business. That
is indeed so, however. The giving brightness to picture is much, but the
giving brightness to life more. And remember, were it as patterns only,
you cannot, without the realities, have the pictures. _You cannot have a
landscape by Turner, without a country for him to paint; you cannot have
a portrait by Titian, without a man to be portrayed._ I need not prove
that to you, I suppose, in these short terms; but in the outcome I can
get no soul to believe that the beginning of art _is in getting our
country clean, and our people beautiful_. I have been ten years trying
to get this very plain certainty--I do not say believed--but even
thought of, as anything but a monstrous proposition. To get your country
clean, and your people lovely;--I assure you that is a necessary work of
art to begin with! There has indeed been art in countries where people
lived in dirt to serve God, but never in countries where they lived in
dirt to serve the devil. There has indeed been art where the people were
not all lovely--where even their lips were thick--and their skins black,
because the sun had looked upon them; but never in a country where the
people were pale with miserable toil and deadly shade, and where the
lips of youth, instead of being full with blood, were pinched by famine,
or warped with poison. And now, therefore, note this well, the gist of
all these long prefatory talks. I said that the two great moral
instincts were those of Order and Kindness. Now, all the arts are
founded on agriculture by the hand, and on the graces, and kindness of
feeding, and dressing, and lodging your people. Greek art begins in the
gardens of Alcinous--perfect order, leeks in beds, and fountains in
pipes. And Christian art, as it arose out of chivalry, was only possible
so far as chivalry compelled both kings and knights to care for the
right personal training of their people; it perished utterly when those
kings and knights became +demoboroi+, devourers of the people.
And it will become possible again only, when, literally, the sword is
beaten into the ploughshare, when your St. George of England shall
justify his name, and Christian art shall be known as its Master was, in
breaking of bread.

117. Now look at the working out of this broad principle in minor
detail; observe how, from highest to lowest, health of art has first
depended on reference to industrial use. There is first the need of cup
and platter, especially of cup; for