llied to genius,
when they took the form of personal temptations;--it is surely, I say,
sufficient warning against so mean a folly, to discern, as you may with
little pains, that, of all human existences, the lives of men of that
distorted and tainted nobility of intellect are probably the most
miserable.

77. I pass to the second, and for us the more practically important
question, What is the effect of noble art upon other men; what has it
done for national morality in time past: and what effect is the extended
knowledge or possession of it likely to have upon us now? And here we
are at once met by the facts, which are as gloomy as indisputable, that,
while many peasant populations, among whom scarcely the rudest practice
of art has ever been attempted, have lived in comparative innocence,
honour and happiness, the worst foulness and cruelty of savage tribes
have been frequently associated with fine ingenuities of decorative
design; also, that no people has ever attained the higher stages of art
skill, except at a period of its civilisation which was sullied by
frequent, violent and even monstrous crime; and, lastly, that the
attaining of perfection in art power has been hitherto, in every nation,
the accurate signal of the beginning of its ruin.

78. Respecting which phenomena, observe first, that although good never
springs out of evil, it is developed to its highest by contention with
evil. There are some groups of peasantry, in far-away nooks of Christian
countries, who are nearly as innocent as lambs; but the morality which
gives power to art is the morality of men, not of cattle.

Secondly, the virtues of the inhabitants of many country districts are
apparent, not real; their lives are indeed artless, but not innocent;
and it is only the monotony of circumstances, and the absence of
temptation, which prevent the exhibition of evil passions not less real
because often dormant, nor less foul because shown only in petty faults,
or inactive malignities.

79. But you will observe also that _absolute_ artlessness, to men in any
kind of moral health, is impossible; they have always, at least, the art
by which they live--agriculture or seamanship; and in these industries,
skilfully practised, you will find the law of their moral training;
while, whatever the adversity of circumstances, every rightly-minded
peasantry, such as that of Sweden, Denmark, Bavaria, or Switzerland, has
associated with its needful indu