Excerpt from The Ministry of Fine Art: To the Happiness of Life; Essays on Various Arts<br><br>Art is no light matter for those who would really master it. Its science is as needful as its poetry; for its works may be ideally conceived, but they need to be produced as things of reality to bring them within reach of comprehension. It is this compound nature that gives them all their charm and power; on their material side as things Of skill, on their spiritual Side as the interpreters Of the intellect, the emotions, and the passions Of men and thus it is that art approaches SO closely to our affections, and can become the companion of our lives. The soul Of art may sound a mere poetical expression, but it is as true as the plainest prose; for just as in ourselves the life Of the soul is the invisible source of all that gives value to our outward forms, so that mysterious life which glows from within the cold marble of the sculptor, or gleams from beneath the surface of the painter's art, is that without which their works are worthless, but before which we bow in acknowledgment of that soul in them which claims sympathy with our own.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.