Nature may have / given him enough virtue to suffice in a reasonable environment.

But this allowance may not be enough to defend him against the temptation and / demoralization of finding himself a little god on the strength of / what ought to be a quite ordinary culture. He may find adorers in / all directions in our uncultivated society among people of stronger / character than himself, not one of whom, if they had been artistically / educated, would have had anything to learn from him or regarded him / as in any way extraordinary apart from his actual achievements as an / artist. Tartuffe is not always a priest. Indeed he is not always a / rascal: he is often a weak man absurdly credited with omniscience and / perfection, and taking unfair advantages only because they are offered / to him and he is too weak to refuse. Give everyone his culture, and no / one will offer him more than his due.