122 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



best with the best of other artists. There is 

 untold value in this for it cultivates ideals and 

 ideals become the standards of life. These 

 ideals stand in similar relation to interior home 

 decoration that sculpture does to architectural 

 designs, it is ornament with purpose and this 

 is always good art. 



The theory of "Art for Art's sake," when 

 rightly understood, carries with it the highest 

 inspiration. It involves the sublimities of pur- 

 pose and the deep determinations of years. It 

 works ever toward the highest and creates the 

 best. The real artist is ever larger than his 

 studio and greater than his work. He belongs 

 to the race and had his enriching gifts for serv- 

 ing his age. He cannot live for himself and 

 succeed. Personal gratification is the death of 

 art. Nor money, nor fame can operate the 

 artist's faculties to the full, only the artist-love 

 can command the artist-genius. The old "Bar- 

 bizon School" is forever the illustration and 

 enforcement of this theory and principle. What 

 works they wrought, not for money or fame, 

 for most of them had little or none of either, 

 but because the artist-genius that possessed 

 them compelled them on and ever on to the 

 very end of life. They painted because they 

 loved it better than life — painted because they 



