Essays on Vocation Author:Basil Joseph Mathews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VOCATION IN ART By H. Walford Davies E. ' And what did the old man say to you ? ' S. ' He used to tell me every time I went to see him that I should nev... more »er be a happy man till I was an artist.' E. ' A prophet of God ! But why couldn't he say the same to poor little Ned, not four miles away, who was left to find out for himself years later and through manifold tribulations ? '— (From Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, ii. 272.) Both the reader and writer of this essay have to face special difficulty in the matter of definition. It is almost as hard to describe or define the vocation of art as to describe love itself as a vocation. The writer is further hampered in that he only knows one art, music, and that very partially, while what is here said must be addressed to readers intending to devote themselves to painting, sculpture, music, architecture, town-planning, or to any fine art or fine craft that can contribute to the necessary joy and beauty of the world. Unlike other vocations except, it would seem, those of scientist and saint, to be an artist is in reality every man's vocation. Such a widening of the term seems to defeat the very purpose of a definition and threatens to make discussion vague and unserviceable. For when any definition is made so vast, it becomes what may better be called an munition; and one feels not so much to discern the truth as to hover within it. Yet, in the case of art this first discomfort of vagueness must be borne, in order to realize the nature and boundless extent of its demands and rewards. It seems impossible to divide the artist from the man. Artists work for men who are potential artists ; and men love an artist who is above all a man. Other vocations seem less inextricably human,more detachable from character, more amenable t...« less