We must begin at the beginning and endeavour to establish quite elementary notions as to the nature of things. And this is especially necessary to-day because in our civilization we have placed a great gulf between those who work at the thing we call Art and all other workers. I shall endeavour to show that this is one of the fundamental evils of our time, and in order to do this it is necessary to go back to the beginning.

The word “Art” in the dictionary has quite a simple meaning; it means simply “skill.” Thus we use the word art in common speech when we call a person “artful,” and when we speak of the “art” of cooking, the “art” of government or the “art” of living. But, it is quite obvious, you cannot be skilful about nothing; you cannot just be skilful. Skill must be applied to something, so by the word ‘ ‘art’ ‘ we mean first of all skill in doing. To get a nail to go into a wall without damaging either the nail or the wall requires considerable skill. So hanging pictures and such-like jobs is, as we say, “quite an art,” and therefore a man who makes a good job of it is, as we say, “quite an artist.” From this it becomes clear that the word “art” soon takes on a meaning of more than merely skill in doing and comes to mean skill in making—to do a thing skilfully is to make a good job of it.