Mr. Balfour made an amusing speech at Hertford on Thursday
about the popular enjoyment of Art and Literature. He held that "there is more innocent hypocrisy talked about the admiration of picture-galleries, than about any other sub- ject connected with either religion or culture." People do not feel, said Mr. Balfour, the admiration they express, but they ex- press the admiration which their guide-books assure them that it is right and proper for them to feel. That we believe to be perfectly true, but is it not, after all, a sort of culture,—a very conventional sort, no doubt,—that ordinary people should put their minds through the paces of this guide-book admira- tion, and vaguely realise what it is that they would admire if they could? If they had only the courage to confess that it is this and nothing more that they feel, it might be a genuine benefit to them to learn what it is that the conventional art. culture expects them to see and feel in pictures. And very likely, though it is a dull and poor sort of discipline, it is as good a discipline as average minds can go through by way of substitute for still more vulgar pleasures.
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