*
My idea of man's chief end was to enrich the world with
things of beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while
doing so.
*
But the gymnast is not my favourite; he has little or no
tincture of the artist in his composition; his soul is
small and pedestrian, for the most part, since his
profession makes no call upon it, and does not accustom him
to high ideas. But if a man is only so much of an actor
that he can stumble through a farce, he is made free of a
new order of thoughts. He has something else to think
about beside the money-box. He has a pride of his own,
and, what is of far more importance, he has an aim before
him that he can never quite attain. He has gone upon a
pilgrimage that will last him his life long, because there
is no end to it short of perfection. He will better
himself a little day by day; or, even if he has given up
the attempt, he will always remember that once upon a time
he had conceived this high ideal, that once upon a time he
fell in love with a star. 'Tis better to have loved and
lost.' Although the moon should have nothing to say to
Endymion, although he should settle down with Audrey and
feed pigs, do you not think he would move with a better
grace and cherish higher thoughts to the end? The louts he
meets at church never had a fancy above Audrey's snood; but
there is a reminiscence in Endymion's heart that, like a
spice, keeps it fresh and haughty.
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