THOU SHALT NOT PEEAOH 147 



part, the seethete upon another ; only the great artist 

 comprehends and includes all these, and sees life and 

 nature as a vital, consistent whole. 



Hence it is that a work of pure art is a complete 

 product in a sense that no other production of a 

 man's mind is ; or, as Euskin says, " It is the work 

 of the whole spirit of man," and faithfully reflects 

 that spirit. The intellect may write the sermon, or 

 the essay, or the criticism, but the character, the en- 

 tire life and personality are implicated in a creative 

 work. 



Disinterestedness means no more in art, in letters, 

 than it means in life. In our kind deeds, our acts 

 of charity, in love, in virtue, we act from disinter- 

 ested motives. We have no ulterior purpose. These 

 things are their own reward. A noble life is disin- 

 terested ; it bestows benefits without thought of self. 

 But it is not indifferent. Indifference is personal, 

 — it is a state in which one personal motive cancels 

 another ; whereas disinterestedness is impersonal, — 

 it is the complete effacement of self. It is a high, 

 heroic moral state, while indifference is a lax or neg- 

 ative state. We are disinterested when we rescue a 

 child from drowning or stop a runaway horse, but we 

 are not indifferent. A novelist is disinterested when 

 he has no motives but those inherent in his story, no 

 purpose but to hold the mirror up to nature. He is 

 interested and departs from his high calling when he 

 seeks to enforce a particular moral, or to indoctrinate 

 his reader with a particular set of ideas. And yet if 

 he betrays indifference as to the issues of right and 



