“The manufacturer, instead of upholding the honor of his brand, strives only to make as much money as he can by adulterating his products. The workman, feeling a more or less legitimate hostility for his employer, slights his work. Almost all the men of our day seem to regard work as a frightful necessity, as a cursed drudgery, while it ought to be considered as our happiness and our excuse for living. “You must not think that it has always been so. Most of the objects which remain to us from the old days, furniture, utensils, stuffs, show a great conscientiousness in those who made them. “Man likes to work well, quite as much as to work badly. I even believe that it is more agreeable to him, more natural to him, that he _prefers_ to work well. But he listens sometimes to good, sometimes to bad advice, and gives preference to the bad. “And yet, how much happier humanity would be if work, instead of a means to existence, were its end! But, in order that this marvellous change may come about, all mankind must follow the example of the artist, or, better yet, become artists themselves; for the word _artist_, in its widest acceptation, means to me the _man who takes pleasure in what he does_. So it would be desirable were there artists in all trades—artist carpenters, happy in skilfully raising beam and mortice—artist masons, spreading the plaster with pleasure—artist carters, proud of caring for their horses and of not running over those in the street. Is it not true that that would constitute an admirable society? “You see, then, that artists set an example to the rest of the world which might be marvellously fruitful.” “Well argued,” cried Despiau; “I take back what I said, Bourdelle. I acknowledge that you deserve your food. Do take a little more asparagus.” III “Ah, Master!” I said, “you doubtless have the gift of persuasion. But, after all, what is the good of proving the usefulness of artists? Certainly, as you have shown us, their passion for work might set a good example. But is not the work which they do at the bottom useless, and is it not that precisely which gives it value in our eyes?” “What do you mean?” “I mean, that happily works of art do not count among useful things, that is to say, amongst those that serve to feed us, to clothe us, to shelter us—in a word, to satisfy our bodily needs. On the contrary, they tear us from the slavery of practical life and open before us an enchanted land of contemplation and of dreams.” “The point is, my dear friend, that we are usually mistaken in what is useful and what is not,” Rodin answered. “I admit that we must call useful all that ministers to the necessities of our material life. But to-day, besides that, riches are also considered useful, though their display only arouses vanity and excites envy; these riches are not only useless, but cumbersome. [Illustration: CERES By Rodin