nd most
precious work, so as to enable ourselves to compete with foreign
countries, or develop new branches of commerce in our own.

Many of us, perhaps, are under the impression that plenty of schooling
will do this; that plenty of lecturing will do it; that sending abroad
for patterns will do it; or that patience, time, and money, and good
will may do it. And, alas, none of these things, nor all of them put
together, will do it. If you want really good work, such as will be
acknowledged by all the world, there is but one way of getting it, and
that is a difficult one. You may offer any premium you choose for
it--but you will find it can't be done for premiums. You may send for
patterns to the antipodes--but you will find it can't be done upon
patterns. You may lecture on the principles of Art to every school in
the kingdom--and you will find it can't be done upon principles. You may
wait patiently for the progress of the age--and you will find your Art
is unprogressive. Or you may set yourselves impatiently to urge it by
the inventions of the age--and you will find your chariot of Art
entirely immovable either by screw or paddle. There's no way of getting
good Art, I repeat, but one--at once the simplest and most
difficult--namely, to enjoy it. Examine the history of nations, and you
will find this great fact clear and unmistakable on the front of
it--that good Art has only been produced by nations who rejoiced in it;
fed themselves with it, as if it were bread; basked in it, as if it were
sunshine; shouted at the sight of it; danced with the delight of it;
quarreled for it; fought for it; starved for it; did, in fact, precisely
the opposite with it of what we want to do with it--they made it to
keep, and we to sell.

9. And truly this is a serious difficulty for us as a commercial nation.
The very primary motive with which we set about the business, makes the
business impossible. The first and absolute condition of the thing's
ever becoming salable is, that we shall make it without wanting to sell
it; nay, rather with a determination not to sell it at any price, if
once we get hold of it. Try to make your Art popular, cheap--a fair
article for your foreign market; and the foreign market will always show
something better. But make it only to please yourselves, and even be
resolved that you won't let anybody else have any; and forthwith you
will find everybody else wants it. And observe, the insuperable
difficulty is