50 LITEEAEY VALUES 



stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the 

 remedy for one, bo purpose and activity are the rem- 

 edy for the other. Movement is the condition of 

 life, anyway. Set the currents going in the air, in 

 the water, in the hody, in the mind, in the commu- 

 nity, and a healthier condition will follow. Change, 

 diversity, activity, are the prime conditions of life 

 and health everywhere. Persons with douhts and 

 perplexities ahout life go to work to ameliorate some 

 of its conditions, and their douhts and perplexities 

 vanish — not because their problems are solved, as 

 they think they are, but because their energies have 

 found an outlet, the currents have been set going. 

 Persons of strong will have few doubts and uncer- 

 tainties. They do not solve the problems, but they 

 break the spell of their enchantment. Nothing re- 

 lieves and ventilates the mind like a resolution. 



A true work of art is analogous to a living organ- 

 ism. " The essential condition of art creations," 

 says Eenan, " is to form a living system every por- 

 tion of which answers and demands every other. . . . 

 The intimate laws of life, of the development of 

 organic products, and of the toning down of shades 

 must be considered at every step." Works such as 

 certain of Victor Hugo's, which have no organic 

 unity and proportion, are, according to this dictum, 

 monstrosities. 



When Matthew Arnold insisted upon it that in 

 all vital prose there is a process of evolution, he 

 enunciated the same principle as did Eenan. We 

 all know well that which is organic in books as dis- 



