must beware of the graces of style; if, like the late Master of Balliol,
he makes a translation so touched with distinction and beauty that it is
likely to become a classic in the language in which it is newly lodged,
there are those who look askance at his scholarship; for knowledge, to be
pure and genuine, must be rude, slovenly, and barbarous in expression. The
religious teacher may master the principles of his faith, but let him
beware how he applies them to the industrial or social conditions of
society. If he ventures to make this dangerous experiment, he is promptly
warned that he is encroaching on the territory of the economist and
sociologist. The artist must not permit himself to care for truth, because
it has come to be understood in some quarters that he is concerned with
beauty, and with beauty alone. To assume that there is any unity in life,
any connection between character and achievement, any laws of growth which
operate in all departments and in all men, is to discredit one's
intelligence and jeopardise one's influence. One field and one tool to
each man seems to be the maxim of this divisive philosophy--if that can be
called a philosophy which discards unity as a worn-out metaphysical
conception, and separates not only men but the arts, occupations, and
skills from each other by impassable gulfs.

Versatility is often a treacherous ease, which leads the man who possesses
it into fields where he has no sure footing because he has no first-hand
knowledge, and therefore no real power; and against this tendency, so
prevalent in this country, the need of concentration must continually be
urged. The great majority of men lack the abounding vitality which must
find a variety of channels to give it free movement. But the danger which
besets some men ought not to be made a limitation for men of superior
strength; it ought not to be used as a barrier to keep back those whose
inward impulse drives them forward, not in one but in many directions.
Above all, the limitations of a class ought not to be made the basis of a