erence to a
sister art. I was in the studio of an English landscape-painter when
some pictures arrived from an artist in the country to go along with his
own to one of the exhibitions. They were all very pretty and very
clever--indeed, so clever were they, that their cleverness was almost
offensive--and so long as they were looked at by themselves, the
brilliance of them was rather dazzling. But the instant they were placed
by the side of thoroughly careful and earnest work, it became strikingly
evident that they had been painted hastily, and would be almost
immediately exhausted by the purchaser. Now these pictures were the
_journalism of painting_; and my friend told me that when once an
artist has got into the habit of doing hasty work like that, he seldom
acquires better habits afterwards.

Professional writers who follow journalism for its immediate profits,
are liable in like manner to retain the habit of diffuseness in
literature which ought to be more finished and more concentrated.
Therefore, although journalism is a good teacher of promptitude and
decision, it often spoils a hand for higher literature by incapacitating
it for perfect finish; and it is better for a writer who has ambition to
write little, _but always his best_, than to dilute himself in daily
columns. One of the greatest privileges which an author can aspire to is
_to be allowed to write little_, and that is a privilege which the
professional writer does not enjoy except in such rare instances as that
of Tennyson, whose careful finish is as prudent in the professional
sense as it is satisfactory to the scrupulous fastidiousness of the
artist.

LETTER IV.

TO AN ENERGETIC AND SUCCESSFUL COTTON MANUFACTURER.

Two classes in their lower grades inevitably hostile--The spiritual
and temporal powers--The functions of both not easily exercised by the
same person--Humboldt, Faraday, Livingstone--The difficulty about
time--Limits to the energy of the individual--Jealousy between the
classes--That this jealousy ought not to exist--Some of the sciences
based upon an industrial development--The work of the intellectual
class absolutely necessary in a highly civilized community--That it
grows in numbers and influence side by side with the industrial class.

Our last conversation together, in the privacy of your splendid new
drawing-room after the guests had gone away and the music had ceased for
the night, left me under the impressio