'Is it possible to deliver a strong argument in favor of the Muses proceeding in a cold, rational way? It’s very difficult. One usually preaches to the choir. One would have to appeal to some lofty definitions of human being, to claim that without a spark of inspiration, without an instant of detachment, without an ecstatic moment we would be lesser creatures, ‘we’ as the species and we as individuals. And yet some relevant doubts persist.'

In this essay, Adam Zagajewski argues passionately in favour of the Muses, who are being stifled in a world dominated by scientific progress, technology and mass media. He appears to place himself in a tradition of intellectuals who bemoan the loss of the classical ideal of beauty and watch aghast as the soul is being banished from our culture. But the artist in Zagajewski reveals a far more militant character. He places his hope and faith in the human spirit, that ceaseless flow of thoughts, emotions and experiences that links the past to the future. It is pre-eminently the task of the arts to preserve our high culture, not only by drawing inspiration from the energy and constancy of traditions rooted in the past, but above all through the exercise of the imagination in today’s world.