Note † — Chapter XXVI · Judgment and Divergent Readings

Very many of the values of the arts are of this general kind. Besides the experiences which result from the building up of connected attitudes, there are those produced by the breaking down of some attitude which is a clog and a bar to other activities. From Blake’s “Truly, my Satan, thou art but a dunce”,† to Voltaire’s “Bon père de famille est capable de tout”, such works can be found in all degrees. It matters little what the detail of the impulses which make up the obstructing attitude for different people in each case may be. This often varies, but when the attitude collapses the effect can be agreed upon. The great masters of irony—Rabelais and the Flaubert of Bouvard et Pécuchet—are the chief exponents of this kind of exorcism.