Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human
happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the
mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.
"In true Art," says Ruskin, "the hand, the head, and the heart of man go
together. But Art is no recreation: it cannot be learned at spare moments,
nor pursued when we have nothing better to do."
It is not only in the East that great works, really due to study and
labor, have been attributed to magic.
Study and labor cannot make every man an artist, but no one can succeed in
art without them. In Art two and two do not make four, and no number of
little things will make a great one.
It has been said, and on high authority, that the end of art is to please.
But this is a very imperfect definition. It might as well be said that a
library is only intended for pleasure and ornament.
Art has the advantage of nature, in so far as it introduces a human
element, which is in some respects superior even to nature.
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