VII SCIENCE AND ART AND EDUCATION 179 



said to be pure art. A litle song of Shakespeare 

 or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, 

 although its intellectual content may be nothing. 

 A series of pictures is made to pass before your 

 mind by the meaning of words, and the effect is a 

 melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of 

 the literature we esteem is valued, not merely be- 

 cause of having artistic form, but because of its 

 intellectual content; and the value is the higher 

 the more "precise, distinct, and true is that intel- 

 lectual content. And, if you will let me for a 

 moment speak of the very highest forms of lit- 

 erature, do we not regard them as highest simply 

 because the more we know the truer thev seem, 

 and the more competent we are to appreciate 

 beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever 

 understands Shakespeare until he is old, though 

 the youngest may admire him, the reason being 

 that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the young- 

 est and harmonises with the ripest and richest ex- 

 perience of the oldest. 



I have said this much to draw your attention 

 to what, in my mind, lies at the root of all this 

 matter, and at the understanding of one another 

 by the men of science on the one hand, and the 

 men of literature, and history, and art, on the 

 otlier. It is not a question whether one order of 

 study or another should predominate. It is a 

 question of what topics of education you shall 

 select which will combine all the needful elements 



