Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy;
it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not
the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure;
but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same
feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being
of individuals and of humanity.