How much richer they must have felt! And how inseparable the two notions "artist" and "giver" must have appeared to them!
"If indeed this is Life," they must have said; "if Life is really as he orders it"—and his voice and eye allowed them to prefix no such "if" with genuine scepticism—"then of a truth it is a well of delight and a fountain of blessedness."
Thus Art—this function which "is with us in order that we may not perish through truth,"[47] this "enhancement of the feeling of Life and Life's stimulant,"[48] which "acts as a tonic, increases strength and kindles desire"[49]—became the "great seducer" to earth and to the world;[50] and we can imagine the gratitude that swelled in the hearts of men for him whose function it was. How could he help but become a god! Even tradition was not necessary for this. For at the very moment when his creative spirit lent its glory to the earth, man must have been conscious of his divinity or of his use as a mouthpiece by a Divinity.[51]
"O, Lord Varuna, may this song go well to thy heart!" sang the ancient Hindus.
"Thou who knowest the place of the birds that fly through the sky, who on the waters knowest the ships.
"Thou the upholder of order, who knowest the twelve months with the offspring of each, and who knowest the month that is engendered afterwards.
"Thou who knowest the track of the wind, of the wide, the bright, the mighty; and knowest those who reside on high.
"Thou the upholder of order, Varuna, sit down among thy people, thou, the wise, sit there to govern.
"From thence perceiving all wondrous things, thou seest what has been and what will be done.
"Thou who givest to men glory, and not half glory, who givest it even to our own selves.