As a preliminary to this it will be well to examine some of the causes of low taste. Why is it that millions enjoy _When it’s Night-time in Italy_, but are bored to tears by the Schumann _A minor Concerto_? Why should _The Bat_ have power to thrill them when _Macbeth_ leaves them cold? Why, in short, do they prefer the least good to the best? I will not say “worst,” because nothing is bad which artistically can give pleasure and morally is not evil. The obvious reason, which most of us would give glibly, is that these people are intellectually and spiritually incapable of appreciating good art. How far this is true, and how far the other reasons I shall give are responsible, I would not care to suggest. Very probably it is true in the large majority of cases. In a world the majority of whose inhabitants are quite incapable of thinking intelligently or logically about the most important influences in their lives, where politics and religion and the fundamental human relationships are governed by ignorant prejudices and irrational habits, where a large proportion of men are mentally and physically below par, can we expect every man and woman to possess the latent ability to embrace the beautiful? However that may be, this obstacle to artistic education can be removed only by the sociologist, the educationist, the moralist, and the biologist. We who are concerned with the artistic factor can duly presuppose the existence, now or to-morrow, of a germ of artistic impulse, since we can only influence those who are capable. Secondly, as we noticed before, the greater familiarity and accessibility of the low grade is a potent hindrance to development. Thirdly, we must remember that the average man seeks recreation when he embraces art. He may have degraded his idea of the recreational and come to think that unless an experience “livens him up” or “takes him out of himself” it is not suitable recreation. The fact remains that as a rule he is unwilling to give the matter any sustained thought (even though exercising his mind might be a great change from the routine of manual labour), and he is satisfied if the day’s leisure is passed pleasantly. The idea of sustained, cumulative recreation, such as is gained by the real lover of any art, when the pleasure of to-day adds to the recreative value of that of to-morrow, when each experience makes the following keener and more lasting, never occurs to him.