Pagina 24 van 490

"Because, without intending it, I have put into it some

expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of

course, I have never cared to speak to him. He knows nothing

about it. He shall never know anything about it. But the world

might guess it, and I will not bare my soul to their shallow

prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope.

There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry-too much of

myself!"

"Poets are not so scrupulous as you are. They know how useful

passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to

many editions."

"I hate them for it," cried Hallward. "An artist should create

beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into

them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to

be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of

beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is; and for that

reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray."