science, it will be a science; and, if we call any abominable thing-
-like the dancing of nude females--by a Greek word, choreography,
that that is art, and that it will be art. But no matter how much
we may say this, the business with which we occupy ourselves when we
count beetles, and investigate the chemical constituents of the
stars in the Milky Way, when we paint nymphs and compose novels and
symphonies,--our business will not become either art or science
until such time as it is accepted by those people for whom it is
wrought.

If it were decided that only certain people should produce food, and
if all the rest were forbidden to do this, or if they were rendered
incapable of producing food, I suppose that the quality of food
would be lowered. If the people who enjoyed the monopoly of
producing food were Russian peasants, there would be no other food
than black bread and cabbage-soup, and so on, and kvas,--nothing
except what they like, and what is agreeable to them. The same
thing would happen in the case of that loftiest human pursuit, of
arts and sciences, if one caste were to arrogate to itself a
monopoly of them: but with this sole difference, that, in the
matter of bodily food, there can be no great departure from nature,
and bread and cabbage-soup, although not very savory viands, are fit
for consumption; but in spiritual food, there may exist the very
greatest departures from nature, and some people may feed themselves
for a long time on poisonous spiritual nourishment, which is
directly unsuitable for, or injurious to, them; they may slowly kill
themselves with spiritual opium or liquors, and they may offer this
same food to the masses.

It is this very thing that is going on among us. And it has come