A Plea for the Minor Artist

— It is, perhaps, an open question whether the genus irritabile vatum should be indulged in its irritability ; but the indulgence, being granted, should be freely accorded by the higher to the lower (and to the lowest) grades of the genus. In fact, Genius should not look askance at the claims that Talent makes on the ground of its restive sensibilities, nor should Genius or Talent in one field of art deride the whimsical exactions of individuals in another field. If the great and only Byron, through some allusion to merely mundane topics while he was in the anguish of composition, could be rendered so miserable as to throw his watch into the fire, why may not other artists, of greater or less degree, plead the peevishness attributed to the genus ? Shall not we, moreover, endeavor to find justification? An instance from Thackeray sets us in the right direction. When, interrupted by the maid asking him something about onions or butter, the French cook lifted his dainty fingers from the piano keys, and remonstrated pathetically with the interrupter, these were his words : “ Every great artist has need of solitude to perfectionate his work ! ” The little maid who stood thus rebuked doubtless had never heard of Kalulah, and so did not know that other uses than the one of hearing could be attuned to harmony ; for it was the fantastic author of this now unfamiliar romance who therein devised a scheme by which the olfactory as well as the auditory nerve could be employed for high artistic purposes, creative or interpretative.

Quite outside the pale of the humanities, and in the exercise of arts not recognized as legitimate, Genius cries out to us, in its various straits and dilemmas. In illustration, there occurs the case of the celebrated pickpocket, who, on being arrested for the performance of his function, somewhat surprised the judge by asking to see the coat from which the pocket-book had been taken. The coat was produced, and was seen to be cut and slashed with a reckless disregard that showed the novice. The " Napoleon of pickpockets,” as he delighted to call himself, turned upon the judge a face crimson with anger. “ I considers zis von grand insult ! Ven I does a job, I does it up ! I makes no such botch as zis ! " On the ground of inherent probabilities, or as tribute to artistic excellence in his own sphere, the indignant adept was discharged. But æsthetic irascibility, except “ in high places,” rarely receives such appreciation and indulgence.