Men's fundamental attitudes toward the world are
fixed by the scope and qualities of the activities in which they
partake. The ideal of interest is exemplified in the artistic
attitude. Art is neither merely internal nor merely external;
merely mental nor merely physical. Like every mode of action, it
brings about changes in the world. The changes made by some
actions (those which by contrast may be called mechanical) are
external; they are shifting things about. No ideal reward, no
enrichment of emotion and intellect, accompanies them. Others
contribute to the maintenance of life, and to its external
adornment and display. Many of our existing social activities,
industrial and political, fall in these two classes. Neither the
people who engage in them, nor those who are directly affected by
them, are capable of full and free interest in their work.
Because of the lack of any purpose in the work for the one doing
it, or because of the restricted character of its aim,
intelligence is not adequately engaged. The same conditions
force many people back upon themselves. They take refuge in an
inner play of sentiment and fancies. They are aesthetic but not
artistic, since their feelings and ideas are turned upon
themselves, instead of being methods in acts which modify
conditions. Their mental life is sentimental; an enjoyment of an
inner landscape. Even the pursuit of science may become an
asylum of refuge from the hard conditions of life -- not a
temporary retreat for the sake of recuperation and clarification
in future dealings with the world.
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