ed not pick a quarrel, but we must try to free
the artist and the public too from the influence of cultivated opinion.
The liberation will not be complete until those who have already learned
to despise the opinion of the lower middle-classes learn also to neglect
the standards and the disapproval of people who are forced by their
emotional limitations to regard art as an elegant amenity.

If you would have fine art and fine appreciation of art, you must have a
fine free life for your artists and for yourselves. That is another
thing that Society can do for art: it can kill the middle-class ideal.
Was ever ideal so vulnerable? The industrious apprentice who by slow
pettifogging hardness works his way to the dignity of material
prosperity, Dick Whittington, what a hero for a high-spirited nation!
What dreams our old men dream, what visions float into the minds of our
seers! Eight hours of intelligent production, eight hours of thoughtful
recreation, eight hours of refreshing sleep for all! What a vision to
dangle before the eyes of a hungry people! If it is great art and fine
life that you want, you must renounce this religion of safe mediocrity.
Comfort is the enemy; luxury is merely the bugbear of the bourgeoisie.
No soul was ever ruined by extravagance or even by debauch; it is the
steady, punctual gnawing of comfort that destroys. That is the triumph
of matter over mind; that is the last tyranny. For how are they better
than slaves who must stop their work because it is time for luncheon,
must break up a conversation to dress for dinner, must leave on the
doorstep the friend they have not seen for years so as not to miss the
customary train?

Society can do something for art, because it can increase liberty, and
in a liberal atmosphere art thrives. Even politicians can do something.
They can repeal censorious laws and abolish restrictions on freedom of
thought and speech and conduct. They can protect minorities. They can
defend originality from the hatred of the mediocre mob. They can make an
end of the doctrine that the State has a right to crush unpopular
opinions in the interests of public order. A mighty liberty to be
allowed to speak acceptable words to the rabble! The least that the
State can do is to protect people who have something to say that may
cause a riot. What will not cause a riot is probably not worth saying.
At present, to agitate for an increase of liberty is the best that any
ordinary person can