Granted that the society which produces the highest goods in the greatest profusion is the best--let us not argue from this that society should be organized with the direct aim of producing goods. For what if goods be to society what happiness is said to be to men--things to be attained only by striving for something else? In all good things--whether it be in art, literature or philosophy--there is much of the free, the perverse, the unique, the incalculable. In short, good things can only be produced by great men--and these are exceptions. The best we can do, then, is to inaugurate a society in which great men will find it possible to live, will be even encouraged to live. Can a society in which rights are affixed to functions serve for that? A function, in practice, in a democratic state--that will mean something which can be seen to be useful for today, but not for tomorrow, far less for any distant future. The more subtle, spiritual, posthumous the activity of a man the less it will be seen to be a function. Art and philosophy arise when leisure and not work is the ruling convention. It is true that artists and philosophers work, and at a higher tension than other men; but it is in leisure that they must _conceive_ their works: what obvious function do they then fulfil? Even the most harassed of geniuses, even Burns would never have become immortal had he not had the leisure to ponder, dream and love. Idleness is as necessary for the production of a work of art as labour. And with some men perhaps whole years of idleness are needed. Artists must always be privileged creatures. It is privileges, and not rights, that they want. 86 _What is Freedom?_ The athlete, by the disciplining of his body, creates for himself a new world of actions; he can now do things which before were prohibited to him; in consequence, he has enlarged the sphere of his freedom. The thinker and the artist by discipline of a different kind are rewarded in the same way. They are now more free, because they have now more capacity. There are people, however, who think one can be free whether one has the capacity for freedom or not--a characteristically modern fallacy. But a man the muscles of whose body and mind are weak cannot do _anything;_ how can he be free? The concept of Freedom cannot be separated from that of Power. 87 _Freedom, in the Dance_ Even the most unbridled dance is a form of constraint. The completest freedom of movement is the reward of the severest discipline. 88 _A Moral for Moderns_ A spring gushed forth here on the airy height; but the soil was not hard enough to retain it; and the water sapped away among the soft moss. One day a man came and laid down a hard channel for the spring. Imprisoned on both sides, it now imperiously sought an outlet and--a miracle!--leapt glittering into the sunshine. The history of Freedom. 89 _The Renaissance: A Thesis_