But it is said to me, "You only give another narrower definition of art
and science, which science does not agree with; but even this does not
exclude them, and notwithstanding all you say, there still remains the
scientific and art activities of men like Galileo, Bruno, Homer, Michael
Angelo, Beethoven, Wagner, and other learned men and artists of lesser
magnitude who have devoted all their lives to art and science."
Usually this is said in the endeavour to establish a link, which in
other cases they disown, to connect the activity of the former learned
men and artists with the modern ones, trying to forget that new
principle of the division of labour by reason of which art and science
now occupy a privileged position.
First of all, it is not possible to establish any such connection
between the former factors and the modern ones, even as the holy life of
the first Christian has nothing in common with the lives of popes: thus,
the activity of men like Galileo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, has nothing in
common with the activities of men like Tyndal, Hugo, and Wagner. As the
Holy Fathers would have denied any connection with the Popes, so the
ancient factors of science would have denied any relationship with the
modern ones.
Secondly, owing to that importance which art and science ascribe to
themselves, they have established a very clear standard by means of
which we are able to determine whether they do, or do not, fulfil their
destiny; and we therefore decide, not without proofs, but according to
their own standard, whether that activity which calls itself art and
science has, or has not, any right thus to call itself.
Though the Egyptians or Greek priests performed mysteries known to none
but themselves, and said that these mysteries included all art and
science, I could not, on the ground of the asserted utility of these to
the people, ascertain the reality of their science, because this said
science, according to their _ipse dixit_, was a supernatural one: but
now we all have a very clear and plain standard, excluding everything
supernatural; art and science promise to fulfil the mental activity of
mankind, for the welfare of society, or even of the whole of mankind.
Therefore we have a right to call only such activity, art and science,
which has this aim in view, and attains it. And therefore, however those
learned men and artists may call themselves, who excogitate the theory
of penal laws, of state laws, and of the laws of nations, who invent new
guns and explosive substances, who compose obscene operas and operettas,
or similarly obscene novels, we have no right to call such activity the
activity of art and science, because this activity has not in view the
welfare of the society or of mankind, but on the contrary is directed to
the harm of men.
In like manner, however these learned men may call themselves, who in
their simplicity are occupied during all their lives with the
investigations of the microscopical animalcule and of telescopical and
spectral phenomena; or those artists who, after having carefully
investigated the monuments of old times, are busy writing historical
novels, making pictures, concocting symphonies and beautiful verses, all
these men, notwithstanding all their zeal, cannot, according to the
definition of their own science, be called men of science or art, first
because their activity in science for the sake of science, and of art
for art, has not in view man's welfare; and secondly, because we do not
see any results of these activities for the welfare of society or
mankind.
The fact that sometimes something useful or agreeable for some men comes
of their activities, by no means gives us any right, according to their
own scientific definition, to consider them to be men of art and
science.
In like manner, however those men may call themselves who excogitate the
application of electricity to lighting, heating, and motion; or who
invent some new chemical combinations, producing dynamite or fine
colours; men who correctly play Beethoven's symphonies; who act on the
stage, or paint portraits well, domestic pictures, landscapes, and other
pictures; who compose interesting novels, the object of which is merely
to amuse rich people,--the activity of these men cannot be called art
and science, because this activity is not directed, like the activity of
the brain in the organism, to the welfare of the whole, but is guided
merely by personal gain, privileges, money, which one obtains for the
inventing and producing of so-called art. Therefore this activity cannot
possibly be separated from other covetous, personal activity, which adds
agreeable things to life, as the activity of innkeepers, jockeys,
milliners, prostitutes, and so on, because the activity of the first,
the second, and the last, do not come under the definition of art and
science, on the ground of the division of labour, which promises to
serve for the welfare of all mankind.
The scientific definition of art and science is a correct one; but
unluckily, the activity of modern art and science does not come under
it. Some produce directly hurtful things, others useless things; and a
third party invents trifles fit only for the use of rich people. They
may all be very good persons, but they do not fulfil what they have
taken upon themselves to fulfil, according to their own definition; and
therefore they have as little right to call themselves men of art and
science as the modern clergy, who do not fulfil their duties, have right
to consider themselves the bearers and teachers of divine truth.
It is not difficult to understand why the factors of modern art and
science have not fulfilled their calling, and cannot fulfil it. They do
not fulfil it, because they have converted their duty into a right. The
scientific and art activities, in their true sense, are fruitful only
when they ignore their rights, and know only their duties. Mankind value
this activity so highly, only because it is a self-denying one.
If men are really called to serve others by _mental_ labour, they will
have to suffer in performing this labour, because it is only by
suffering that spiritual fruit is produced. Selfdenying and suffering
are the lot and portion of a thinker and an artist, because their object
is the welfare of men. Men are wretched: they suffer and go to ruin. One
cannot wait and lose one's time.
A thinker and an artist will never sit on the heights of Olympus, as we
are apt to imagine: he must suffer in company with men in order to find
salvation or consolation. He will suffer because he is constantly in
anxiety and agitation; he might have found out and told what would give
happiness to men, might have saved them from suffering; and he has
neither found it out nor said it, and to-morrow it may be too late--he
may die. And therefore suffering and self-sacrifice will always be the
lot of the thinker and the artist.
He who is brought up in an establishment where learned men and artists
are created (but, in reality, they create only destroyers of art and
science), and who obtains a diploma, and is well provided for, for life,
will not become a thinker or an artist, but he who would gladly abstain
from thinking, and from expressing that which is ingrafted in his soul,
but which he dare not overlook, being drawn to it by two irresistible
powers,--his own inward impulse and the wants of men.
Thinkers and artists cannot be sleek, fat men, enjoying themselves in
self-conceit. Spiritual and mental activity and their expressions are
really necessary for others, and are the most difficult of men's
callings,--a cross, as it is called in the gospel.
The only one certain characteristic of the presence of a calling is this
self-denying,--the sacrifice of one's self in order to manifest the
power ingrafted in man for the benefit of others. To teach how many
insects there are in the world, and to observe the spots on the sun, to
write novels and operas, can be done without suffering; but to teach men
their welfare, which entirely consists in self denial and in serving
others, and to express this teaching powerfully, cannot be done without
self-denial.
The Church existed in her purity as long as her teachers endured
patiently and suffered; but as soon as they became fat and sleek, their
teaching activity ended. "Formerly," say the people, "priests were of
gold, and chalices of wood; now chalices are of gold, and priests of
wood." It was not in vain that Jesus Christ died on a cross: it is not
in vain that sacrifice and suffering conquer every thing.
As for our art and sciences, they are provided for: they have diplomas,
and everybody only thinks about how to provide still better for them;
that is, to make it impossible for them to serve men. A true art and a
true science have two unmistakable characteristics,--the first, an
interior one, that a minister of art or science fulfils his calling, not
for the sake of gain, but with self-denial; and the second, an exterior
one, that his productions are intelligible to all men, whose welfare he
is aiming at.
Whatever men may consider to be their destiny and welfare, science will
be the teacher of this destiny and welfare, and art the expression of
this teaching. The laws of Solon, of Confucius, are science; the
teachings of Moses, of Christ, are science; the temples in Athens, the
psalms of David, church worship, are art: but finding out the fourth
dimension of matter, and tabulating chemical combinations, and so on,
have never been, and never will be, science.
The place of true science is occupied, in our time, by theology and law;
the place of true art is occupied by the church and state ceremonies, in
which nobody believes, and which are not considered seriously by
anybody; while that which with us is called art and science, is only the
production of idle minds and feelings desirous to stimulate similarly
idle minds and feelings, and unintelligible and dumb for the people,
because they have not their welfare in view.
Since we have known the lives of men, we have always and everywhere
found a ruling false doctrine, calling itself science, which does not
show men the true meaning of life, but rather hides it from them.
So it was among the Egyptians, the Indians, the Chinese, and partially
among the Greeks (sophists); and among the mystics, Gnostics, and
cabalists; in the Middle Ages, in theology, scholasticism, alchemy; and
so on down to our days. How fortunate indeed we are to be living in such
a peculiar time, when that mental activity which calls itself science is
not only free from errors, but, we are assured, is in a state of
peculiar progress! Does not this good fortune come from the fact that
man can not and will not see his own deformities? While of the sciences
of theologians, and that of cabalists, nothing is left but empty words,
why should we be so particularly fortunate?
The characteristics of our times and of former times are quite similar;
there is the same self-conceit and blind assurance that we only are on
the true way, and that only with us true knowledge begins; there are the
same expectations that we shall presently discover something very
wonderful; and there is the same exposure of our error, in the fact that
all our wisdom remains with us, while the masses of the people do not
understand it, and neither accept nor need it. Our position is a very
difficult one, but why should we not look it in the face?
It is time to come to our senses, and to look more closely to ourselves.
We are, indeed, nothing but scribes and Pharisees, who, sitting in
Moses' seat, and having the key of the kingdom of God, do not enter
themselves, and refuse entrance to others.
We, priests of art and science, are most wretched deceivers, who have
much less right to our position than the most cunning and depraved
priests ever had.
For our privileged position, there is no excuse whatever: we have taken
up this position by a kind of swindling, and we retain it by deceit.
Pagan priests, the clergy, Russian as well as Roman Catholic, however
depraved they may have been, had rights to their position, because they
professed to teach men about life and salvation. And we, who have cut
the ground from under their feet, and proved to men that they were
deceivers, we have taken their place, and not only do not teach men
about life, we even acknowledge that there is no necessity for them to
learn. We suck the blood of the people, and for this we teach our
children Greek and Latin grammars so that they also may continue the
same parasitic life which we are living.
We say, There have been castes, we will abolish them. But what means the
fact that some men and their children work, and other men and their
children do not work?
Bring a Hindu who does not know our language, and show him the Russian
and the European lives of many generations, and he will recognize the
existence of two important definite castes of working-people and of
non-working people as they are in existence in his own country. As in
his country, so also among us, the right of not working is acquired
through a peculiar initiation which we call art and science, and
education generally.
It is this education, and the perversions of reason associated with it,
that have brought to us this wonderful folly, whence it has come to pass
that we do not see what is so plain and certain. We are eating up the
lives of our brethren, and consider ourselves to be Christians, humane,
educated, and quite in the right.