This is a
stage where many artists remain--most of the time. But the super-conscious
stage is that state in which with perfected facility and power of
self-mastery the doing becomes lost in supreme realization; and right
action, now become habitual, is forgotten in the full consciousness of
oneness with the ideal. Then the voice--or the artist--embodies the ideal,
becomes the part for the time being, and is, as we say, inspired.
We may forget what we are doing, but we must be able to know, or there
will be nothing worth while to forget! The danger of the mechanical
idea--the extreme technician's notion that the sign is enough--is that the
person may become an automaton and inhibit the power of real feeling in
himself; and though he may perform admirably and win the applause of some
critics who love form unduly, he fails in the great issue and wins only
superficial success or fails utterly, without seeing why. The real
experience has a magnetism of its own and will win above mere technicality
whenever it has the opportunity.
Some believe that psychic response to the sign is desirable. This develops
merely sensitiveness, reflex action, and does not enlarge the power of
feeling nor encourage the motive and the real heart. The desirability of
emotional response quickly reaches its limit; and while it may be feeling,
it does not spring from an adequate cause, so has not the dignity and
sweep of absolute sincerity.
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