We speak of Art as we speak of Nature. Here are two terms of almost indeterminate meaning; to pronounce the one or the other of these words – Nature, Art – is to make a conjuration to call forth the ideal from the deeps, to draw aside one of the two great curtains of the divine creation. God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art. Hence this reality: the poet is a priest.
William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo
