"Art  for  art's  sake"  is  an  empty  phrase.  Et
prodesse  volunt  et  delectare  poetae, — "Poets
wish  both  to  profit  and  please,"  is  an  axiom  that
holds  good  in  every  branch  of  art.  An  art  which
asks,  but  does  not  give ;  which  demands  the  blind
bestowal  of  recognition,  reward  and  admiration ;
which  is  neither  willing  nor  able  to  teach,  in-
struct or  delight,  has  missed  its  vocation  and  for-
feited its  rights,  especially  in  these  days  when
everyone  wears  the  badge  of  social  duty.  "All
literature,  art  and  science,"  says  Euskin,1  "are
vain  and  worse,  if  they  do  not  enable  you  to  be
glad;  and  glad  justly."1

In  an  age,  called  the  " Social  Age,"  which
thinks  itself  the  discoverer  of  social  duty  and  so-

i  The  Eagle's  Nest,  Lect.  IX,  p.  177.
200  MORE  JOY

cial  virtue,  it  is  impossible  that  an  art  should
flourish  which  asks  nothing  of  society  and  re-
pudiates all  social  obligation  and  co-operation.
Art  itself  is  the  main  loser  by  this  exclusiveness.
An  art  which  exists  for  its  own  sake  is  just  about
as  successful  as  a  man  who  lives  for  his  own  sake,
— both  grow  sour,  dry  up  and  wither  away  with
egotism,  neither  possessing  nor  creating  joy.
