The Ultimate Aim


Workers of all kinds are divided into two classes by differences of skill
and by differences of aim. The artist not only handles his materials in a
different way from that which the artisan employs, but he uses them for a
different end and in a different spirit. The peculiar spiritual quality of
the artist is his supreme concern with the quality of his work and his
subordinate interest in the returns of reputation or money which the work
brings him. No wise man ought to be indifferent to recognition and to
material rewards, because there is a vital relation between honest work
and adequate wages of all kinds; a relation as clearly existing in the
case of Michael Angelo or of William Shakespeare as in the case of the
farmhand or the day labourer. But when the artist plans his work, and
while he is putting his life into it day by day, the possible rewards
which await him are overshadowed by the supreme necessity of making the
work sound, true, adequate, and noble. A man is at his best only when he
pours out his vital energy at full tide, without thought or care for
anything save complete self-expression.

He who hopes to reach the highest level of activity in work will not aim,
therefore, to gain specific ends or to touch external goals of any kind;
he will aim at complete self-development. His ultimate aim will be not
material but spiritual; he cannot rest short of the perfect self-
expression. The rewards of work--money, influence, position, fame--will be
the incidents, not the ends, of his toil. He has a right to look for them
and count upon them; but if he be a true workman they will never be his
inspirations, nor can they ever be his highest rewards. The man in public
life who sets out to secure a certain official position as the ultimate
goal of his ambition may be a successful politician but can never be a