No; I do not see
how beauty and utility are ever to be syncretized into a homogeneous
conception. They are too antagonistic to coalesce."
"But there is abundant beauty and grandeur in modern American life,"
said the millionaire, "quite apart, I mean, from that of the natural
scenery. A fine steam-engine, for instance--I call that a beautiful
thing, perfectly adapted to its end. Is its beauty really so
antagonistic to that of your civilization?"
"I know that some excellent persons have been writing lately about the
beauty of a swift-gliding motor-car and things of that kind. They are
right, in one sense of the word. For there is a beauty to mechanical
fitness which no art can enhance. But it is not the beauty of which I
spoke."
"And therefore," observed the bishop, "we ought to have another word
for it."
"Precisely, my dear sir! We ought to have another word. All values are
continually being revised, and tested anew. Are they not? We have been
restating moral values within the last half-century; it is the same
with artistic ones.
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