Excerpt from Incense Iconoclasm: Studies in Literature But what is this common standard? Well, there are hierarchies Of art qualities and hier archies of art forms. Taste runs in cycles: the same essential needs of human nature crop up at intervals and require to be expressed. Each age gives its authors and artists a list Of the things it wants done. What one age considers Of prime importance may rank low in the Opinion Of the next; but taking the whole roll of time, it is not difficult to see what are the prime and what are the secondary qualities Of art. In literature it is first of all necessary that a writer Should have something to say and that he should know how to say it. The two things usually go together. Though the great thinkers may be rare, and the great colourists in words almost to be counted on one's fingers, anyone who has an emotion or an idea can usually find language which will be at least adequate. Execution, however, counts for so much in literature that a writer Of very inferior intellectual powers who has the instinct for the ordering of perfect words may outrank a greater man. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.