12 MARCH 1927, Page 3

What is the meaning of this ? Have teaching in

schools and lectures in public galleries improved public taste more rapidly than anyone could have thought possible ? Or is it merely that the public believed that they were intensely interested in what all the newspapers assured them was of profound interest. It may be so, but these newspaper assurances a few years ago could not have wrought the miracle. Some change has really and imperceptibly come about, we think, in the development of public taste, though we cannot exactly explain how or why. And if there is this improvement of taste in regard to pictures, is it not probable, indeed, almost certain, that the improvement extends into other intellectual regions ? It is an encouraging thought.