336 Evolution and Social Reform. 



great danger of drying up the fountain of all intellectual 

 and moral vitality. The greatest discoveries of science, 

 themselves, never could have been made without the ideals 

 of art, which set the goal for science to reach ; and human 

 life never has been made better save under the inspiration 

 of some ideal of perfection, which is a product of intellect- 

 ual creativeness. Let us, then, not make the mistake of 

 despising art, Avhose aim is to eliminate the painful and 

 disagreeable and to produce that which does not perish in 

 the using. Nor should we seek to reduce all art to science, 

 according to the doctrine of M. Zola in literature; but 

 rather leave room for the movement of the creative spirit, 

 which loves to cast off the trammels of the earthy, to soar 

 aloft with ethereal wings, to enter the limitless, to burst 

 into the unknown and hlch therefrom something precious 

 for science to work upon and reduce to orderly relations. 

 Our life in the actual must needs occupy us most : but it is 

 in the sphere of the possible, not yet realized, that we find 

 the renewing and strengthening atmosphere, breathing 

 which the blood is sent more swiftly through our veins, 

 rendering us buoyant and able for the tasks before us. 

 While, therefore, we should respect the work of science, and 

 insist on true science, within its own domain, let us not 

 forget that he who is the author of a great artistic creation, 

 clothing matter with mind and moulding Nature to express 

 an idea, not only enriches the world with the production of his 

 genius, but also exemplifies that man may walk with the 

 gods, that he is himself a creator and finisher ; and even 

 suggests that death and notliingness are after all but names 

 which only indicate a vast reservoir of being witliout 

 beginning or end, wherein lies concealed and from wliich 

 shall spring forth, eternally and exhaustlessly, an ever- 

 chanfrinGT and never-endin<j life. 



