The Gate of Appreciation: Studies in the Relation of Art to Life

THE GATE OF APPRECIATION
Studies in the Relation of Art to Life
CARLETON NOYES
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1907
COPYRIGHT 1907 BY CARLETON NOYES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published April 1907
TO MY FATHER AND THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves, As souls only understand souls.
CONTENTS

PREFACE
IN the daily life of the ordinary man, a life crowded with diverse interests and increasingly complex demands, some few moments of a busy week or month or year are accorded to an interest in art. Whatever may be his vocation, the man feels instinctively that in his total scheme of life books, pictures, music have somewhere a place. In his own business or profession he is an expert, a man of special training; and intelligently he does not aspire to a complete understanding of a subject which lies beyond his province. In the same spirit in which he is a master of his own craft, he is content to leave expert knowledge of art to the expert, to the artist and to the connoisseur. For his part as a layman he remains frankly and happily on the outside. But he feels none the less that art has an interest and a meaning even for him. Though he does not practice any art himself, he knows that he enjoys fine things, a beautiful room, noble buildings, books and plays, statues, pictures, music; and he believes that in his own fashion he is able to appreciate art, I venture to think that he is right.