F. Paulsen, System of Ethics, book iii, chap.  XI.  L. Stephen, Science of Ethics, chap, V, sec.  IV.  C. F. Dole, Ethics of Progress, part vii, chaps, I, ii.  E. L. Cabot, Everyday Ethics, chaps.  XIX, XX.  T. K. Abbott, Kant’s Theory of Ethics, Appendix I. Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque, chap.  IV.  E. Westermarck, Origin and Development of Moral Ideas, chap.  XXXI.  K. F. Gerould, in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 112, p. 454.  Ethics of Journalism:  H. Holt, Commercialism and Journalism.  H. George, Jr, The Menace of Privilege, book vii, chap.  I. W. E. Weyl, The New Democracy, chap.  IX.  Educational Review, vol. 36, p. 121.  Atlantic Monthly, vol. 102, p. 441; vol. 105, p. 303; vol. 106, p. 40; vol. 113, p. 289.  Forum, vol. 51, p. 565.  E. A. Ross, Changing America, chap.  VII.  North American Review, vol. 190, p. 587.

CHAPTER XX

CULTURE AND ART

The function of the newspaper, which we have been discussing, is, to a considerable extent, to widen our horizon, to give us new ideas and sympathies, to enrich and brighten our lives; in greater degree, that is the role of the fine arts, and of that wide conversance with beauty and truth that we call culture.  Man is not a mere worker, and efficiency is not the only test of value; the pursuit of truth and beauty for its own sake is a legitimate human ideal.  But beauty, as we have seen, brings temptations; and even the search for truth may lure a man away from his duty.  We must consider, then, how far culture, and its outward expression in art, may rightly claim the time and energies of man.

What is the value of culture and art?

(1) Culture, according to Matthew Arnold, [Footnote:  Culture and Anarchy, Preface, and chap.  I.] is “the disinterested endeavor after man’s perfection . . . .  It is in endless additions to itself, in the endless expansion of its powers, in endless growth in wisdom and beauty that the spirit of the human race finds its ideal.”  This wisdom, this beauty that culture offers us, does not need extrinsic justification; it is, as Emerson so happily said, its own excuse for being; it is a fragment of the ideal; and it means that life has in so far been solved, its goal attained.  It is in itself a great addition to the worth, the richness and joy, of life, and it is a pledge to the heart of the possibility of the ideal, a realization of that perfection for which we long and strive.

It means a multiplication of interests, a participation by proxy in the throbbing life of mankind, which lifts us above the disappointments of our personal fortunes, helps us to identify ourselves with the larger currents of life, and to live as citizens of the world.  A limitless resource against ennui, it refreshes, rests, and recreates, relieves the tension of our working hours, makes for health and sanity.  “If a man find himself with bread in both hands,” said Mohammed, “he should exchange one loaf for some flowers of the narcissus, since the loaf feeds the body, indeed, but the flowers feed the soul.”