Life as a Fine Art. 421 



attained But it may also be regarded as a means to this 

 attainment. Like life itself, like the source of all life, it 

 is at once end and method of pursuit. 



" They reckon ill who leave me put. 

 When me they fly, I am the wings." 



The roundabout mental activity enjoined by the art-ideal, 

 conjoined with bodily health, intellectual seriousness, and 

 moral earnestness, is the best of life-preservers. When the 

 mind runs in ruts, it is steadily sowing therein the seeds of 

 "insanities and premature decay ; but he who views the world 

 at large, takes an active interest in its affairs, seeks the ethi- 

 cal solution of its problems of individual and social obliga- 

 tion, cultivates pleasurable avocations as well as a useful and 

 honorable vocation, lifts his life out of the ruts, and pre- 

 serves his faculties intact with lengthening years. How 

 shortsighted is this prevalent tendency to empiricism in the 

 care for the health ! By abuse and carelessness we permit 

 special ailments to develop, and then go to the physician for 

 vicarious help. Or, if we have risen to the scientific plane 

 of ^ thought, if we recognize that hygiene has its laws no less 

 imperative than the other laws of Nature, we make our life 

 conform to an unyielding regime, we live by rule and meas- 

 ure, rise at a certain hour irrespective of our vital necessities, 

 partake of just so many pounds of solid and liquid food, give 



so many hours to study, so many to rest, so many to work 

 and recreation, and make life miserable to ourselves and 

 others when any untoward event interferes with this me- 

 chanical routine. 



Is there not yet a better way the way of the artistic im- 

 pulse ; which obeys law, indeed, but not under a sense of 

 compulsion ; which seeks health not through a rigidly im- 

 posed regime, but naturally and freely ; which avoids that 

 mental dyspepsia that morbid dwelling upon bodily condi- 

 tions and ailments which is a worse affliction than the 

 pangs of physical pain ? Over and above the law of routine 

 and stated regularities of habit there is a higher law not 

 that of wayward, ungovernable impulse, but of healthful 

 spontaneity and diversity which keeps both mind and body 

 from decay and rust. If the springs of life are sweet, its 

 waters pure and abundant, its courses clear of contamina- 

 tion or obstruction, both body and mind healthfully active, 

 with sufficient diversity of occupation, we shall find life 



