One knows quite well, to put the matter simply, the
extent of one's own limitations. There are courses of action which
seem natural and easy; others which seem hard, but just possible;
others again which are frankly impossible. However noble a life,
for instance, I thought the life of a missionary or of a doctor to
be, I could not under any circumstances adopt the role of either.
There are certain things which I might force myself to do which I
do not do, and which I practically know I shall not do. And the
number of people is very small who, when circumstances suggest one
course, resolutely carry out another. The artistic life is a very
hard one to analyse, because at the outset it seems so frankly
selfish a life. One does what one most desires to do, one develops
one's own nature, its faculties and powers. If one is successful,
the most one can claim is that one has perhaps added a little to
the sum of happiness, of innocent enjoyment, that one has perhaps
increased or fed in a few people the perception of beauty. Of
course the difficulty is increased by the conventional belief that
any career is justified by success in that career. And as long as a
man attains a certain measure of renown we do not question very
much the nature of his aims.
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