Now, all works of art have a common element notwithstanding their diversity. They express, each in their own medium, a mood or moods of the artist; they arise, that is, out of the impulse to expression, which is as primitive as feeling itself. Every man seeks automatically to heighten his feelings of pleasure and to relieve his feelings of pain. The artist is the man who finds that he can gain such enhancement or relief, not only by the direct action of giving expression to his feeling, but also by arousing a kindred feeling in others. Hence originates in him that desire to transmit his moods to an external audience which must be regarded as the simplest and most primordial inducement to artistic production. And also as a further means of realising the same purpose there arises the endeavour to give the artistic product—that is to say, the externalised expression of his mood—a form which may facilitate the revival of the original state in an ever wider circle of sympathisers. Thus from the reflex outlet for a strong emotional pressure we are led to a deliberate creation, in which the intellectual and volitional elements preponderate increasingly over the automatic, emotional impulse. But from this gain in consciousness there does not result any change in the essential character of the artistic activity. However great the difference between the highest forms of art, such as, for instance, a drama or a sculpture, and the primitive dance-pantomime, the underlying impulse is still the same in both cases. Perpetuation—that is, expression which is addressed to a fictitious audience—can only be explained by reference to the enhancing and relieving effects which man has experienced as results of emotional transmission. And all the intentional activities, the artistic composition, the artistic technique, and so on, by which perpetuation is secured can thus be regarded as subservient to the emotionalistic purpose. Moreover, these same activities, however unemotional they may be in themselves, will enable the artist to extort an increased emotional value from his “motives”; for instance, the greater a man’s skill in suggesting the peculiar thrill of colour, the greater will be his pleasure in colour itself. Technical excellency, which to the outsider is a cold and neutral thing, may thus to the artist and to the intelligent critic be full of expressional significance. From whichever point of view we may look at art, we shall have to interpret its central and essential characteristics in terms of feeling. In this way we can account for it as a self-sufficing, or as we have said, autotelic activity. And in this way only can we explain the strength of that compelling force which urges an artist to an exertion from which he derives no external utility.