"I wish only to bring out the idea which lies behind both the poem and the print. The dusting of the white paper, that it may receive in its purity the image of the pine-tree, trembling with life, is a symbol of the sweeping clear from the mind of all accumulated prejudice that it may receive the impress of beauty in all its freshness and power. That such a preparation is salutary, who can doubt? For we guard ourselves against impressions, we entrench our minds in habits, we refuse simply to see with our eyes, to trust our senses, but must continually be referring to some external standard or other which, perhaps, is not only not valid in itself, but has no real correspondence with our own intuitions and experiences.

"To sweep the mind clear of prejudice and preoccupation is an essential condition of apprehending beauty as it really is."

- from Flight of the Dragon