have
them, the mercy needs no seeking, and their wide home no hallowing.
Surely goodness and mercy shall _follow_ them, _all_ the days of their
life; and they shall dwell in the house of the Lord--FOR EVER.

LECTURE IV

THE RELATION OF ART TO USE

97. Our subject of enquiry to-day, you will remember, is the mode in
which fine art is founded upon, or may contribute to, the practical
requirements of human life.

Its offices in this respect are mainly twofold: it gives Form to
knowledge, and Grace to utility; that is to say, it makes permanently
visible to us things which otherwise could neither be described by our
science, nor retained by our memory; and it gives delightfulness and
worth to the implements of daily use, and materials of dress, furniture
and lodging. In the first of these offices it gives precision and charm
to truth; in the second it gives precision and charm to service. For,
the moment we make anything useful thoroughly, it is a law of nature
that we shall be pleased with ourselves, and with the thing we have
made; and become desirous therefore to adorn or complete it, in some
dainty way, with finer art expressive of our pleasure.

And the point I wish chiefly to bring before you to-day is this close
and healthy connection of the fine arts with material use; but I must
first try briefly to put in clear light the function of art in giving
Form to truth.

98. Much that I have hitherto tried to teach has been disputed on the
ground that I have attached too much importance to art as representing
natural facts, and too little to it as a source of pleasure. And I wish,
in the close of these four prefatory lectures, strongly to assert to
you, and, so far as I can in the time, convince you, that the entire
vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of
use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful or impressive it may be in
itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper
inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects,--either
_to state a true thing_, or to _adorn a serviceable one_. It must never
exist alone--never for itself; it exists rightly only when it is the
means of knowledge, or the grace of agency for life.

99. Now, I pray you to observe--for though I have said this often
before, I have never yet said it clearly enough--every good piece of
art, to whichever of these ends it may be directed, involves first
essentially the evidence of hu