What epithets are hurled at each new idea! What torrents of ridicule are emptied out upon each social movement! The fact that society has oftentimes destroyed its noblest geniuses avails little for the restraint of harshness.

For years England was wildly merry at Turner's expense.

The newspapers cartooned his paintings.

Reviews spoke of them as "color blotches." The rich over their champagne made merry at the great artist's expense.

After a while men found a little respite from the mad chase for wealth and pleasure and discovered that Turner's extreme examples represented peculiar moods in nature, seen only by those who had traveled as widely as had Turner, while his great landscapes were as rich in imaginative quality as those of any artist of all ages.