Taste and genius cannot be constrained by arbitrary means; moreover, artistic appreciation is the prerogative of the few, and the diffusion of taste is not the same thing as the improvement of taste. In other words, it is a mistake to make a good thing too common.
This conservative point of view, by no means obsolete, has its interest in connection with the establishment, in a city hitherto distinguished chiefly for its industries, of an institution designed for the promotion of both science and the fine arts—an institution which is broadly inclusive and democratic, aiming to make the best things as common as possible, based upon the principles that art and industrial education should go hand in hand, that science necessarily underlies all artistic expression, and that the artist, most susceptible of beings, is the product of his environment, and can develop his highest powers only where he is generally understood and appreciated. Art, according to this theory, springs from and is dependent upon popular sympathy.
Though too early to hazard any predictions as to the creative work that may result from the foundation of the Carnegie Library and Institute, it is safe to say that this institution has already become a definite shaping influence, a vital educational and social force among the people in general.
As some confusion exists, even in Pittsburgh, in regard to the terms Library and Institute, it is well to make it clear at the start that there are two separate organizations, controlled by two Boards of Trustees, though they occupy the same building (with the exception of one department of the Institute: the Technical Schools) and are of course closely related in their purpose and work.
As long ago as 1881 Andrew Carnegie planned to found a great free library; and this, with branches, was his first
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