734 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tasks, and practising all the trades, relieved their masters from bodily 

 labor, made them men of leisure, and consecrated them to the exclu- 

 sive cultivation of the intellect, like the head of a body of which 

 they were themselves the acting and subject limbs. That Athenian 

 democracy, how jealous soever it might be of equality between citi- 

 zens, was thus a real aristocracy ; and we can very well understand 

 how the decision on matters of art might be trusted to the multitude, 

 when that multitude consisted entirely of men so enlightened, by edu- 

 cation and experience, that all public functions and all magistracies 

 might be distributed among them by lot, without any great danger 

 to the state. The empire of the arts, though it refuses to accept any 

 boundaries as haughtily as that of science does, though speaking as 

 well a universal language it spreads over the whole world, can be 

 ruled only by a strict oligarchy. Indeed, as has been justly said, good 

 taste is the quintessence of good sense. Therefore, whatever may be 

 our devotion to equality before the law, we can never admit equality 

 before genius, or even before that talent which the cultivation of art 

 requires. 



Among mankind art has been, and always will be, the exclusive 

 share of a small minority ; in fact, a very choice and very limited aris- 

 tocracy. It is assuredly not that of birth, for there is nothing more 

 personal than genius or talent. It is aristocracy in its true and genu- 

 ine sense — the privilege of the best. Art belongs only to certain ex- 

 ceptional natures, very rare because they are highly endowed, whose 

 possessors must combine with the choicest moral faculties, imagina- 

 tion with judgment, feeling with taste, other precious physical facul- 

 ties, clearness of view, and precision of touch. All men may be arti- 

 sans ; only the best, the aristoi, can be artists. 



To conclude, and still taking the phrase " aesthetic sense " in its 

 highest and perfect meaning, we first deny it to animals ; and next, 

 holding this delicate sense to be one of the noblest attributes of man- 

 kind, we restrict it to civilized man ; then last, even among nations 

 whom continued and general cultivation places in the front rank of 

 humanity, we allow this aesthetic sense only to some groups of select 

 men, on whom the nature of their minds and their taste formed by 

 long study confers this rare and precious privilege. Has not Sten- 

 dhal declared that all literary reputations are made by a choice circle 

 of five hundred readers ? And it is a certain truth that the number 

 of bachelors of arts is still smaller than the number of bachelors of 

 letters. 



However, not to overstep the very modest part suited to mere 

 writers and professional critics, let us hasten to add that, if in art the 

 public voice is that of a very small number, but acute, practised, and 

 disinterestedly enthusiastic ; if this voice alone decrees to the living 

 the rewards of celebrity, to the dead the immortality of fame ; if, 

 moreover, this choice circle of connoisseurs has the sole right of 



