“There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality than the adoration of the beautiful.
“All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste without respect to the object.
“They purify the thoughts as tragedy purifies the passions. Their accidental effects are not worth consideration; there are souls to whom even a vestal body is not holy.”
As the reverse to the ideal side let us warn the neophyte that the supreme joy of art-hunting is often embittered by the jealousy of colleagues, and that benevolence in the environment in which the collector moves is as rare as the ceramics of Henry II and the painting of Michelangelo; so much so that Edmond Bonnaffé was fully justified in re-editing an old Latin saying into:—
“Homo homini lupus, fæmina fæminæ lupior, curiosus curioso lupissimus” (A man against man is like a wolf, woman against woman still more so, but most of all is curio-hunter against curio-hunter.)
CHAPTER XIV
THE COLLECTOR’S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
Curio-trading—The collector’s friends, semi-friends and enemies—The antiquary, the so-called private dealer, the dealer, bric-à-brac vendor and others of the species—Art critics and experts—Courtiers and other go-betweens.
Madame Rolland writes in her famous Memoirs that one of her greatest objections to a certain suitor was the fact that he was a trader. “In commerce,” said this brilliant victim of the French Revolution, “one is supposed to buy at a low figure and sell at an exaggerated price, a scheme usually demanding the aid of lies.”