None of these arguments are good, and the practical issues of them are
worse. For there are certain eternal laws for human conduct which are
quite clearly discernible by human reason. So far as these are
discovered and obeyed, by whatever machinery or authority the obedience
is procured, there follow life and strength. So far as they are
disobeyed, by whatever good intention the disobedience is brought about,
there follow ruin and sorrow. And the first duty of every man in the
world is to find his true master, and, for his own good, submit to him;
and to find his true inferior, and, for that inferior's good, conquer
him. The punishment is sure, if we either refuse the reverence, or are
too cowardly and indolent to enforce the compulsion. A base nation
crucifies or poisons its wise men, and lets its fools rave and rot in the
streets. A wise nation obeys the one, restrains the other, and cherishes
all.
157. The best examples of the results of wise normal evidence in Art
will be found in whatever evidence remains respecting the lives of great
Italian painters, though, unhappily, in eras of progress, but just in
proportion to the admirableness and efficiency of the life, will be
usually the scantiness of its history.
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