the brains are knocked out of them, I think you should know and see
clearly what it is you have undertaken to further by these
institutions, and whether you really care about it, or only
languidly acquiesce in it--whether, in short, you know it to the
heart, and are indeed part and parcel of it, with your own will, or
against it; or else have heard say that it is a good thing if any
one care to meddle with it.

If you are surprised at my putting that question for your
consideration, I will tell you why I do so. There are some of us
who love Art most, and I may say most faithfully, who see for
certain that such love is rare nowadays. We cannot help seeing,
that besides a vast number of people, who (poor souls!) are sordid
and brutal of mind and habits, and have had no chance or choice in
the matter, there are many high-minded, thoughtful, and cultivated
men who inwardly think the arts to be a foolish accident of
civilisation--nay, worse perhaps, a nuisance, a disease, a hindrance
to human progress. Some of these, doubtless, are very busy about
other sides of thought. They are, as I should put it, so
ARTISTICALLY engrossed by the study of science, politics, or what
not, that they have necessarily narrowed their minds by their hard
and praiseworthy labours. But since such men are few, this does not
account for a prevalent habit of thought that looks upon Art as at
best trifling.

What is wrong, then, with us or the arts, since what was once
accounted so glorious, is now deemed paltry?

The question is no light one; for, to put the matter in its clearest
light, I will say that the leaders of modern thought do for the most