I hope I have made clear enough that æsthetic enjoyment is hostile to
the unkind and wasteful pleasures of selfish indulgence and selfish
appropriation, because the true possession of the beautiful things of
Nature, of Art, and of thought is spiritual, and neither damages, nor
diminishes, nor hoards them; because the lover of the beautiful seeks
for beautiful impressions and remembrances, which are vested in his
soul, and not in material objects. That is the negative benefit of the
love of the beautiful. Let us now proceed to the positive and active
assistance which it renders, when genuine and thorough-paced, to such
thought as we give to the happiness and dignity of others.