L'envoi

( Originally Published 1922 )

NOTHING is easier than to win the favors of Our Lady of Art. You have only to serve her with all your heart, and all your soul, and, especially, all your time—she is a jealous mistress, as bath been said, and slow to forgive the neglect of a day or even an hour. You must forego many things that make for what the world calls fortune and success. You shall woo the shadow for your portion and leave to others the substance. And ever you shall toil with unwearied labor, while Age steals upon you and the gay procession of Youth passes by in mockery. The whitening hair, the flagging pulse, the stiffening limb, the broken slumber, the lamentable awakening—these things shall not trouble your perfect faith, for they are dear to Our Lady. It is not enough that you be patient—you must become patience itself, though each returning sun bring you the same tale of futility and disappointment. This shall sustain you, that though Our Lady give no sign—not a flutter of the eyelids, not the hint of a smile at the corners of the mouth—still she sees and appraises your devotion. More than this you shall not ask if you be of the true elect. Yes, one thing more . . . just before you die she may give you her hand to kiss!

And this is all? No: some years after you are silent, with your hope and your despair, a little honor may be paid the dead man that was ever denied the living; and a few people may carelessly turn the pages of the Book for which in very truth you lived and died.

AD MAJORAM DEI GLORIAM