which, uninstructed, they would have mistaken for the damaged stock
of a suburban tea-garden. Not more than one in twelve enjoys what
he is looking at, and he by no means is bound to be the best of the
dozen. Nero was a genuine lover of Art; and in modern times August
the Strong, of Saxony, 'the man of sin,' as Carlyle calls him, has
left undeniable proof behind him that he was a connoisseur of the
first water. One recalls names even still more recent. Are we so
sure that Art does elevate?"

"You are talking for the sake of talking," told him the Girton Girl.

"One can talk for the sake of thinking also," reminded her the Minor
Poet. "The argument is one that has to be faced. But admitting
that Art has been of service to mankind on the whole, that it
possesses one-tenth of the soul-forming properties claimed for it in
the advertisement--which I take to be a generous estimate--its
effect upon the world at large still remains infinitesimal."

"It works down," maintained the Girton Girl. "From the few it
spreads to the many."

"The process appears to be somewhat slow," answered the Minor Poet.
"The result, for whatever it may be worth, we might have obtained
sooner by doing away with the middleman."

"What middleman?" demanded the Girton Girl.

"The artist," explained the Minor Poet; "the man who has turned the
whole thing into a business, the shopman who sells emotions over the
counter. A Corot, a Turner is, after all, but a poor apology