ng compared to
that which might have been earned by the work which was sacrificed for
them. It becomes almost a profession in itself to keep oneself
notorious.

To spend large slices out of one's time in the mere putting forward of
one's work, _showing_ it apart from _doing_ it, necessary as this
sometimes is, is a thing to be done grudgingly; still more so should one
grudge to be called from one's work here, there, and everywhere by the
social claims which crowd round the position of a public man.

* * * * *

There are strenuous things enough for you in the work itself without
wasting your strength on these. We will speak of them presently; but a
word first upon originality.

Don't _strive_ to be original; no one ever got Heaven's gift of
invention by saying, "I must have it, and since I don't feel it I must
assume it and pretend it;" follow rather your master patiently and
lovingly for a long time; give and take, echo his habits as Botticelli
echoed Filippo Lippi's, but improve upon them; add something to them if
you can, as he also did, and pass then on, as he also did, to the
_little_ Filippo--Filippino--making him a truer and sweeter heart than
his father, out of the well of truth and sweetness with which
Botticelli's own heart was brimming. Do this, but at the same time
expect with happy patience, as a boy longs for his manhood, yet does not
try to hasten it and does not pretend to forestall it, the time when
some fresh idea in imagination, some fresh method in design, some fresh
process in craftsmanship, will come to you as a reward of patient
working--and come by accident, as all such things do, lest you should
think it your own and miss the joy of knowing that it is not yours but
Heaven's.

And when this comes, guard it and mature it carefully. Do not throw it
out too lavishly broadcast with the ostentation of a generous genius
having gifts to spare. Share it with proved and worthy friends, when
they notice it and ask you about it, but in the meanwhile develop and
cultivate it as a gardener does a tree. And this leads me to the most
important point of all--namely, the value, the all-sufficing value, of
_one_ new step on the road of Beauty. If such is really granted you,
consider it as enough for your lifetime. One such thing in the history
of the arts has generally been enough for a century; how much more,
then, for a generation.

For indeed there is only one rule for fine