How many sons and daughters have not， with a very small talent， given their parents—and even the less fondly prejudiced ears of their friends—great pleasure with the singing of simple songs？ Then one day there comes to the singer the serpent of dissatisfaction； singing lessons are taken， and—if the pupil is of moderate talent and modest disposition—limitations are discovered. And then， in nine cases out of ten， the singing is dropped， like a hot penny. How many fathers have not banished music from their homes by encouraging their daughters to take singing lessons？ Yet a home may be the fresher for singing that would deserve brickbats at a parish concert.
I may pause here to notice the curious exception that people who cannot on any account be persuaded to sing in the drawing-room， or even in the bath， will without hesitation uplift their tuneless voices at religious meetings or in church. There is a perfectly good and honorable explanation of this， I believe， but it belongs to the realm of metaphysics and is beyond my present scope.
This cursed belief， that if a thing is worth doing at all， it is worth doing well， is the cause of a great impoverishment in our private life， and also， to some extent， of the lowering of standards in our public life. For this tenet of proverbial faith has two effects on small talents： it leads modest persons not to exercise them at all， and immodest persons to attempt to do so too much and to force themselves upon the public. It leads to the decay of letter-writing and of the keeping of diaries， and， as surely， it leads to the publication of memoirs and diaries that should remain locked in the writers' desks.
It leads Mr. Blank not to write verses at all—which he might very well do， for the sake of his own happiness， and for the amusement of his friends—and it leads Miss Dash to pester the overworked editors of various journals with her unsuccessful imitations of Mr. de la Mare， Mr. Yeats， and Dr. Bridges.The result is that our national artistic life now suffers from two great needs： A wider amateur practice of the arts， and a higher， more exclusive， professional standard. Until these are achieved we shall not get the best out of our souls.