The dean rested back on his hunkers and watched the sticks catch. Stephen, to fill the silence, said: āI am sure I could not light a fire. āYou are an artist, are you not, Mr Dedalus? said the dean, glancing up and blinking his pale eyes. The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question. He rubbed his hands slowly and drily over the difficulty. āCan you solve that question now? he asked. āAquinas, answered Stephen, says pulcra sunt quƦ visa placent. āThis fire before us, said the dean, will be pleasing to the eye. Will it therefore be beautiful? āIn so far as it is apprehended by the sight, which I suppose means here esthetic intellection, it will be beautiful. But Aquinas also says Bonum est in quod tendit appetitus. In so far as it satisfies the animal craving for warmth fire is a good. In hell however it is an evil. āQuite so, said the dean, you have certainly hit the nail on the head.