Not only do these talented energetic people retain their self-
respect through shameful misconduct: they do not even lose the
respect of others, because their talents benefit and interest
everybody, whilst their vices affect only a few. An actor, a
painter, a composer, an author, may be as selfish as he likes
without reproach from the public if only his art is superb; and
he cannot fulfil his condition without sufficient effort and
sacrifice to make him feel noble and martyred in spite of his
selfishness. It may even happen that the selfishness of an artist
may be a benefit to the public by enabling him to concentrate
himself on their gratification with a recklessness of every other
consideration that makes him highly dangerous to those about him.
In sacrificing others to himself he is sacrificing them to the
public he gratifies; and the public is quite content with that
arrangement. The public actually has an interest in the artist's
vices.

It has no such interest in the surgeon's vices. The surgeon's art
is exercised at its expense, not for its gratification. We do not
go to the operating table as we go to the theatre, to the picture
gallery, to the concert room, to be entertained and delighted: we
go to be tormented and maimed, lest a worse thing should befall
us. It is of the most extreme importance to us that the experts
on whose assurance we face this horror and suffer this mutilation
should leave no interests but our own to think of; should judge
our cases scientifically; and should feel about them kindly. Let
us see what guarantees we have: first for the science, and then
for the kindness.