It is not the business of art to follow reality. Reality follows art. When we gaze at a sunset, we do not see it “as it is” — as an amalgam of Copernicus’s vision of the earth’s revolution round the sun and Max Planck’s quantum theory of light. We see it through the eyes of generations of painters and poets who have infused into the spectacle the lofty symbol of aspiration and resignation or the grandeur of celestial harmony.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1911-1998) American journalist, author

This Star of England, Forward (1952)