AESTHETIC MEDITATIONS* 
ON PAINTING 
THE CUBIST PAINTERS 
First Series 
Pablo Picasso—Georges Braque—Jean Metzinger—Albert 
Gleizes—Juan Gris—Mile. Marie Laurencin—Fernand 
Leger—Francis Picabia—Marcel Duchamp— 
Duchamp-Villon, etc. 
I 
HE plastic virtues: purity, unity and truth hold 
nature downed beneath their feet. 
In vain the rainbow is bent, the seasons vibrate, 
the crowds rush on to death, science undoes and re 
makes that which already exists, whole worlds with 
draw forever from our conception, our transitory images repeat 
themselves or revive their unconsciousness, and the colours, 
odours, sounds which follow astonish us,—then disappear from 
nature. 
This monster of beauty is not eternal. 
We know that our breath has had no beginning, and will have 
no end, but we conceive first of all the creation and the end of 
the world. 
Nevertheless, too many artists still adore plants, stones, the 
wave, or men. 
One quickly becomes accustomed to the bondage of the mys 
terious. And this servitude ends by creating soft leisure. 
One allows the labourer to dominate the universe, and gar 
deners have less respect for nature than the artists. 
It is time to be the masters. Good will does not insure victory. 
*A11 rights reserved for all countries, including Sweden, Norway and Russia, by L6tz-Courbiere. 
Translated by Mrs. Charles Knoblauch, for the Societe Anonyme.