[49] See Creative Criticism by J. E. Spingarn, and my article on Genius and Taste, reviewing this book, in the Nation (New York), 7 Feb., 1918.
[50] One should note here as elsewhere points of contact between scientific and emotional naturalism. Take, for example, the educational theory that has led to the setting up of the elective system. The general human discipline embodied in the fixed curriculum is to be discarded in order that the individual may be free to work along the lines of his bent or “genius.” In a somewhat similar way scientific naturalism encourages the individual to sacrifice the general human discipline to a specialty.
[51] See his poem L’Art in Emaux et Camées.
Quel esprit ne bat la campagne?
Qui ne fait châteaux en Espagne?
Picrochole, Pyrrhus, la laitière, enfin tous,
Autant les sages que les fous
Chacun songe en veillant; il n’est rien de plus doux.
Une flatteuse erreur emporte alors nos âmes;