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+Project Gutenberg's Modern Painters Volume II (of V), by John Ruskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Modern Painters Volume II (of V)
+
+Author: John Ruskin
+
+Release Date: September 4, 2009 [EBook #29906]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MODERN PAINTERS VOLUME II (OF V) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Marius Borror and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's notes: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
+are listed at the end of the text.
+
+Chapter headings were originally constructed as side-notes. They were
+placed here at the head of their respective paragraphs, and moved to
+paragraph's start where given at paragraph's middle. See HTML version
+for the original headers placement.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: LANDSCAPE FROM A PAINTING BY J. M. W. TURNER]
+
+
+ Library Edition
+
+ THE COMPLETE WORKS
+
+ OF
+
+ JOHN RUSKIN
+
+
+ MODERN PAINTERS
+ VOLUME II--OF TRUTH AND THEORETIC
+ FACULTIES
+ _Volume III_--OF MANY THINGS
+
+
+ NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
+ NEW YORK CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+ MODERN PAINTERS.
+
+ VOLUME II.,
+
+ CONTAINING
+
+ PART III.,
+
+ SECTIONS I. AND II.
+
+ OF THE IMAGINATIVE AND THEORETIC FACULTIES.
+
+
+
+
+ SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.
+
+ PART III.
+
+ OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY.
+
+
+
+ SECTION I.
+
+ OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--Of the Rank and Relations of the Theoretic Faculty.
+ PAGE
+ Sec. 1. With what care the subject is to be approached. 1
+ Sec. 2. And of what importance considered. 2
+ Sec. 3. The doubtful force of the term "utility". 3
+ Sec. 4. Its proper sense. 4
+ Sec. 5. How falsely applied in these times. 4
+ Sec. 6. The evil consequences of such interpretation. How connected
+ with national power. 5
+ Sec. 7. How to be averted. 6
+ Sec. 8. Division of the pursuits of men into subservient and objective. 8
+ Sec. 9. Their relative dignities. 10
+ Sec. 10. How reversed through erring notions of the contemplative
+ and imaginative faculties. 10
+ Sec. 11. Object of the present section. 11
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--Of the Theoretic Faculty as concerned with Pleasures of
+ Sense.
+
+ Sec. 1. Explanation of the term "theoretic". 12
+ Sec. 2. Of the differences of rank in pleasures of sense. 12
+ Sec. 3. Use of the terms Temperate and Intemperate. 13
+ Sec. 4. Right use of the term "intemperate". 13
+ Sec. 5. Grounds of inferiority in the pleasures which are subjects of
+ intemperance. 14
+ Sec. 6. Evidence of higher rank in pleasures of sight and hearing. 15
+ Sec. 7. How the lower pleasures may be elevated in rank. 16
+ Sec. 8. Ideas of beauty how essentially moral. 17
+ Sec. 9. How degraded by heartless reception. 17
+ Sec. 10. How exalted by affection. 18
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--Of Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Impressions of Sense.
+
+ Sec. 1. By what test is the health of the perceptive faculty to be
+ determined? 19
+ Sec. 2. And in what sense may the terms Right and Wrong be attached
+ to its conclusions? 20
+ Sec. 3. What power we have over impressions of sense. 21
+ Sec. 4. Depends on acuteness of attention. 21
+ Sec. 5. Ultimate conclusions universal. 22
+ Sec. 6. What duty is attached to this power over impressions of sense. 22
+ Sec. 7. How rewarded. 23
+ Sec. 8. Especially with respect to ideas of beauty. 23
+ Sec. 9. Errors induced by the power of habit. 24
+ Sec. 10. The necessity of submission in early stages of judgment. 24
+ Sec. 11. The large scope of matured judgment. 25
+ Sec. 12. How distinguishable from false taste. 25
+ Sec. 13. The danger of a spirit of choice. 26
+ Sec. 14. And criminality. 27
+ Sec. 15. How certain conclusions respecting beauty are by reason
+ demonstrable. 27
+ Sec. 16. With what liabilities to error. 28
+ Sec. 17. The term "beauty" how limitable in the outset. Divided
+ into typical and vital. 28
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--Of False Opinions held concerning Beauty.
+
+ Sec. 1. Of the false opinion that truth is beauty, and vice versa. 30
+ Sec. 2. Of the false opinion that beauty is usefulness. Compare
+ Chap. xii. Sec. 5. 31
+ Sec. 3. Of the false opinion that beauty results from custom. Compare
+ Chap. vi. Sec. 1. 31
+ Sec. 4. The twofold operation of custom. It deadens sensation, but
+ confirms affection. 31
+ Sec. 5. But never either creates or destroys the essence of beauty. 32
+ Sec. 6. Instances. 32
+ Sec. 7. Of the false opinion that beauty depends on the association of
+ ideas. 33
+ Sec. 8. Association. Is, 1st, rational. It is of no efficiency as a
+ cause of beauty. 33
+ Sec. 9. Association accidental. The extent of its influence. 34
+ Sec. 10. The dignity of its function. 35
+ Sec. 11. How it is connected with impressions of beauty. 36
+ Sec. 12. And what caution it renders necessary in the examination of
+ them. 36
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--Of Typical Beauty:--First, of Infinity, or the Type of
+ Divine Incomprehensibility.
+
+ Sec. 1. Impossibility of adequately treating the subject. 38
+ Sec. 2. With what simplicity of feeling to be approached. 38
+ Sec. 3. The child instinct respecting space. 39
+ Sec. 4. Continued in after life. 40
+ Sec. 5. Whereto this instinct is traceable. 40
+ Sec. 6. Infinity how necessary in art. 41
+ Sec. 7. Conditions of its necessity. 42
+ Sec. 8. And connected analogies. 42
+ Sec. 9. How the dignity of treatment is proportioned to the expression
+ of infinity. 43
+ Sec. 10. Examples among the Southern schools. 44
+ Sec. 11. Among the Venetians. 44
+ Sec. 12. Among the painters of landscape. 45
+ Sec. 13. Other modes in which the power of infinity is felt. 45
+ Sec. 14. The beauty of curvature. 46
+ Sec. 15. How constant in external nature. 46
+ Sec. 16. The beauty of gradation. 47
+ Sec. 17. How found in nature. 47
+ Sec. 18. How necessary in Art. 48
+ Sec. 19. Infinity not rightly implied by vastness. 49
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.--Of Unity, or the Type of the Divine Comprehensiveness.
+
+ Sec. 1. The general conception of divine Unity. 50
+ Sec. 2. The glory of all things is their Unity. 50
+ Sec. 3. The several kinds of unity. Subjectional. Original. Of
+ sequence, and of membership. 51
+ Sec. 4 Unity of membership. How secured. 52
+ Sec. 5. Variety. Why required. 53
+ Sec. 6. Change, and its influence on beauty. 54
+ Sec. 7. The love of change. How morbid and evil. 55
+ Sec. 8. The conducing of variety towards unity of subjection. 55
+ Sec. 9. And towards unity of sequence. 57
+ Sec. 10. The nature of proportion. 1st, of apparent proportion. 57
+ Sec. 11. The value of apparent proportion in curvature. 60
+ Sec. 12. How by nature obtained. 61
+ Sec. 13. Apparent proportion in melodies of line. 61
+ Sec. 14. Error of Burke in this matter. 62
+ Sec. 15. Constructive proportion. Its influence in plants. 63
+ Sec. 16. And animals. 64
+ Sec. 17. Summary. 64
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.--Of Repose, or the Type of Divine Permanence.
+
+ Sec. 1. Universal feeling respecting the necessity of repose in art.
+ Its sources. 65
+ Sec. 2. Repose how expressed in matter. 66
+ Sec. 3. The necessity to repose of an implied energy. 66
+ Sec. 4. Mental repose, how noble. 67
+ Sec. 5. Its universal value as a test of art. 68
+ Sec. 6. Instances in the Laocoon and Theseus. 69
+ Sec. 7. And in altar tombs. 70
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--Of Symmetry, or the Type of Divine Justice.
+
+ Sec. 1. Symmetry, what and how found in organic nature. 72
+ Sec. 2. How necessary in art. 72
+ Sec. 3. To what its agreeableness is referable. Various instances. 73
+ Sec. 4. Especially in religious art. 73
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.--Of Purity, or the Type of Divine Energy.
+
+ Sec. 1. The influence of light as a sacred symbol. 75
+ Sec. 2. The idea of purity connected with it. 75
+ Sec. 3. Originally derived from conditions of matter. 76
+ Sec. 4. Associated ideas adding to the power of the impression.
+ Influence of clearness. 76
+ Sec. 5. Perfect beauty of surface, in what consisting. 77
+ Sec. 6. Purity only metaphorically a type of sinlessness. 78
+ Sec. 7. Energy, how expressed by purity of matter. 79
+ Sec. 8. And of color. 79
+ Sec. 9. Spirituality, how so expressed. 79
+
+
+CHAPTER X.--Of Moderation, or the Type of Government by Law.
+
+ Sec. 1. Meaning of the terms Chasteness and Refinement. 81
+ Sec. 2. How referable to temporary fashions. 81
+ Sec. 3. How to the perception of completion. 81
+ Sec. 4. Finish, by great masters esteemed essential. 82
+ Sec. 5. Moderation, its nature and value. 84
+ Sec. 6. It is the girdle of beauty. 84
+ Sec. 7. How found in natural curves and colors. 84
+ Sec. 8. How difficult of attainment, yet essential to all good. 85
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.--General Inferences respecting Typical Beauty.
+
+ Sec. 1. The subject incompletely treated, yet admitting of general
+ conclusions. 86
+ Sec. 2. Typical beauty not created for man's sake. 87
+ Sec. 3. But degrees of it for his sake admitted. 87
+ Sec. 4. What encouragement hence to be received. 87
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.--Of Vital Beauty:--First, as Relative.
+
+ Sec. 1. Transition from typical to vital Beauty. 89
+ Sec. 2. The perfection of the theoretic faculty as concerned with
+ vital beauty, is charity. 90
+ Sec. 3. Only with respect to plants, less affection than sympathy. 91
+ Sec. 4. Which is proportioned to the appearance of energy in the
+ plants. 92
+ Sec. 5. This sympathy is unselfish, and does not regard utility. 93
+ Sec. 6. Especially with respect to animals. 94
+ Sec. 7. And it is destroyed by evidences of mechanism. 95
+ Sec. 8. The second perfection of the theoretic faculty as concerned
+ with life is justice of moral judgment. 96
+ Sec. 9. How impeded. 97
+ Sec. 10. The influence of moral signs in expression. 97
+ Sec. 11. As also in plants. 99
+ Sec. 12. Recapitulation. 100
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.--Of Vital Beauty:--Secondly, as Generic.
+
+ Sec. 1. The beauty of fulfilment of appointed function in every
+ animal. 101
+ Sec. 2. The two senses of the word "ideal." Either it refers to
+ action of the imagination. 102
+ Sec. 3. Or to perfection of type. 103
+ Sec. 4. This last sense how inaccurate, yet to be retained. 103
+ Sec. 5. Of Ideal form. First, in the lower animals. 104
+ Sec. 6. In what consistent. 104
+ Sec. 7. Ideal form in vegetables. 105
+ Sec. 8. The difference of position between plants and animals. 105
+ Sec. 9. Admits of variety in the ideal of the former. 106
+ Sec. 10. Ideal form in vegetables destroyed by cultivation. 107
+ Sec. 11. Instance in the Soldanella and Ranunculus. 108
+ Sec. 12. The beauty of repose and felicity, how consistent with such
+ ideal. 108
+ Sec. 13. The ideality of Art. 109
+ Sec. 14. How connected with the imaginative faculties. 109
+ Sec. 15. Ideality, how belonging to ages and conditions. 110
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.--Of Vital Beauty:--Thirdly, in Man.
+
+ Sec. 1. Condition of the human creature entirely different from that
+ of the lower animals. 111
+ Sec. 2. What room here for idealization. 111
+ Sec. 3. How the conception of the bodily ideal is reached. 112
+ Sec. 4. Modifications of the bodily ideal owing to influence of mind.
+ First, of intellect. 113
+ Sec. 5. Secondly, of the moral feelings. 113
+ Sec. 6. What beauty is bestowed by them. 115
+ Sec. 7. How the soul culture interferes harmfully with the bodily
+ ideal. 115
+ Sec. 8. The inconsistency among the effects of the mental virtues on
+ the form. 116
+ Sec. 9. Is a sign of God's kind purpose towards the race. 116
+ Sec. 10. Consequent separation and difference of ideals. 117
+ Sec. 11. The _effects_ of the Adamite curse are to be
+ distinguished from signs of its immediate activity. 118
+ Sec. 12. Which latter only are to be banished from ideal form. 118
+ Sec. 13. Ideal form is only to be obtained by portraiture. 119
+ Sec. 14. Instances among the greater of the ideal Masters. 119
+ Sec. 15. Evil results of opposite practice in modern times. 120
+ Sec. 16. The right use of the model. 121
+ Sec. 17. Ideal form to be reached only by love. 121
+ Sec. 18. Practical principles deducible. 122
+ Sec. 19. Expressions chiefly destructive of ideal character. 1st,
+ Pride. 122
+ Sec. 20. Portraiture ancient and modern. 123
+ Sec. 21. Secondly, Sensuality. 123
+ Sec. 22. How connected with impurity of color. 124
+ Sec. 23. And prevented by its splendor. 124
+ Sec. 24. Or by severity of drawing. 125
+ Sec. 25. Degrees of descent in this respect: Rubens, Correggio, and
+ Guido. 125
+ Sec. 26. And modern art. 126
+ Sec. 27. Thirdly, ferocity and fear. The latter how to be distinguished
+ from awe. 126
+ Sec. 28. Holy fear, how distinct from human terror. 127
+ Sec. 29. Ferocity is joined always with fear. Its unpardonableness. 127
+ Sec. 30. Such expressions how sought by painters powerless and impious. 128
+ Sec. 31. Of passion generally. 129
+ Sec. 32. It is never to be for itself exhibited--at least on the face. 130
+ Sec. 33. Recapitulation. 131
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.--General Conclusions respecting the Theoretic Faculty.
+
+ Sec. 1. There are no sources of the emotion of beauty more than those
+ found in things visible. 133
+ Sec. 2. What imperfection exists in visible things. How in a sort by
+ imagination removable. 134
+ Sec. 3. Which however affects not our present conclusions. 134
+ Sec. 4. The four sources from which the pleasure of beauty is derived
+ are all divine. 134
+ Sec. 5. What objections may be made to this conclusion. 135
+ Sec. 6. Typical beauty may be aesthetically pursued. Instances. 135
+ Sec. 7. How interrupted by false feeling. 136
+ Sec. 8. Greatness and truth are sometimes by the Deity sustained and
+ spoken in and through evil men. 137
+ Sec. 9. The second objection arising from the coldness of Christian
+ men to external beauty. 138
+ Sec. 10. Reasons for this coldness in the anxieties of the world. These
+ anxieties overwrought and criminal. 139
+ Sec. 11. Evil consequences of such coldness. 140
+ Sec. 12. Theoria the service of Heaven. 140
+
+
+
+
+ SECTION II.
+
+ OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--Of the Three Forms of Imagination.
+
+ Sec. 1. A partial examination only of the imagination is to be
+ attempted. 142
+ Sec. 2. The works of the metaphysicians how nugatory with respect
+ to this faculty. 143
+ Sec. 3. The definition of D. Stewart, how inadequate. 143
+ Sec. 4. This instance nugatory. 144
+ Sec. 5. Various instances. 145
+ Sec. 6. The three operations of the imagination. Penetrative,
+ associative, contemplative. 146
+
+
+CHAPTER II.--Of Imagination Associative.
+
+ Sec. 1. Of simple conception. 147
+ Sec. 2. How connected with verbal knowledge. 148
+ Sec. 3. How used in composition. 148
+ Sec. 4. Characteristics of composition. 149
+ Sec. 5. What powers are implied by it. The first of the three
+ functions of fancy. 150
+ Sec. 6. Imagination not yet manifested. 150
+ Sec. 7. Imagination is the correlative conception of imperfect
+ component parts. 151
+ Sec. 8. Material analogy with imagination. 151
+ Sec. 9. The grasp and dignity of imagination. 152
+ Sec. 10. Its limits. 153
+ Sec. 11. How manifested in treatment of uncertain relations. Its
+ deficiency illustrated. 154
+ Sec. 12. Laws of art, the safeguard of the unimaginative. 155
+ Sec. 13. Are by the imaginative painter despised. Tests of imagination. 155
+ Sec. 14. The monotony of unimaginative treatment. 156
+ Sec. 15. Imagination never repeats itself. 157
+ Sec. 16. Relation of the imaginative faculty to the theoretic. 157
+ Sec. 17. Modification of its manifestation. 158
+ Sec. 18. Instances of absence of imagination.--Claude, Gaspar Poussin. 158
+ Sec. 19. Its presence.--Salvator, Nicolo Poussin, Titian, Tintoret. 159
+ Sec. 20. And Turner. 160
+ Sec. 21. The due function of Associative imagination with respect to
+ nature. 161
+ Sec. 22. The sign of imaginative work is its appearance of absolute
+ truth. 161
+
+
+CHAPTER III.--Of Imagination Penetrative.
+
+ Sec. 1. Imagination penetrative is concerned not with the combining
+ but apprehending of things. 163
+ Sec. 2. Milton's and Dante's description of flame. 163
+ Sec. 3. The imagination seizes always by the innermost point. 164
+ Sec. 4. It acts intuitively and without reasoning. 165
+ Sec. 5. Signs of it in language. 165
+ Sec. 6. Absence of imagination, how shown. 166
+ Sec. 7. Distinction between imagination and fancy. 166
+ Sec. 8. Fancy how involved with imagination. 168
+ Sec. 9. Fancy is never serious. 169
+ Sec. 10. Want of seriousness the bar to high art at the present time. 169
+ Sec. 11. Imagination is quiet; fancy, restless. 170
+ Sec. 12. The detailing operation of fancy. 170
+ Sec. 13. And suggestive, of the imagination. 171
+ Sec. 14. This suggestiveness how opposed to vacancy. 172
+ Sec. 15. Imagination addresses itself to imagination. 173
+ Instances from the works of Tintoret. 173
+ Sec. 16. The entombment. 174
+ Sec. 17. The Annunciation. 174
+ Sec. 18. The Baptism of Christ. Its treatment by various painters. 176
+ Sec. 19. By Tintoret. 177
+ Sec. 20. The Crucifixion. 178
+ Sec. 21. The Massacre of innocents. 179
+ Sec. 22. Various works in the Scuola di San Rocco. 181
+ Sec. 23. The Last Judgment. How treated by various painters. 181
+ Sec. 24. By Tintoret. 182
+ Sec. 25. The imaginative verity, how distinguished from realism. 183
+ Sec. 26. The imagination how manifested in sculpture. 184
+ Sec. 27. Bandinelli, Canova, Mino da Fiesole. 184
+ Sec. 28. Michael Angelo. 185
+ Sec. 29. Recapitulation. The perfect function of the imagination is
+ the intuitive perception of ultimate truth. 188
+ Sec. 30. Imagination how vulgarly understood. 190
+ Sec. 31. How its cultivation is dependent on the moral feelings. 190
+ Sec. 32. On independence of mind. 191
+ Sec. 33. And on habitual reference to nature. 191
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.--Of Imagination Contemplative.
+
+ Sec. 1. Imagination contemplative is not part of the essence, but only
+ a habit or mode of the faculty. 192
+ Sec. 2. The ambiguity of conception. 192
+ Sec. 3. Is not in itself capable of adding to the charm of fair
+ things. 193
+ Sec. 4. But gives to the imagination its regardant power over them. 194
+ Sec. 5. The third office of fancy distinguished from imagination
+ contemplative. 195
+ Sec. 6. Various instances. 197
+ Sec. 7. Morbid or nervous fancy. 200
+ Sec. 8. The action of contemplative imagination is not to be expressed
+ by art. 201
+ Sec. 9. Except under narrow limits.--1st. Abstract rendering of
+ form without color. 201
+ Sec. 10. Of color without form. 202
+ Sec. 11. Or of both without texture. 202
+ Sec. 12. Abstraction or typical representation of animal form. 203
+ Sec. 13. Either when it is symbolically used. 204
+ Sec. 14. Or in architectural decoration. 205
+ Sec. 15. Exception in delicate and superimposed ornament. 206
+ Sec. 16. Abstraction necessary from imperfection of materials. 206
+ Sec. 17. Abstractions of things capable of varied accident are not
+ imaginative. 207
+ Sec. 18. Yet sometimes valuable. 207
+ Sec. 19. Exaggeration. Its laws and limits. First, in scale of
+ representation. 208
+ Sec. 20. Secondly, of things capable of variety of scale. 209
+ Sec. 21. Thirdly, necessary in expression of characteristic features on
+ diminished scale. 210
+ Sec. 22. Recapitulation. 211
+
+
+CHAPTER V.--Of the Superhuman Ideal.
+
+ Sec. 1. The subject is not to be here treated in detail. 212
+ Sec. 2. The conceivable modes of manifestation of Spiritual Beings
+ are four. 212
+ Sec. 3. And these are in or through creature forms familiar to us. 213
+ Sec. 4. Supernatural character may be impressed on these either by
+ phenomena inconsistent with their common nature (compare
+ Chap. iv. Sec. 16). 213
+ Sec. 5. Or by inherent Dignity. 213
+ Sec. 6. 1st. Of the expression of inspiration. 214
+ Sec. 7. No representation of that which is more than creature is
+ possible. 215
+ Sec. 8. Supernatural character expressed by modification of
+ accessories. 216
+ Sec. 9. Landscape of the religious painters. Its character is
+ eminently symmetrical. 217
+ Sec. 10. Landscape of Benozzo Gozzoli. 217
+ Sec. 11. Landscape of Perugino and Raffaelle. 218
+ Sec. 12. Such Landscape is not to be imitated. 218
+ Sec. 13. Color, and Decoration. Their use in representations of the
+ Supernatural. 219
+ Sec. 14. Decoration so used must be generic. 220
+ Sec. 15. And color pure. 220
+ Sec. 16. Ideal form of the body itself, of what variety susceptible. 221
+ Sec. 17. Anatomical development how far admissible. 221
+ Sec. 18. Symmetry. How valuable. 221
+ Sec. 19. The influence of Greek art, how dangerous. 222
+ Sec. 20. Its scope, how limited. 223
+ Sec. 21. Conclusion. 224
+
+
+ADDENDA. 225
+
+
+
+
+ LIST OF PLATES TO VOLUME II.
+
+
+
+ _Page._
+
+ Court of the Ducal Palace, Venice 10
+ From a drawing by Ruskin.
+
+ Tomb of the Ilaria di Caretto, Lucca 72
+ From a photograph.
+
+ The Adoration of the Magi 158
+ From a painting by Ruskin, after Tintoret.
+
+ Study of Stone Pine, at Sestri 198
+ From a drawing by Ruskin.
+
+
+
+
+ PART III.
+
+ OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY.
+
+ SECTION I.
+
+ OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ OF THE RANK AND RELATIONS OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. With what care the subject is to be approached.
+
+Although the hasty execution and controversial tone of the former
+portions of this essay have been subjects of frequent regret to the
+writer, yet the one was in some measure excusable in a work referred to
+a temporary end, and the other unavoidable, in one directed against
+particular opinions. Nor are either of any necessary detriment to its
+availableness as a foundation for more careful and extended survey, in
+so far as its province was confined to the assertion of obvious and
+visible facts, the verification of which could in no degree be dependent
+either on the care with which they might be classed, or the temper in
+which they were regarded. Not so with respect to the investigation now
+before us, which, being not of things outward, and sensibly
+demonstrable, but of the value and meaning of mental impressions, must
+be entered upon with a modesty and cautiousness proportioned to the
+difficulty of determining the likeness, or community of such
+impressions, as they are received by different men, and with seriousness
+proportioned to the importance of rightly regarding those faculties over
+which we have moral power, and therefore in relation to which we
+assuredly incur a moral responsibility. There is not the thing left to
+the choice of man to do or not to do, but there is some sort of degree
+of duty involved in his determination; and by how much the more,
+therefore, our subject becomes embarrassed by the cross influences of
+variously admitted passion, administered discipline, or encouraged
+affection, upon the minds of men, by so much the more it becomes matter
+of weight and import to observe by what laws we should be guided, and of
+what responsibilities regardful, in all that we admit, administer, or
+encourage.
+
+
+Sec. 2. And of what importance considered.
+
+Nor indeed have I ever, even in the preceding sections, spoken with
+levity, though sometimes perhaps with rashness. I have never treated the
+subject as other than demanding heedful and serious examination, and
+taking high place among those which justify as they reward our utmost
+ardor and earnestness of pursuit. That it justifies them must be my
+present task to prove; that it demands them has never been doubted. Art,
+properly so called, is no recreation; it cannot be learned at spare
+moments, nor pursued when we have nothing better to do. It is no
+handiwork for drawing-room tables; no relief of the ennui of boudoirs;
+it must be understood and undertaken seriously or not at all. To advance
+it men's lives must be given, and to receive it their hearts. "Le
+peintre Rubens s'amuse a etre ambassadeur," said one with whom, but for
+his own words, we might have thought that effort had been absorbed in
+power, and the labor of his art in its felicity.--"E faticoso lo studio
+della pittura, et sempre si fa il mare maggiore," said he, who of all
+men was least likely to have left us discouraging report of anything
+that majesty of intellect could grasp, or continuity of labor
+overcome.[1] But that this labor, the necessity of which in all ages has
+been most frankly admitted by the greatest men, is justifiable in a
+moral point of view, that it is not the pouring out of men's lives upon
+the ground, that it has functions of usefulness addressed to the
+weightiest of human interests, and that the objects of it have calls
+upon us which it is inconsistent alike with our human dignity and our
+heavenward duty to disobey--has never been boldly asserted nor fairly
+admitted; least of all is it likely to be so in these days of dispatch
+and display, where vanity, on the one side, supplies the place of that
+love of art which is the only effective patronage, and on the other, of
+the incorruptible and earnest pride which no applause, no reprobation,
+can blind to its shortcomings nor beguile of its hope.
+
+And yet it is in the expectation of obtaining at least a partial
+acknowledgment of this, as a truth influential both of aim and conduct,
+that I enter upon the second division of my subject. The time I have
+already devoted to the task I should have considered altogether
+inordinate, and that which I fear may be yet required for its completion
+would have been cause to me of utter discouragement, but that the object
+I propose to myself is of no partial nor accidental importance. It is
+not now to distinguish between disputed degrees of ability in
+individuals, or agreeableness in canvases, it is not now to expose the
+ignorance or defend the principles of party or person. It is to summon
+the moral energies of the nation to a forgotten duty, to display the
+use, force, and function of a great body of neglected sympathies and
+desires, and to elevate to its healthy and beneficial operation that art
+which, being altogether addressed to them, rises or falls with their
+variableness of vigor,--now leading them with Tyrtaean fire, now singing
+them to sleep with baby murmurings.
+
+
+Sec. 3. The doubtful force of the term "utility."
+
+Only as I fear that with many of us the recommendation of our own
+favorite pursuits is rooted more in conceit of ourselves, than affection
+towards others, so that sometimes in our very pointing of the way, we
+had rather that the intricacy of it should be admired than unfolded,
+whence a natural distrust of such recommendation may well have place in
+the minds of those who have not yet perceived any value in the thing
+praised, and because also, men in the present century understand the
+word Useful in a strange way, or at least (for the word has been often
+so accepted from the beginning of time) since in these days, they act
+its more limited meaning farther out, and give to it more practical
+weight and authority, it will be well in the outset that I define
+exactly what kind of utility I mean to attribute to art, and especially
+to that branch of it which is concerned with those impressions of
+external beauty whose nature it is our present object to discover.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Its proper sense.
+
+That is to everything created, pre-eminently useful, which enables it
+rightly and fully to perform the functions appointed to it by its
+Creator. Therefore, that we may determine what is chiefly useful to man,
+it is necessary first to determine the use of man himself.
+
+Man's use and function (and let him who will not grant me this follow me
+no farther, for this I purpose always to assume) is to be the witness of
+the glory of God, and to advance that glory by his reasonable obedience
+and resultant happiness.
+
+Whatever enables us to fulfil this function, is in the pure and first
+sense of the word useful to us. Pre-eminently therefore whatever sets
+the glory of God more brightly before us. But things that only help us
+to exist, are in a secondary and mean sense, useful, or rather, if they
+be looked for alone, they are useless and worse, for it would be better
+that we should not exist, than that we should guiltily disappoint the
+purposes of existence.
+
+
+Sec. 5. How falsely applied in these times.
+
+And yet people speak in this working age, when they speak from their
+hearts, as if houses, and lands, and food, and raiment were alone
+useful, and as if sight, thought, and admiration,[2] were all
+profitless, so that men insolently call themselves Utilitarians, who
+would turn, if they had their way, themselves and their race into
+vegetables; men who think, as far as such can be said to think, that the
+meat is more than the life, and the raiment than the body, who look to
+the earth as a stable, and to its fruit as fodder; vinedressers and
+husbandmen, who love the corn they grind, and the grapes they crush,
+better than the gardens of the angels upon the slopes of Eden; hewers of
+wood and drawers of water, who think that the wood they hew and the
+water they draw, are better than the pine-forests that cover the
+mountains like the shadow of God, and than the great rivers that move
+like his eternity. And so comes upon us that woe of the preacher, that
+though God "hath made everything beautiful in his time, also he hath set
+the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God
+maketh from the beginning to the end."
+
+
+Sec. 6. The evil consequences of such interpretation. How connected with
+ national power.
+
+This Nebuchadnezzar curse, that sends us to grass like oxen, seems to
+follow but too closely on the excess or continuance of national power
+and peace. In the perplexities of nations, in their struggles for
+existence, in their infancy, their impotence, or even their
+disorganization, they have higher hopes and nobler passions. Out of the
+suffering comes the serious mind; out of the salvation, the grateful
+heart; out of the endurance, the fortitude; out of the deliverance, the
+faith; but now when they have learned to live under providence of laws,
+and with decency and justice of regard for each other; and when they
+have done away with violent and external sources of suffering, worse
+evils seem arising out of their rest, evils that vex less and mortify
+more, that suck the blood though they do not shed it, and ossify the
+heart though they do not torture it. And deep though the causes of
+thankfulness must be to every people at peace with others and at unity
+in itself, there are causes of fear also, a fear greater than of sword
+and sedition; that dependence on God may be forgotten because the bread
+is given and the water is sure, that gratitude to him may cease because
+his constancy of protection has taken the semblance of a natural law,
+that heavenly hope may grow faint amidst the full fruition of the world,
+that selfishness may take place of undemanded devotion, compassion be
+lost in vain-glory, and love in dissimulation,[3] that enervation may
+succeed to strength, apathy to patience, and the noise of jesting words
+and foulness of dark thoughts, to the earnest purity of the girded loins
+and the burning lamp. About the river of human life there is a wintry
+wind, though a heavenly sunshine; the iris colors its agitation, the
+frost fixes upon its repose. Let us beware that our rest become not the
+rest of stones, which so long as they are torrent-tossed, and
+thunder-stricken, maintain their majesty, but when the stream is silent,
+and the storm passed, suffer the grass to cover them and the lichen to
+feed on them, and are ploughed down into dust.
+
+
+Sec. 7. How to be averted.
+
+And though I believe that we have salt enough of ardent and holy mind
+amongst us to keep us in some measure from this moral decay, yet the
+signs of it must be watched with anxiety, in all matter however trivial,
+in all directions however distant. And at this time, when the iron roads
+are tearing up the surface of Europe, as grapeshot do the sea, when
+their great sagene is drawing and twitching the ancient frame and
+strength of England together, contracting all its various life, its
+rocky arms and rural heart, into a narrow, finite, calculating
+metropolis of manufactures, when there is not a monument throughout the
+cities of Europe, that speaks of old years and mighty people, but it is
+being swept away to build cafes and gaming-houses;[4] when the honor of
+God is thought to consist in the poverty of his temple, and the column
+is shortened, and the pinnacle shattered, the color denied to the
+casement, and the marble to the altar, while exchequers are exhausted in
+luxury of boudoirs, and pride of reception-rooms; when we ravage without
+a pause all the loveliness of creation which God in giving pronounced
+good, and destroy without a thought all those labors which men have
+given their lives, and their sons' sons' lives to complete, and have
+left for a legacy to all their kind, a legacy of more than their hearts'
+blood, for it is of their souls' travail, there is need, bitter need, to
+bring back, if we may, into men's minds, that to live is nothing,
+unless to live be to know Him by whom we live, and that he is not to be
+known by marring his fair works, and blotting out the evidence of his
+influences upon his creatures, not amid the hurry of crowds and crash of
+innovation, but in solitary places, and out of the glowing intelligences
+which he gave to men of old. He did not teach them how to build for
+glory and for beauty, he did not give them the fearless, faithful,
+inherited energies that worked on and down from death to death,
+generation after generation, that we, foul and sensual as we are, might
+give the carved work of their poured-out spirit to the axe and the
+hammer; he has not cloven the earth with rivers, that their white wild
+waves might turn wheels and push paddles, nor turned it up under as it
+were fire, that it might heat wells and cure diseases; he brings not up
+his quails by the east wind, only to let them fall in flesh about the
+camp of men: he has not heaped the rocks of the mountain only for the
+quarry, nor clothed the grass of the field only for the oven.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Division of the pursuits of men into subservient and objective.
+
+All science and all art may be divided into that which is subservient to
+life, and which is the object of it. As subservient to life, or
+practical, their results are, in the common sense of the word, useful.
+As the object of life or theoretic, they are, in the common sense,
+useless; and yet the step between practical and theoretic science is the
+step between the miner and the geologist, the apothecary and the
+chemist; and the step between practical and theoretic art is that
+between the bricklayer and the architect, between the plumber and the
+artist, and this is a step allowed on all hands to be from less to
+greater; so that the so-called useless part of each profession does by
+the authoritative and right instinct of mankind assume the superior and
+more noble place, even though books be sometimes written, and that by
+writers of no ordinary mind, which assume that a chemist is rewarded for
+the years of toil which have traced the greater part of the combinations
+of matter to their ultimate atoms, by discovering a cheap way of
+refining sugar, and date the eminence of the philosopher, whose life has
+been spent in the investigation of the laws of light, from the time of
+his inventing an improvement in spectacles.
+
+But the common consent of men proves and accepts the proposition, that
+whatever part of any pursuit ministers to the bodily comforts, and
+admits of material uses, is ignoble, and whatsoever part is addressed to
+the mind only, is noble; and that geology does better in reclothing dry
+bones and revealing lost creations, than in tracing veins of lead and
+beds of iron; astronomy better in opening to us the houses of heaven
+than in teaching navigation; botany better in displaying structure than
+in expressing juices; surgery better in investigating organization than
+in setting limbs; only it is ordained that, for our encouragement, every
+step we make in the more exalted range of science adds something also to
+its practical applicabilities; that all the great phenomena of nature,
+the knowledge of which is desired by the angels only, by us partly, as
+it reveals to farther vision the being and the glory of Him in whom they
+rejoice and we live, dispense yet such kind influences and so much of
+material blessing as to be joyfully felt by all inferior creatures, and
+to be desired by them with such single desire as the imperfection of
+their nature may admit;[5] that the strong torrents which, in their own
+gladness fill the hills with hollow thunder and the vales with winding
+light, have yet their bounden charge of field to feed and barge to bear;
+that the fierce flames to which the Alp owes its upheaval and the
+volcano its terror, temper for us the metal vein and quickening spring;
+and that for our incitement, I say not our reward, for knowledge is its
+own reward, herbs have their healing, stones their preciousness, and
+stars their times.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Their relative dignities.
+
+Sec. 10. How reversed through erring notions of the contemplative and
+ imaginative faculties.
+
+It would appear, therefore, that those pursuits which are altogether
+theoretic, whose results are desirable or admirable in themselves and
+for their own sake, and in which no farther end to which their
+productions or discoveries are referred, can interrupt the contemplation
+of things as they are, by the endeavor to discover of what selfish uses
+they are capable (and of this order are painting and sculpture), ought
+to take rank above all pursuits which have any taint in them of
+subserviency to life, in so far as all such tendency is the sign of less
+eternal and less holy function.[6] And such rank these two sublime arts
+would indeed assume in the minds of nations, and become objects of
+corresponding efforts, but for two fatal and widespread errors
+respecting the great faculties of mind concerned in them.
+
+The first of these, or the theoretic faculty, is concerned with the
+moral perception and appreciation of ideas of beauty. And the error
+respecting it is the considering and calling it aesthetic, degrading it
+to a mere operation of sense, or perhaps worse, of custom, so that the
+arts which appeal to it sink into a mere amusement, ministers to morbid
+sensibilities, ticklers and fanners of the soul's sleep.
+
+The second great faculty is the imaginative, which the mind exercises in
+a certain mode of regarding or combining the ideas it has received from
+external nature, and the operations of which become in their turn
+objects of the theoretic faculty to other minds.
+
+[Illustration: COURT OF THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE. From a drawing by
+Ruskin.]
+
+And the error respecting this faculty is, that its function is one of
+falsehood, that its operation is to exhibit things as they are _not_,
+and that in so doing it mends the works of God.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Object of the present section.
+
+Now, as these are the two faculties to which I shall have occasion
+constantly to refer during that examination of the ideas of beauty and
+relation on which we are now entering, because it is only as received
+and treated by these, that those ideas become exalted and profitable, it
+becomes necessary for me, in the outset, to explain their power and
+define their sphere, and to vindicate, in the system of our nature,
+their true place for the intellectual lens and moral retina by which and
+on which our informing thoughts are concentrated and represented.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [1] Tintoret. (Ridolfi. Vita.)
+
+ [2] We live by admiration, hope, and love. (Excursion, Book IV.)
+
+ [3] Rom. xii. 9.
+
+ [4] The extent of ravage among works of art, or of historical
+ interest, continually committing throughout the continent may,
+ perhaps, be in some measure estimated from the following facts, to
+ which the experience of every traveller may add indefinitely:
+
+ At Beauvois--The magnificent old houses supported on columns of
+ workmanship (so far as I recollect) unique in the north of France,
+ at the corner of the market-place, have recently been destroyed for
+ the enlarging of some ironmongery and grocery warehouses. The arch
+ across the street leading to the cathedral has been destroyed also,
+ for what purpose, I know not.
+
+ At Rouen--The last of the characteristic houses on the quay is now
+ disappearing. When I was last there, I witnessed the destruction of
+ the noble gothic portal of the church of St. Nicholas, whose
+ position interfered with the courtyard of an hotel; the greater part
+ of the ancient churches are used as smithies, or warehouses for
+ goods. So also at Tours (St. Julien). One of the most interesting
+ and superb pieces of middle-age domestic architecture in Europe,
+ opposite the west front of the cathedral, is occupied as a cafe, and
+ its lower story concealed by painted wainscotings; representing, if
+ I recollect right, twopenny rolls surrounded by circles of admiring
+ cherubs.
+
+ At Geneva--The wooden projections or loggias which were once the
+ characteristic feature of the city, have been entirely removed
+ within the last ten years.
+
+ At Pisa--The old Baptistery is at this present time in process of
+ being "restored," that is, dashed to pieces, and common stone
+ painted black and varnished, substituted for its black marble. In
+ the Campo Santo, the invaluable frescoes, which might be protected
+ by merely glazing the arcades, are left exposed to wind and weather.
+ While I was there last year I saw a monument put up against the
+ lower part of the wall, to some private person; the bricklayers
+ knocked out a large space of the lower brickwork, with what
+ beneficial effect to the loose and blistered stucco on which the
+ frescoes are painted above, I leave the reader to imagine; inserted
+ the tablet, and then plastered over the marks of the insertion,
+ destroying a portion of the border of one of the paintings. The
+ greater part of Giotto's "Satan before God," has been destroyed by
+ the recent insertion of one of the beams of the roof.
+
+ The tomb of Antonio Puccinello, which was the last actually put up
+ against the frescoes, and which destroyed the terminal subject of
+ the Giotto series, bears date 1808.
+
+ It has been proposed (or at least it is so reported) that the church
+ of La Spina should be destroyed in order to widen the quay.
+
+ At Florence--One of its most important and characteristic streets,
+ that in which stands the church of Or San Michele, has been within
+ the last five years entirely destroyed and rebuilt in the French
+ style; consisting now almost exclusively of shops of bijouterie and
+ parfumerie. Owing to this direction of public funds, the fronts of
+ the Duomo, Santa Croce, St. Lorenzo, and half the others in Florence
+ remain in their original bricks.
+
+ The old refectory of Santa Croce, containing an invaluable Cenacolo,
+ if not by Giotto, at least one of the finest works of his school, is
+ used as a carpet manufactory. In order to see the fresco, I had to
+ get on the top of a loom. The _cenacolo_ (of Raffaelle?) recently
+ discovered, I saw when the refectory it adorns was used as a
+ coach-house. The fresco, which gave Raffaelle the idea of the Christ
+ of the Transfiguration, is in an old wood shed at San Miniato,
+ concealed behind a heap of faggots. In June, last year, I saw
+ Gentile da Fabriano's picture of the Adoration of the Magi,
+ belonging to the Academy of Florence, put face upmost in a shower of
+ rain in an open cart; on my suggesting the possibility of the rain
+ hurting it, an old piece of matting was thrown over its face, and it
+ was wheeled away "per essere pulita." What fate this signified, is
+ best to be discovered from the large Perugino in the Academy; whose
+ divine distant landscape is now almost concealed by the mass of
+ French ultramarine, painted over it apparently with a common house
+ brush, by the picture cleaner.
+
+ Not to detain the reader by going through the cities of Italy, I
+ will only further mention, that at Padua, the rain beats through the
+ west window of the Arena chapel, and runs down _over_ the frescoes.
+ That at Venice, in September last, I saw three buckets set in the
+ scuola di San Rocco to catch the rain which came _through_ the
+ _canvases_ of Tintoret on the roof; and that while the old works of
+ art are left thus unprotected, the palaces are being restored in the
+ following modes. The English residents knock out bow windows to see
+ up and down the canal. The Italians paint all the _marble_ white or
+ cream color, stucco the fronts, and paint them in blue and white
+ stripes to imitate alabaster. (This has been done with Danieli's
+ hotel, with the north angle of the church of St. Mark, there
+ replacing the real alabasters which have been torn down, with a
+ noble old house in St. Mark's place, and with several in the narrow
+ canals.) The marbles of St. Mark's, and carvings, are being
+ _scraped_ down to make them look bright--the lower arcade of the
+ Doge's palace is whitewashed--the entrance porch is being
+ restored--the operation having already proceeded so far as the
+ knocking off of the heads of the old statues--an iron railing
+ painted black and yellow has been put round the court. Faded
+ tapestries, and lottery tickets (the latter for the benefit of
+ charitable institutions) are exposed for sale in the council
+ chambers.
+
+ [5] Hooker, Eccl. Pol. Book I. chap. ii. Sec. 2.
+
+ [6] I do not assert that the accidental utility of a theoretic
+ pursuit, as of botany for instance, in any way degrades it, though
+ it cannot be considered as elevating it. But essential utility, a
+ purpose to which the pursuit is in some measure referred, as in
+ architecture, invariably degrades, because then the theoretic part
+ of the art is comparatively lost sight of; and thus architecture
+ takes a level below that of sculpture or painting, even when the
+ powers of mind developed in it are of the same high order.
+
+ When we pronounce the name of Giotto, our venerant thoughts are at
+ Assisi and Padua, before they climb the Campanile of Santa Maria del
+ Fiore. And he who would raise the ghost of Michael Angelo, must
+ haunt the Sistine and St. Lorenzo, not St. Peter's.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ OF THE THEORETIC FACULTY AS CONCERNED WITH PLEASURES OF SENSE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Explanation of the term "theoretic."
+
+I proceed therefore first, to examine the nature of what I have called
+the Theoretic faculty, and to justify my substitution of the term
+"theoretic" for aesthetic, which is the one commonly employed with
+reference to it.
+
+Now the term "aesthesis" properly signifies mere sensual perception of
+the outward qualities and necessary effects of bodies, in which sense
+only, if we would arrive at any accurate conclusions on this difficult
+subject, it should always be used. But I wholly deny that the
+impressions of beauty are in any way sensual,--they are neither sensual
+nor intellectual, but moral, and for the faculty receiving them, whose
+difference from mere perception I shall immediately endeavor to explain,
+no term can be more accurate or convenient than that employed by the
+Greeks, "theoretic," which I pray permission, therefore, always to use,
+and to call the operation of the faculty itself, Theoria.
+
+
+Sec. 2. Of the differences of rank in pleasures of sense.
+
+Let us begin at the lowest point, and observe, first, what differences
+of dignity may exist between different kinds of aesthetic or sensual
+pleasure, properly so called.
+
+Now it is evident that the being common to brutes, or peculiar to man,
+can alone be no rational test of inferiority, or dignity in pleasures.
+We must not assume that man is the nobler animal, and then deduce the
+nobleness of his delights; but we must prove the nobleness of the
+delights, and thence the nobleness of the animal. The dignity of
+affection is no way lessened because a large measure of it may be found
+in lower animals, neither is the vileness of gluttony and lust abated
+because they are common to men. It is clear, therefore, that there is a
+standard of dignity in the pleasures and passions themselves, by which
+we also class the creatures capable of, or suffering them.
+
+
+Sec. 3. Use of the terms Temperate and Intemperate.
+
+The first great distinction, we observe, is that noted of Aristotle,
+that men are called temperate and intemperate with regard to some, and
+not so with respect to others, and that those, with respect to which
+they are so called, are, by common consent, held to be the vilest. But
+Aristotle, though exquisitely subtle in his notation of facts, does not
+frequently give us satisfactory account of, or reason for them. Content
+with stating the fact of these pleasures being held the lowest, he shows
+not why this estimation of them is just, and confuses the reader by
+observing casually respecting the higher pleasures, what is indeed true,
+but appears at first opposed to his own position, namely, that "men may
+be conceived, as also in these taking pleasure, either rightly, or more
+or less than is right."[7] Which being so, and evident capability of
+excess or defect existing in pleasures of this higher order, we ought to
+have been told how it happens that men are not called intemperate when
+they indulge in excess of this kind, and what is that difference in the
+nature of the pleasure which diminishes the criminality of its excess.
+This let us attempt to ascertain.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Right use of the term "intemperate."
+
+Men are held intemperate ([Greek: akolastoi]) only when their desires
+overcome or prevent the action of their reason, and they are indeed
+intemperate in the exact degree in which such prevention or interference
+takes place, and so are actually [Greek: akolastoi], in many instances,
+and with respect to many resolves, which lower not the world's
+estimation of their temperance. For so long as it can be supposed that
+the reason has acted imperfectly owing to its own imperfection, or to
+the imperfection of the premises submitted to it, (as when men give an
+inordinate preference to their own pursuits, because they cannot, in the
+nature of things, have sufficiently experienced the goodness and benefit
+of others,) and so long as it may be presumed that men have referred to
+reason in what they do, and have not suffered its orders to be disobeyed
+through mere impulse and desire, (though those orders may be full of
+error owing to the reason's own feebleness,) so long men are not held
+intemperate. But when it is palpably evident that the reason cannot have
+erred but that its voice has been deadened or disobeyed, and that the
+reasonable creature has been dragged dead round the walls of his own
+citadel by mere passion and impulse,--then, and then only, men are of
+all held intemperate. And this is evidently the case with respect to
+inordinate indulgence in pleasures of touch and taste, for these, being
+destructive in their continuance not only of all other pleasures, but
+of the very sensibilities by which they themselves are received, and as
+this penalty is actually known and experienced by those indulging in
+them, so that the reason cannot but pronounce right respecting their
+perilousness, there is no palliation of the wrong choice; and the man,
+as utterly incapable of will,[8] is called intemperate, or [Greek:
+akolastos].
+
+It would be well if the reader would for himself follow out this
+subject, which it would be irrelevant here to pursue farther, observing
+how a certain degree of intemperance is suspected and attributed to men
+with respect to higher impulses; as, for instance, in the case of anger,
+or any other passion criminally indulged, and yet is not so attributed,
+as in the case of sensual pleasures; because in anger the reason is
+supposed not to have had time to operate, and to be itself affected by
+the presence of the passion, which seizes the man involuntarily and
+before he is aware; whereas, in the case of the sensual pleasures, the
+act is deliberate, and determined on beforehand, in direct defiance of
+reason. Nevertheless, if no precaution be taken against immoderate
+anger, and the passions gain upon the man, so as to be evidently wilful
+and unrestrained, and admitted contrary to all reason, we begin to look
+upon him as, in the real sense of the word, intemperate, or [Greek:
+akolastos], and assign to him, in consequence, his place among the
+beasts, as definitely as if he had yielded to the pleasurable
+temptations of touch or taste.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Grounds of inferiority in the pleasures which are subjects of
+ intemperance.
+
+We see, then, that the primal ground of inferiority in these pleasures
+is that which _proves_ their indulgence to be contrary to reason; namely
+their destructiveness upon prolongation, and their incapability of
+co-existing continually with other delights or perfections of the
+system.
+
+And this incapability of continuance directs us to the second cause of
+their inferiority; namely, that they are given to us as subservient to
+life, as instruments of our preservation--compelling us to seek the
+things necessary to our being, and that, therefore, when this their
+function is fully performed, they ought to have an end; and can be only
+artificially, and under high penalty, prolonged. But the pleasures of
+sight and hearing are given as gifts. They answer not any purposes of
+mere existence, for the distinction of all that is useful or dangerous
+to us might be made, and often is made, by the eye, without its
+receiving the slightest pleasure of sight. We might have learned to
+distinguish fruits and grain from flowers, without having any superior
+pleasure in the aspect of the latter. And the ear might have learned to
+distinguish the sounds that communicate ideas, or to recognize
+intimations of elemental danger without perceiving either music in the
+voice, or majesty in the thunder. And as these pleasures have no
+function to perform, so there is no limit to their continuance in the
+accomplishment of their end, for they are an end in themselves, and so
+may be perpetual with all of us--being in no way destructive, but rather
+increasing in exquisiteness by repetition.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Evidence of higher rank in pleasures of sight and hearing.
+
+Herein, then, we find very sufficient ground for the higher estimation
+of these delights, first, in their being eternal and inexhaustible, and
+secondly, in their being evidently no means or instrument of life, but
+an object of life. Now in whatever is an object of life, in whatever may
+be infinitely and for itself desired, we may be sure there is something
+of divine, for God will not make anything an object of life to his
+creatures which does not point to, or partake of, Himself. And so,
+though we were to regard the pleasures of sight merely as the highest of
+sensual pleasures, and though they were of rare occurrence, and, when
+occurring, isolated and imperfect, there would still be a supernatural
+character about them, owing to their permanence and self-sufficiency,
+where no other sensual pleasures are permanent or self-sufficient. But
+when, instead of being scattered, interrupted, or chance-distributed,
+they are gathered together, and so arranged to enhance each other as by
+chance they could not be, there is caused by them not only a feeling of
+strong affection towards the object in which they exist, but a
+perception of purpose and adaptation of it to our desires; a perception,
+therefore, of the immediate operation of the Intelligence which so
+formed us, and so feeds us.
+
+Out of which perception arise joy, admiration, and gratitude.
+
+Now the mere animal consciousness of the pleasantness I call aesthesis;
+but the exulting, reverent, and grateful perception of it I call
+theoria. For this, and this only, is the full comprehension and
+contemplation of the beautiful as a gift of God, a gift not necessary to
+our being, but added to, and elevating it, and twofold, first of the
+desire, and secondly of the thing desired.
+
+
+Sec. 7. How the lower pleasures may be elevated in rank.
+
+And that this joyfulness and reverence are a necessary part of theoretic
+pleasure is very evident when we consider that, by the presence of these
+feelings, even the lower and more sensual pleasures may be rendered
+theoretic. Thus Aristotle has subtly noted, that "we call not men
+intemperate so much with respect to the scents of roses or herb-perfumes
+as of ointments and of condiments," (though the reason that he gives for
+this be futile enough.) For the fact is, that of scents artificially
+prepared the extreme desire is intemperance, but of natural and
+God-given scents, which take their part in the harmony and pleasantness
+of creation, there can hardly be intemperance; not that there is any
+absolute difference between the two kinds, but that these are likely to
+be received with gratitude and joyfulness rather than those, so that we
+despise the seeking of essences and unguents, but not the sowing of
+violets along our garden banks. But all things may be elevated by
+affection, as the spikenard of Mary, and in the Song of Solomon, the
+myrrh upon the handles of the lock, and that of Isaac concerning his
+son. And the general law for all these pleasures is, that when sought in
+the abstract and ardently, they are foul things, but when received with
+thankfulness and with reference to God's glory, they become theoretic;
+and so I can find something divine in the sweetness of wild fruits, as
+well as in the pleasantness of the pure air, and the tenderness of its
+natural perfumes that come and go as they list.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Ideas of beauty how essentially moral.
+
+It will be understood why I formerly said in the chapter respecting
+ideas of beauty, that those ideas were the subject of moral and not of
+intellectual, nor altogether of sensual perception; and why I spoke of
+the pleasures connected with them as derived from "those material
+sources which are agreeable to our moral nature in its purity and
+perfection." For, as it is necessary to the existence of an idea of
+beauty, that the sensual pleasure which may be its basis, should be
+accompanied first with joy, then with love of the object, then with the
+perception of kindness in a superior Intelligence, finally with
+thankfulness and veneration towards that Intelligence itself, and as no
+idea can be at all considered as in any way an idea of beauty, until it
+be made up of these emotions, any more than we can be said to have an
+idea of a letter of which we perceive the perfume and the fair writing,
+without understanding the contents of it, or intent of it; and as these
+emotions are in no way resultant from, nor obtainable by, any operation
+of the intellect, it is evident that the sensation of beauty is not
+sensual on the one hand, nor is it intellectual on the other, but is
+dependent on a pure, right, and open state of the heart, both for its
+truth and for its intensity, insomuch that even the right after action
+of the intellect upon facts of beauty so apprehended, is dependent on
+the acuteness of the heart feeling about them; and thus the Apostolic
+words come true, in this minor respect as in all others, that men are
+alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them,
+having the understanding darkened because of the hardness of their
+hearts, and so being past feeling, give themselves up to lasciviousness;
+for we do indeed see constantly that men having naturally acute
+perceptions of the beautiful, yet not receiving it with a pure heart,
+nor into their hearts at all, never comprehend it, nor receive good from
+it, but make it a mere minister to their desires, and accompaniment and
+seasoning of lower sensual pleasures, until all their emotions take the
+same earthly stamp, and the sense of beauty sinks into the servant of
+lust.
+
+
+Sec. 9. How degraded by heartless reception.
+
+Sec. 10. How exalted by affection.
+
+Nor is what the world commonly understands by the cultivation of taste,
+anything more or better than this, at least in times of corrupt and
+over-pampered civilization, when men build palaces and plant groves and
+gather luxuries, that they and their devices may hang in the corners of
+the world like fine-spun cobwebs, with greedy, puffed-up, spider-like
+lusts in the middle. And this, which in Christian times is the abuse and
+corruption of the sense of beauty, was in that Pagan life of which St.
+Paul speaks, little less than the essence of it, and the best they had;
+for I know not that of the expressions of affection towards external
+nature to be found among Heathen writers, there are any of which the
+balance and leading thought cleaves not towards the sensual parts of
+her. Her beneficence they sought, and her power they shunned, her
+teaching through both, they understood never. The pleasant influences of
+soft winds and ringing streamlets, and shady coverts; of the violet
+couch, and plane-tree shade,[9] they received, perhaps, in a more noble
+way than we, but they found not anything except fear, upon the bare
+mountain, or in the ghostly glen. The Hybla heather they loved more for
+its sweet hives than its purple hues. But the Christian theoria seeks
+not, though it accepts, and touches with its own purity, what the
+Epicurean sought, but finds its food and the objects of its love
+everywhere, in what is harsh and fearful, as well as what is kind, nay,
+even in all that seems coarse and commonplace; seizing that which is
+good, and delighting more sometimes at finding its table spread in
+strange places, and in the presence of its enemies, and its honey coming
+out of the rock, than if all were harmonized into a less wondrous
+pleasure; hating only what is self-sighted and insolent of men's work,
+despising all that is not of God, unless reminding it of God, yet able
+to find evidence of him still, where all seems forgetful of him, and to
+turn that into a witness of his working which was meant to obscure it,
+and so with clear and unoffended sight beholding him forever, according
+to the written promise,--Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
+see God.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [7] [Greek: hos dei, kai kath' hyperbolen kai elleipsin.]
+
+ [8] Comp. Hooker, Eccl. Pol. Book i. chap. 8.
+
+ [9] Plato, Phaedrus, Sec. 9.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ OF ACCURACY AND INACCURACY IN IMPRESSIONS OF SENSE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. By what test is the health of the perceptive faculty to be
+ determined?
+
+Hitherto we have observed only the distinctions of dignity among
+pleasures of sense, considered merely as such, and the way in which any
+of them may become theoretic in being received with right feeling.
+
+But as we go farther, and examine the distinctive nature of ideas of
+beauty, we shall, I believe, perceive something in them besides aesthetic
+pleasure, which attests a more important function belonging to them than
+attaches to other sensual ideas, and exhibits a more exalted character
+in the faculty by which they are received. And this was what I alluded
+to, when I said in the chapter already referred to (Sec. 1), that "we may
+indeed perceive, as far as we are acquainted with the nature of God,
+that we have been so constructed as in a healthy state of mind to derive
+pleasure from whatever things are illustrative of that nature."
+
+This point it is necessary now farther to develop.
+
+Our first inquiry must evidently be, how we are authorized to affirm of
+any man's mind, respecting impressions of sight, that it is in a healthy
+state or otherwise. What canon or test is there by which we may
+determine of these impressions that they are or are not _rightly_
+esteemed beautiful? To what authority, when men are at variance with
+each other on this subject, shall it be deputed to judge which is right?
+or is there any such authority or canon at all?
+
+For it does not at first appear easy to prove that men ought to like one
+thing rather than another, and although this is granted generally by
+men's speaking of bad or good taste, it is frequently denied when we
+pass to particulars, by the assertion of each individual that he has a
+right to his opinion--a right which is sometimes claimed even in moral
+matters, though then palpably without foundation, but which does not
+appear altogether irrational in matters aesthetic, wherein little
+operation of voluntary choice is supposed possible. It would appear
+strange, for instance, to assert, respecting a particular person who
+preferred the scent of violets to roses, that he had no right to do so.
+And yet, while I have said that the sensation of beauty is intuitive and
+necessary, as men derive pleasure from the scent of a rose, I have
+assumed that there are some sources from which it is rightly derived,
+and others from which it is wrongly derived, in other words that men
+have no right to think some things beautiful, and no right to remain
+apathetic with regard to others.
+
+
+Sec. 2. And in what sense may the terms Right and Wrong be attached to its
+ conclusions?
+
+Hence then arise two questions, according to the sense in which the word
+right is taken; the first, in what way an impression of sense may be
+deceptive, and therefore a conclusion respecting it untrue; and the
+second, in what way an impression of sense, or the preference of one,
+may be a subject of will, and therefore of moral duty or delinquency.
+
+To the first of these questions, I answer that we cannot speak of the
+immediate impression of sense as false, nor of its preference to others
+as mistaken, for no one can be deceived respecting the actual sensation
+he perceives or prefers. But falsity may attach to his assertion or
+supposition, either that what he himself perceives is from the same
+object perceived by others, or is always to be by himself perceived, or
+is always to be by himself preferred; and when we speak of a man as
+wrong in his impressions of sense, we either mean that he feels
+differently from all, or a majority, respecting a certain object, or
+that he prefers at present those of his impressions, which ultimately he
+will not prefer.
+
+To the second I answer, that over immediate impressions and immediate
+preferences we have no power, but over ultimate impressions, and
+especially ultimate preferences we have; and that, though we can neither
+at once choose whether we shall see an object, red, green, or blue, nor
+determine to like the red better than the blue, or the blue better than
+the red, yet we can, if we choose, make ourselves ultimately susceptible
+of such impressions in other degrees, and capable of pleasures in them
+in different measure; and because, wherever power of any kind is given,
+there is responsibility attached, it is the duty of men to prefer
+certain impressions of sense to others, because they have the power of
+doing so, this being precisely analogous to the law of the moral world,
+whereby men are supposed not only capable of governing their likes and
+dislikes, but the whole culpability or propriety of actions is dependent
+upon this capability, so that men are guilty or otherwise, not for what
+they do, but for what they desire, the command being not, thou shalt
+obey, but thou shalt love, the Lord thy God, which, if men were not
+capable of governing and directing their affections, would be the
+command of an impossibility.
+
+
+Sec. 3. What power we have over impressions of sense.
+
+I assert, therefore, that even with respect to impressions of sense, we
+have a power of preference, and a corresponding duty, and I shall show
+first the nature of the power, and afterwards the nature of the duty.
+
+Let us take an instance from one of the lowest of the senses, and
+observe the kind of power we have over the impressions of lingual taste.
+On the first offering of two different things to the palate, it is not
+in our power to prevent or command the instinctive preference. One will
+be unavoidably and helplessly preferred to the other. But if the same
+two things be submitted to judgment frequently and attentively, it will
+be often found that their relations change. The palate, which at first
+perceived only the coarse and violent qualities of either, will, as it
+becomes more experienced, acquire greater subtilty and delicacy of
+discrimination, perceiving in both agreeable or disagreeable qualities
+at first unnoticed, which on continued experience will probably become
+more influential than the first impressions; and whatever this final
+verdict may be, it is felt by the person who gives it, and received by
+others as a more correct one than the first.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Depends on acuteness of attention.
+
+So, then, the power we have over the preference of impressions of taste
+is not actual nor immediate, but only a power of testing and comparing
+them frequently and carefully, until that which is the more permanent,
+the more consistently agreeable, be determined. But when the instrument
+of taste is thus in some degree perfected and rendered subtile, by its
+being practised upon a single object, its conclusions will be more rapid
+with respect to others, and it will be able to distinguish more quickly
+in other things, and even to prefer at once, those qualities which are
+calculated finally to give it most pleasure, though more capable with
+respect to those on which it is more frequently exercised; whence
+people are called judges with respect to this or that particular object
+of taste.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Ultimate conclusions universal.
+
+Now that verdicts of this kind are received as authoritative by others,
+proves another and more important fact, namely, that not only changes of
+opinion take place in consequence of experience, but that those changes
+are from variation of opinion to unity of opinion; and that whatever may
+be the differences of estimate among unpractised or uncultivated tastes,
+there will be unity of taste among the experienced. And that therefore
+the operation of repeated trial and experience is to arrive at
+principles of preference in some sort common to all, and which are a
+part of our nature.
+
+I have selected the sense of taste for an instance, because it is the
+least favorable to the position I hold, since there is more latitude
+allowed, and more actual variety of verdict in the case of this sense
+than of any other; and yet, however susceptible of variety even the
+ultimate approximations of its preferences may be, the authority of
+judges is distinctly allowed, and we hear every day the admission, by
+those of unpractised palate, that they are, or may be wrong in their
+opinions respecting the real pleasurableness of things either to
+themselves, or to others.
+
+
+Sec. 6. What duty is attached to this power over impressions of sense.
+
+The sense, however, in which they thus use the word "wrong" is merely
+that of falseness or inaccuracy in conclusion, not of moral delinquency.
+But there is, as I have stated, a duty, more or less imperative,
+attached to every power we possess, and therefore to this power over the
+lower senses as well as to all others.
+
+And this duty is evidently to bring every sense into that state of
+cultivation, in which it shall both form the truest conclusions
+respecting all that is submitted to it, and procure us the greatest
+amount of pleasure consistent with its due relation to other senses and
+functions. Which three constituents of perfection in sense, true
+judgment, maximum sensibility, and right relation to others, are
+invariably co-existent and involved one by the other, for the true
+judgment is the result of the high sensibility, and the high sensibility
+of the right relation. Thus, for instance, with respect to pleasures of
+taste, it is our duty not to devote such inordinate attention to the
+discrimination of them as must be inconsistent with our pursuit, and
+destructive of our capacity of higher and preferable pleasures, but to
+cultivate the sense of them in that way which is consistent with all
+other good, by temperance, namely, and by such attention as the mind at
+certain resting moments may fitly pay even to so ignoble a source of
+pleasure as this, by which discipline we shall bring the faculty of
+taste itself to its real maximum of sensibility; for it may not be
+doubted but that health, hunger, and such general refinement of bodily
+habits as shall make the body a perfect and fine instrument in all
+respects, are better promoters of actual sensual enjoyment of taste,
+than the sickened, sluggish, hard-stimulated fastidiousness of
+Epicurism.
+
+
+Sec. 7. How rewarded.
+
+So also it will certainly be found with all the senses, that they
+individually receive the greatest and purest pleasure when they are in
+right condition and degree of subordination to all the rest; and that by
+the over cultivation of any one, (for morbid sources of pleasure and
+correspondent temptations to irrational indulgence, confessedly are
+attached to all,) we shall add more to their power as instruments of
+punishment than of pleasure.
+
+We see then, in this example of the lowest sense, that the power we have
+over sensations and preferences depends mainly on the exercise of
+attention through certain prolonged periods, and that by this exercise,
+we arrive at ultimate, constant, and common sources of agreeableness,
+casting off those which are external, accidental, and individual.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Especially with respect to ideas of beauty.
+
+That then which is required in order to the attainment of accurate
+conclusions respecting the essence of the beautiful, is nothing more
+than earnest, loving, and unselfish attention to our impressions of it,
+by which those which are shallow, false, or peculiar to times and
+temperaments, may be distinguished from those that are eternal. And this
+dwelling upon, and fond contemplation of them, (the anschauung of the
+Germans,) is perhaps as much as was meant by the Greek theoria; and it
+is indeed a very noble exercise of the souls of men, and one by which
+they are peculiarly distinguished from the anima of lower creatures,
+which cannot, I think, be proved to have any capacity of contemplation
+at all, but only a restless vividness of perception and conception, the
+"fancy" of Hooker (Eccl. Pol. Book i. Chap. vi. 2). And yet this
+dwelling upon them comes not up to that which I wish to express by the
+word theoria, unless it be accompanied by full perception of their being
+a gift from and manifestation of God, and by all those other nobler
+emotions before described, since not until so felt is their essential
+nature comprehended.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Errors induced by the power of habit.
+
+But two very important points are to be observed respecting the
+direction and discipline of the attention in the early stages of
+judgment. The first, that, for many beneficent purposes, the nature of
+man has been made reconcilable by custom to many things naturally
+painful to it, and even improper for it, and that therefore, though by
+continued experience, united with thought, we may discover that which is
+best of several, yet if we submit ourselves to authority or fashion, and
+close our eyes, we may be by custom made to tolerate, and even to love
+and long for, that which is naturally painful and pernicious to us,
+whence arise incalculable embarrassments on the subject of art.
+
+
+Sec. 10. The necessity of submission in early stages of judgment.
+
+The second, that, in order to the discovery of that which is best of two
+things, it is necessary that both should be equally submitted to the
+attention; and therefore that we should have so much faith in authority
+as shall make us repeatedly observe and attend to that which is said to
+be right, even though at present we may not feel it so. And in the right
+mingling of this faith with the openness of heart, which proves all
+things, lies the great difficulty of the cultivation of the taste, as
+far as the spirit of the scholar is concerned, though even when he has
+this spirit, he may be long retarded by having evil examples submitted
+to him by ignorant masters.
+
+The temper, therefore, by which right taste is formed, is first,
+patient. It dwells upon what is submitted to it, it does not trample
+upon it lest it should be pearls, even though it look like husks, it is
+a good ground, soft, penetrable, retentive, it does not send up thorns
+of unkind thoughts, to choke the weak seed, it is hungry and thirsty
+too, and drinks all the dew that falls on it, it is an honest and good
+heart, that shows no too ready springing before the sun be up, but fails
+not afterwards; it is distrustful of itself, so as to be ready to
+believe and to try all things, and yet so trustful of itself, that it
+will neither quit what it has tried, nor take anything without trying.
+And that pleasure which it has in things that it finds true and good, is
+so great that it cannot possibly be led aside by any tricks of fashion,
+nor diseases of vanity, it cannot be cramped in its conclusions by
+partialities and hypocrisies, its visions and its delights are too
+penetrating, too living, for any whitewashed object or shallow fountain
+long to endure or supply. It clasps all that it loves so hard, that it
+crushes it if it be hollow.
+
+
+Sec. 11. The large scope of matured judgment.
+
+Now, the conclusions of this disposition are sure to be eventually
+right, more and more right according to the general maturity of all the
+powers, but it is sure to come right at last, because its operation is
+in analogy to, and in harmony with, the whole spirit of the Christian
+moral system, and that which it will ultimately love and rest in, are
+great sources of happiness common to all the human race, and based on
+the relations they hold to their Creator.
+
+These common and general sources of pleasure are, I believe, a certain
+seal, or impress of divine work and character, upon whatever God has
+wrought in all the world; only, it being necessary for the perception of
+them, that their contraries should also be set before us, these divine
+qualities, though inseparable from all divine works, are yet suffered to
+exist in such varieties of degree, that their most limited manifestation
+shall, in opposition to their most abundant, act as a foil or contrary,
+just as we conceive of cold as contrary to heat, though the most extreme
+cold we can produce or conceive is not inconsistent with an unknown
+amount of heat in the body.
+
+
+Sec. 12. How distinguishable from false taste.
+
+Our purity of taste, therefore, is best tested by its universality, for
+if we can only admire this thing or that, we may be sure that our cause
+for liking is of a finite and false nature. But if we can perceive
+beauty in everything of God's doing, we may argue that we have reached
+the true perception of its universal laws. Hence, false taste may be
+known by its fastidiousness, by its demands of pomp, splendor, and
+unusual combination, by its enjoyment only of particular styles and
+modes of things, and by its pride also, for it is forever meddling,
+mending, accumulating, and self-exulting, its eye is always upon itself,
+and it tests all things around it by the way they fit it. But true
+taste is forever growing, learning, reading, worshipping, laying its
+hand upon its mouth because it is astonished, casting its shoes from off
+its feet because it finds all ground holy, lamenting over itself and
+testing itself by the way that it fits things. And it finds whereof to
+feed, and whereby to grow, in all things, and therefore the complaint so
+often made by young artists that they have not within their reach
+materials, or subjects enough for their fancy, is utterly groundless,
+and the sign only of their own blindness and inefficiency; for there is
+that to be seen in every street and lane of every city, that to be felt
+and found in every human heart and countenance, that to be loved in
+every road-side weed and moss-grown wall, which in the hands of faithful
+men, may convey emotions of glory and sublimity continual and exalted.
+
+
+Sec. 13. The danger of a spirit of choice.
+
+Let therefore the young artist beware of the spirit of choice,[10] it is
+an insolent spirit at the best and commonly a base and blind one too,
+checking all progress and blasting all power, encouraging weaknesses,
+pampering partialities, and teaching us to look to accidents of nature
+for the help and the joy which should come from our own hearts. He draws
+nothing well who thirsts not to draw _every_thing; when a good painter
+shrinks, it is because he is humbled, not fastidious, when he stops, it
+is because he is surfeited, and not because he thinks nature has given
+him unkindly food, or that he fears famine.[11] I have seen a man of
+true taste pause for a quarter of an hour to look at the channellings
+that recent rain had traced in a heap of cinders.
+
+
+Sec. 14. And criminality.
+
+And here is evident another reason of that duty which we owe respecting
+impressions of sight, namely, to discipline ourselves to the enjoyment
+of those which are eternal in their nature, not only because these are
+the most acute, but because they are the most easily, constantly, and
+unselfishly attainable. For had it been ordained by the Almighty that
+the highest pleasures of sight should be those of most difficult
+attainment, and that to arrive at them it should be necessary to
+accumulate gilded palaces tower over tower, and pile artificial
+mountains around insinuated lakes, there would have been a direct
+contradiction between the unselfish duties and inherent desires of every
+individual. But no such contradiction exists in the system of Divine
+Providence, which, leaving it open to us, if we will, as creatures in
+probation, to abuse this sense like every other, and pamper it with
+selfish and thoughtless vanities as we pamper the palate with deadly
+meats, until the appetite of tasteful cruelty is lost in its sickened
+satiety, incapable of pleasure unless, Caligula like, it concentrate the
+labor of a million of lives into the sensation of an hour, leaves it
+also open to us, by humble and loving ways, to make ourselves
+susceptible of deep delight from the meanest objects of creation, and of
+a delight which shall not separate us from our fellows, nor require the
+sacrifice of any duty or occupation, but which shall bind us closer to
+men and to God, and be with us always, harmonized with every action,
+consistent with every claim, unchanging and eternal.
+
+
+Sec. 15. How certain conclusions respecting beauty are by reason
+ demonstrable.
+
+Seeing then that these qualities of material objects which are
+calculated to give us this universal pleasure, are demonstrably constant
+in their address to human nature, they must belong in some measure to
+whatever has been esteemed beautiful throughout successive ages of the
+world (and they are also by their definition common to all the works of
+God). Therefore it is evident that it must be possible to reason them
+out, as well as to feel them out; possible to divest every object of
+that which makes it accidentally or temporarily pleasant, and to strip
+it bare of distinctive qualities, until we arrive at those which it has
+in common with all other beautiful things, which we may then safely
+affirm to be the cause of its ultimate and true delightfulness.
+
+
+Sec. 16. With what liabilities to error.
+
+Now this process of reasoning will be that which I shall endeavor to
+employ in the succeeding investigations, a process perfectly safe, so
+long as we are quite sure that we are reasoning concerning objects which
+produce in us one and the same sensation, but not safe if the sensation
+produced be of a different nature, though it may be equally agreeable;
+for what produces a different sensation must be a different cause. And
+the difficulty of reasoning respecting beauty arises chiefly from the
+ambiguity of the word, which stands in different people's minds for
+totally different sensations, for which there can be no common cause.
+
+When, for instance, Mr. Alison endeavors to support his position that
+"no man is sensible to beauty in those objects with regard to which he
+has not previous ideas," by the remark that "the beauty of a theory, or
+of a relic of antiquity, is unintelligible to a peasant," we see at once
+that it is hopeless to argue with a man who, under his general term
+beauty, may, for anything we know, be sometimes speaking of mathematical
+demonstrability and sometimes of historical interest; while even if we
+could succeed in limiting the term to the sense of external
+attractiveness, there would be still room for many phases of error; for
+though the beauty of a snowy mountain and of a human cheek or forehead,
+so far as both are considered as mere matter, is the same, and traceable
+to certain qualities of color and line, common to both, and by reason
+extricable, yet the flush of the cheek and moulding of the brow, as they
+express modesty, affection, or intellect, possess sources of
+agreeableness which are not common to the snowy mountain, and the
+interference of whose influence we must be cautious to prevent in our
+examination of those which are material and universal.[12]
+
+
+Sec. 17. The term "beauty" how limitable in the outset. Divided into
+ typical and vital.
+
+The first thing, then, that we have to do, is accurately to discriminate
+and define those appearances from which we are about to reason as
+belonging to beauty, properly so called, and to clear the ground of all
+the confused ideas and erroneous theories with which the misapprehension
+or metaphorical use of the term has encumbered it.
+
+By the term beauty, then, properly are signified two things. First, that
+external quality of bodies already so often spoken of, and which,
+whether it occur in a stone, flower, beast, or in man, is absolutely
+identical, which, as I have already asserted, may be shown to be in
+some sort typical of the Divine attributes, and which, therefore, I
+shall, for distinction's sake, call typical beauty; and, secondarily,
+the appearance of felicitous fulfilment of function in living things,
+more especially of the joyful and right exertion of perfect life in man.
+And this kind of beauty I shall call vital beauty.
+
+Any application of the word beautiful to other appearances or qualities
+than these, is either false or metaphorical, as, for instance, to the
+splendor of a discovery, the fitness of a proportion, the coherence of a
+chain of reasoning, or the power of bestowing pleasure which objects
+receive from association, a power confessedly great, and interfering, as
+we shall presently find, in a most embarrassing way with the
+attractiveness of inherent beauty.
+
+But in order that the mind of the reader may not be biassed at the
+outset by that which he may happen to have received of current theories
+respecting beauty, founded on the above metaphorical uses of the word,
+(theories which are less to be reprobated as accounting falsely for the
+sensations of which they treat, than as confusing two or more
+pleasurable sensations together,) I shall briefly glance at the four
+erroneous positions most frequently held upon this subject, before
+proceeding to examine those typical and vital properties of things, to
+which I conceive that all our original conceptions of beauty may be
+traced.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+ [10] "Nothing comes amiss,--
+ A good digestion turneth all to health."--G. HERBERT.
+
+ [11] Yet note the difference between the choice that comes of pride,
+ and the choice that comes of love, and compare Chap. xv. Sec. 6.
+
+ [12] Compare Spenser. (Hymn to Beauty.)
+
+ "But ah, believe me, there is more than so,
+ That works such wonders in the minds of men."
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ OF FALSE OPINIONS HELD CONCERNING BEAUTY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Of the false opinion that truth is beauty, and vice versa.
+
+I purpose at present to speak only of four of the more current opinions
+respecting beauty, for of the errors connected with the pleasurableness
+of proportion, and of the expression of right feelings in the
+countenance, I shall have opportunity to treat in the succeeding
+chapters; (compare Ch. VI. Ch. XVI.)
+
+Those erring or inconsistent positions which I would at once dismiss
+are, the first, that the beautiful is the true, the second, that the
+beautiful is the useful, the third, that it is dependent on custom, and
+the fourth, that it is dependent on the association of ideas.
+
+To assert that the beautiful is the true, appears, at first, like
+asserting that propositions are matter, and matter propositions. But
+giving the best and most rational interpretation we can, and supposing
+the holders of this strange position to mean only that things are
+beautiful which appear what they indeed are, and ugly which appear what
+they are not, we find them instantly contradicted by each and every
+conclusion of experience. A stone looks as truly a stone as a rose looks
+a rose, and yet is not so beautiful; a cloud may look more like a castle
+than a cloud, and be the more beautiful on that account. The mirage of
+the desert is fairer than its sands; the false image of the under heaven
+fairer than the sea. I am at a loss to know how any so untenable a
+position could ever have been advanced; but it may, perhaps, have arisen
+from some confusion of the beauty of art with the beauty of nature, and
+from an illogical expansion of the very certain truth, that nothing is
+beautiful in art, which, professing to be an imitation, or a statement,
+is not as such in some sort true.
+
+
+Sec. 2. Of the false opinion that beauty is usefulness. Compare Chap. xii.
+ Sec. 5.
+
+That the beautiful is the useful, is an assertion evidently based on
+that limited and false sense of the latter term which I have already
+deprecated. As it is the most degrading and dangerous supposition which
+can be advanced on the subject, so, fortunately, it is the most
+palpably absurd. It is to confound admiration with hunger, love with
+lust, and life with sensation; it is to assert that the human creature
+has no ideas and no feelings, except those ultimately referable to its
+brutal appetites. It has not a single fact nor appearance of fact to
+support it, and needs no combating, at least until its advocates have
+obtained the consent of the majority of mankind, that the most beautiful
+productions of nature are seeds and roots; and of art, spades and
+millstones.
+
+
+Sec. 3. Of the false opinion that beauty results from custom. Compare Chap.
+ vi. Sec. 1.
+
+Somewhat more rational grounds appear for the assertion that the sense
+of the beautiful arises from familiarity with the object, though even
+this could not long be maintained by a thinking person. For all that can
+be alleged in defence of such a supposition is, that familiarity
+deprives some objects which at first appeared ugly, of much of their
+repulsiveness, whence it is as rational to conclude that familiarity is
+the cause of beauty, as it would be to argue that because it is possible
+to acquire a taste for olives, therefore custom is the cause of
+lusciousness in grapes. Nevertheless, there are some phenomena resulting
+from the tendency of our nature to be influenced by habit of which it
+may be well to observe the limits.
+
+
+Sec. 4. The twofold operation of custom. It deadens sensation, but confirms
+ affection.
+
+Sec. 5. But never either creates or destroys the essence of beauty.
+
+Custom has a twofold operation: the one to deaden the frequency and
+force of repeated impressions, the other to endear the familiar object
+to the affections. Commonly, where the mind is vigorous, and the power
+of sensation very perfect, it has rather the last operation than the
+first; with meaner minds, the first takes place in the higher degree, so
+that they are commonly characterized by a desire of excitement, and the
+want of the loving, fixed, theoretic power. But both take place in some
+degree with all men, so that as life advances, impressions of all kinds
+become less rapturous owing to their repetition. It is however
+beneficently ordained that repulsiveness shall be diminished by custom
+in a far greater degree than the sensation of beauty, so that the
+anatomist in a little time loses all sense of horror in the torn flesh,
+and carous bone, while the sculptor ceases not to feel to the close of
+his life, the deliciousness of every line of the outward frame. So then
+as in that with which we are made familiar, the repulsiveness is
+constantly diminishing, and such claims as it may be able to put forth
+on the affections are daily becoming stronger, while in what is
+submitted to us of new or strange, that which may be repulsive is felt
+in its full force, while no hold is as yet laid on the affections, there
+is a very strong preference induced in most minds for that to which they
+are not accustomed over that they know not, and this is strongest in
+those which are least open to sensations of positive beauty. But however
+far this operation may be carried, its utmost effect is but the
+deadening and approximating the sensations of beauty and ugliness. It
+never mixes nor crosses, nor in any way alters them; it has not the
+slightest connection with nor power over their nature. By tasting two
+wines alternately, we may deaden our perception of their flavor; nay, we
+may even do more than can ever be done in the case of sight, we may
+confound the two flavors together. But it will hardly be argued
+therefore that custom is the cause of either flavor. And so, though by
+habit we may deaden the effect of ugliness or beauty, it is not for that
+reason to be affirmed that habit is the cause of either sensation. We
+may keep a skull beside us as long as we please, we may overcome its
+repulsiveness, we may render ourselves capable of perceiving many
+qualities of beauty about its lines, we may contemplate it for years
+together if we will, it and nothing else, but we shall not get ourselves
+to think as well of it as of a child's fair face.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Instances.
+
+It would be easy to pursue the subject farther, but I believe that every
+thoughtful reader will be perfectly well able to supply farther
+illustrations, and sweep away the sandy foundations of the opposite
+theory, unassisted. Let it, however, be observed, that in spite of all
+custom, an Englishman instantly acknowledges, and at first sight, the
+superiority of the turban to the hat, or of the plaid to the coat, that
+whatever the dictates of immediate fashion may compel, the superior
+gracefulness of the Greek or middle age costumes is invariably felt, and
+that, respecting what has been asserted of negro nations looking with
+disgust on the white face, no importance whatever is to be attached to
+the opinions of races who have never received any ideas of beauty
+whatsoever, (these ideas being only received by minds under some
+certain degree of cultivation,) and whose disgust arises naturally from
+what they may suppose to be a sign of weakness or ill health. It would
+be futile to proceed into farther detail. I pass to the last and most
+weighty theory, that the agreeableness in objects which we call beauty
+is the result of the association with them of agreeable or interesting
+ideas.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Of the false opinion that beauty depends on the association of
+ ideas.
+
+Frequent has been the support, and wide the acceptance of this
+supposition, and yet I suppose that no two consecutive sentences were
+ever written in defence of it, without involving either a contradiction
+or a confusion of terms. Thus Alison, "There are scenes undoubtedly more
+beautiful than Runnymede, yet to those who recollect the great event
+that passed there, there is no scene perhaps which so strongly seizes on
+the imagination." Here we are wonder-struck at the audacious obtuseness
+which would prove the power of imagination by its overcoming that very
+other power (of inherent beauty) whose existence the arguer denies. For
+the only logical conclusion which can possibly be drawn from the above
+sentence is, that imagination is _not_ the source of beauty, for
+although no scene seizes so strongly on the imagination, yet there are
+scenes "more beautiful than Runnymede." And though instances of
+self-contradiction as laconic and complete as this are to be found in
+few writers except Alison, yet if the arguments on the subject be fairly
+sifted from the mass of confused language with which they are always
+encumbered and placed in logical form, they will be found invariably to
+involve one of these two syllogisms, either, association gives pleasure,
+and beauty gives pleasure, therefore association is beauty. Or, the
+power of association is stronger than the power of beauty, therefore the
+power of association _is_ the power of beauty.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Association. Is, 1st, rational. It is of no efficiency as a cause
+ of beauty.
+
+Nevertheless it is necessary for us to observe the real value and
+authority of association in the moral system, and how ideas of actual
+beauty may be affected by it, otherwise we shall be liable to
+embarrassment throughout the whole of the succeeding argument.
+
+Association is of two kinds. Rational and accidental. By rational
+association I understand the interest which any object may bear
+historically as having been in some way connected with the affairs or
+affections of men; an interest shared in the minds of all who are aware
+of such connection: which to call beauty is mere and gross confusion of
+terms, it is no theory to be confuted, but a misuse of language to be
+set aside, a misuse involving the positions that in uninhabited
+countries the vegetation has no grace, the rock no dignity, the cloud no
+color, and that the snowy summits of the Alps receive no loveliness from
+the sunset light, because they have not been polluted by the wrath,
+ravage, and misery of men.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Association accidental. The extent of its influence.
+
+By accidental association, I understand the accidental connection of
+ideas and memories with material things, owing to which those material
+things are regarded as agreeable or otherwise, according to the nature
+of the feelings or recollections they summon; the association being
+commonly involuntary and oftentimes so vague as that no distinct image
+is suggested by the object, but we feel a painfulness in it or pleasure
+from it, without knowing wherefore. Of this operation of the mind (which
+is that of which I spoke as causing inextricable embarrassments on the
+subject of beauty) the experience is constant, so that its more
+energetic manifestations require no illustration. But I do not think
+that the minor degrees and shades of this great influence have been
+sufficiently appreciated. Not only all vivid emotions and all
+circumstances of exciting interest leave their light and shadow on the
+senseless things and instruments among which or through whose agency
+they have been felt or learned, but I believe that the eye cannot rest
+on a material form, in a moment of depression or exultation, without
+communicating to that form a spirit and a life, a life which will make
+it afterwards in some degree loved or feared, a charm or a painfulness
+for which we shall be unable to account even to ourselves, which will
+not indeed be perceptible, except by its delicate influence on our
+judgment in cases of complicated beauty. Let the eye but rest on a rough
+piece of branch of curious form during a conversation with a friend,
+rest, however, unconsciously, and though the conversation be forgotten,
+though every circumstance connected with it be as utterly lost to the
+memory as though it had not been, yet the eye will, through the whole
+life after, take a certain pleasure in such boughs which it had not
+before, a pleasure so slight, a trace of feeling so delicate as to
+leave us utterly unconscious of its peculiar power, but undestroyable by
+any reasoning, a part, thenceforward, of our constitution, destroyable
+only by the same arbitrary process of association by which it was
+created. Reason has no effect upon it whatsoever. And there is probably
+no one opinion which is formed by any of us, in matters of taste, which
+is not in some degree influenced by unconscious association of this
+kind. In many who have no definite rules of judgment, preference is
+decided by little else, and thus, unfortunately, its operations are
+mistaken for, or rather substituted for, those of inherent beauty, and
+its real position and value in the moral system is in a great measure
+overlooked.
+
+
+Sec. 10. The dignity of its function.
+
+For I believe that mere pleasure and pain have less associative power
+than duty performed or omitted, and that the great use of the
+associative faculty is not to add beauty to material things, but to add
+force to the conscience. But for this external and all-powerful witness,
+the voice of the inward guide might be lost in each particular instance,
+almost as soon as disobeyed; the echo of it in after time, whereby,
+though perhaps feeble as warning, it becomes powerful as punishment,
+might be silenced, and the strength of the protection pass away in the
+lightness of the lash. Therefore it has received the power of enlisting
+external and unmeaning things in its aid, and transmitting to all that
+is indifferent, its own authority to reprove or reward, so that, as we
+travel the way of life, we have the choice, according to our working, of
+turning all the voices of nature into one song of rejoicing, and all her
+lifeless creatures into a glad company, whereof the meanest shall be
+beautiful in our eyes, by its kind message, or of withering and
+quenching her sympathy into a fearful, withdrawn, silence of
+condemnation, or into a crying out of her stones, and a shaking of her
+dust against us. Nor is it any marvel that the theoretic faculty should
+be overpowered by this momentous operation, and the indifferent appeals
+and inherent glories of external things in the end overlooked, when the
+perfection of God's works is felt only as the sweetness of his promises,
+and their admirableness only as the threatenings of his power.
+
+
+Sec. 11. How it is connected with impressions of beauty.
+
+But it is evident that the full exercise of this noble function of the
+associative faculty is inconsistent with absolute and incontrovertible
+conclusions on subjects of theoretic preference. For it is quite
+impossible for any individual to distinguish in himself the unconscious
+underworking of indefinite association, peculiar to him individually,
+from those great laws of choice under which he is comprehended with all
+his race. And it is well for us that it is so, the harmony of God's good
+work is not in us interrupted by this mingling of universal and peculiar
+principles; for by these such difference is secured in the feelings as
+shall make fellowship itself more delightful, by its inter-communicate
+character, and such variety of feeling also in each of us separately as
+shall make us capable of enjoying scenes of different kinds and orders,
+instead of morbidly seeking for some perfect epitome of the beautiful in
+one; and also that deadening by custom of theoretic impressions to which
+I have above alluded, is counterbalanced by the pleasantness of acquired
+association; and the loss of the intense feeling of the youth, which
+"had no need of a remoter charm, by thought supplied, or any interest,
+unborrowed from the eye," is replaced by the gladness of conscience, and
+the vigor of the reflecting and imaginative faculties, as they take
+their wide and aged grasp of the great relations between the earth and
+its dead people.
+
+
+Sec. 12. And what caution it renders necessary in the examination of them.
+
+In proportion therefore to the value, constancy, and efficiency of this
+influence, we must be modest and cautious in the pronouncing of positive
+opinions on the subject of beauty. For every one of us has peculiar
+sources of enjoyment necessarily opened to him in certain scenes and
+things, sources which are sealed to others, and we must be wary on the
+one hand, of confounding these in ourselves with ultimate conclusions of
+taste, and so forcing them upon all as authoritative, and on the other
+of supposing that the enjoyments of others which we cannot share are
+shallow or unwarrantable, because incommunicable. I fear, for instance,
+that in the former portion of this work I may have attributed too much
+community and authority to certain affections of my own for scenery
+inducing emotions of wild, impetuous, and enthusiastic characters, and
+too little to those which I perceive in others for things peaceful,
+humble, meditative, and solemn. So also between youth and age there will
+be found differences of seeking, which are not wrong, nor of false
+choice in either, but of different temperament, the youth sympathizing
+more with the gladness, fulness, and magnificence of things, and the
+gray hairs with their completion, sufficiency and repose. And so,
+neither condemning the delights of others, nor altogether distrustful of
+our own, we must advance, as we live on, from what is brilliant to what
+is pure, and from what is promised to what is fulfilled, and from what
+is our strength to what is our crown, only observing in all things how
+that which is indeed wrong, and to be cut up from the root, is dislike,
+and not affection. For by the very nature of these beautiful qualities,
+which I have defined to be the signature of God upon his works, it is
+evident that in whatever we altogether dislike, we see not all; that the
+keenness of our vision is to be tested by the expansiveness of our love,
+and that as far as the influence of association has voice in the
+question, though it is indeed possible that the inevitable painfulness
+of an object, for which we can render no sufficient reason, may be owing
+to its recalling of a sorrow, it is more probably dependent on its
+accusation of a crime.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ OF TYPICAL BEAUTY:--FIRST, OF INFINITY, OR THE TYPE OF DIVINE
+ INCOMPREHENSIBILITY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Impossibility of adequately treating the subject.
+
+The subject being now in some measure cleared of embarrassment, let us
+briefly distinguish those qualities or types on whose combination is
+dependent the power of mere material loveliness. I pretend neither to
+enumerate nor perceive them all, for it may be generally observed that
+whatever good there may be, desirable by man, more especially good
+belonging to his moral nature, there will be a corresponding
+agreeableness in whatever external object reminds him of such good,
+whether it remind him by arbitrary association or by typical
+resemblance, and that the infinite ways, whether by reason or experience
+discoverable, by which matter in some sort may remind us of moral
+perfections, are hardly within any reasonable limits to be explained, if
+even by any single mind they might all be traced. Yet certain palpable
+and powerful modes there are, by observing which, we may come at such
+general conclusions on the subject as may be practically useful, and
+more than these I shall not attempt to obtain.
+
+
+Sec. 2. With what simplicity of feeling to be approached.
+
+And first, I would ask of the reader to enter upon the subject with me,
+as far as may be, as a little child, ridding himself of all conventional
+and authoritative thoughts, and especially of such associations as arise
+from his respect for Pagan art, or which are in any way traceable to
+classical readings. I recollect that Mr. Alison traces his first
+perceptions of beauty in external nature to this most corrupt source,
+thus betraying so total and singular a want of natural sensibility as
+may well excuse the deficiencies of his following arguments. For there
+was never yet the child of any promise (so far as the theoretic
+faculties are concerned) but awaked to the sense of beauty with the
+first gleam of reason; and I suppose there are few, among those who love
+nature otherwise than by profession and at second-hand, who look not
+back to their youngest and least-learned days as those of the most
+intense, superstitious, insatiable, and beatific perception of her
+splendors. And the bitter decline of this glorious feeling, though many
+note it not, partly owing to the cares and weight of manhood, which
+leave them not the time nor the liberty to look for their lost treasure,
+and partly to the human and divine affections which are appointed to
+take its place, yet has formed the subject not indeed of lamentation,
+but of holy thankfulness for the witness it bears to the immortal origin
+and end of our nature, to one whose authority is almost without appeal
+in all questions relating to the influence of external things upon the
+pure human soul.
+
+ "Heaven lies about us in our infancy,--
+ Shades of the prison-house begin to close
+ Upon the growing boy.
+ But he beholds the light, and whence it flows
+ He sees it in his joy.
+ The youth, who daily farther from the east
+ Must travel, still is nature's priest,
+ And by the vision splendid
+ Is on his way attended.
+ At length the Man perceives it die away
+ And fade into the light of common day."
+
+And if it were possible for us to recollect all the unaccountable and
+happy instincts of the careless time, and to reason upon them with the
+maturer judgment, we might arrive at more rapid and right results than
+either the philosophy or the sophisticated practice of art have yet
+attained. But we lose the perceptions before we are capable of
+methodizing or comparing them.
+
+
+Sec. 3. The child instinct respecting space.
+
+Sec. 4. Continued in after life.
+
+One, however, of these child instincts, I believe that few forget; the
+emotion, namely, caused by all open ground, or lines of any spacious
+kind against the sky, behind which there might be conceived the sea. It
+is an emotion more pure than that caused by the sea itself, for I
+recollect distinctly running down behind the banks of a high beach to
+get their land line cutting against the sky, and receiving a more
+strange delight from this than from the sight of the ocean: I am not
+sure that this feeling is common to all children, (or would be common if
+they were all in circumstances admitting it), but I have ascertained it
+to be frequent among those who possess the most vivid sensibilities for
+nature; and I am certain that the modification of it, which belongs to
+our after years, is common to all, the love, namely, of a light
+distance appearing over a comparatively dark horizon. This I have tested
+too frequently to be mistaken, by offering to indifferent spectators
+forms of equal abstract beauty in half tint, relieved, the one against
+dark sky, the other against a bright distance. The preference is
+invariably given to the latter, and it is very certain that this
+preference arises not from any supposition of there being greater truth
+in this than the other, for the same preference is unhesitatingly
+accorded to the same effect in nature herself. Whatever beauty there may
+result from effects of light on foreground objects, from the dew of the
+grass, the flash of the cascade, the glitter of the birch trunk, or the
+fair daylight hues of darker things, (and joyfulness there is in all of
+them), there is yet a light which the eye invariably seeks with a deeper
+feeling of the beautiful, the light of the declining or breaking day,
+and the flakes of scarlet cloud burning like watch-fires in the green
+sky of the horizon; a deeper feeling, I say, not perhaps more acute, but
+having more of spiritual hope and longing, less of animal and present
+life, more manifest, invariably, in those of more serious and determined
+mind, (I use the word serious, not as being opposed to cheerful, but to
+trivial and volatile;) but, I think, marked and unfailing even in those
+of the least thoughtful dispositions. I am willing to let it rest on the
+determination of every reader, whether the pleasure which he has
+received from these effects of calm and luminous distance be not the
+most singular and memorable of which he has been conscious, whether all
+that is dazzling in color, perfect in form, gladdening in expression, be
+not of evanescent and shallow appealing, when compared with the still
+small voice of the level twilight behind purple hills, or the scarlet
+arch of dawn over the dark, troublous-edged sea.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Whereto this instinct is traceable.
+
+Let us try to discover that which effects of this kind possess or
+suggest, peculiar to themselves, and which other effects of light and
+color possess not. There _must_ be something in them of a peculiar
+character, and that, whatever it be, must be one of the primal and most
+earnest motives of beauty to human sensation.
+
+Do they show finer characters of form than can be developed by the
+broader daylight? Not so; for their power is almost independent of the
+forms they assume or display; it matters little whether the bright
+clouds be simple or manifold, whether the mountain line be subdued or
+majestic, the fairer forms of earthly things are by them subdued and
+disguised, the round and muscular growth of the forest trunks is sunk
+into skeleton lines of quiet shade, the purple clefts of the hill-side
+are labyrinthed in the darkness, the orbed spring and whirling wave of
+the torrent have given place to a white, ghastly, interrupted gleaming.
+Have they more perfection or fulness of color? Not so; for their effect
+is oftentimes deeper when their hues are dim, than when they are
+blazoned with crimson and pale gold; and assuredly, in the blue of the
+rainy sky, in the many tints of morning flowers, in the sunlight on
+summer foliage and field, there are more sources of mere sensual
+color-pleasure than in the single streak of wan and dying light. It is
+not then by nobler form, it is not by positiveness of hue, it is not by
+intensity of light, (for the sun itself at noonday is effectless upon
+the feelings,) that this strange distant space possesses its attractive
+power. But there is one thing that it has, or suggests, which no other
+object of sight suggests in equal degree, and that is,--Infinity. It is
+of all visible things the least material, the least finite, the farthest
+withdrawn from the earth prison-house, the most typical of the nature of
+God, the most suggestive of the glory of his dwelling-place. For the sky
+of night, though we may know it boundless, is dark, it is a studded
+vault, a roof that seems to shut us in and down, but the bright distance
+has no limit, we feel its infinity, as we rejoice in its purity of
+light.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Infinity how necessary in art.
+
+Now not only is this expression of infinity in distance most precious
+wherever we find it, however solitary it may be, and however unassisted
+by other forms and kinds of beauty, but it is of that value that no such
+other forms will altogether recompense us for its loss; and much as I
+dread the enunciation of anything that may seem like a conventional
+rule, I have no hesitation in asserting, that no work of any art, in
+which this expression of infinity is possible, can be perfect, or
+supremely elevated without it, and that in proportion to its presence,
+it will exalt and render impressive even the most tame and trivial
+themes. And I think if there be any one grand division, by which it is
+at all possible to set the productions of painting, so far as their
+mere plan or system is concerned, on our right and left hands, it is
+this of light and dark background, of heaven light or of object light.
+For I know not any truly great painter of any time, who manifests not
+the most intense pleasure in the luminous space of his backgrounds, or
+who ever sacrifices this pleasure where the nature of his subject admits
+of its attainment, as on the other hand I know not that the habitual use
+of dark backgrounds can be shown as having ever been co-existent with
+pure or high feeling, and, except in the case of Rembrandt, (and then
+under peculiar circumstances only,) with any high power of intellect. It
+is however necessary carefully to observe the following modifications of
+this broad principle.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Conditions of its necessity.
+
+The absolute necessity, for such indeed I consider it, is of no more
+than such a mere luminous distant point as may give to the feelings a
+species of escape from all the finite objects about them. There is a
+spectral etching of Rembrandt, a presentation of Christ in the temple,
+where the figure of a robed priest stands glaring by its gems out of the
+gloom, holding a crosier. Behind it there is a subdued window light seen
+in the opening between two columns, without which the impressiveness of
+the whole subject would, I think, be incalculably brought down. I cannot
+tell whether I am at present allowing too much weight to my own fancies
+and predilections, but without so much escape into the outer air and
+open heaven as this, I can take permanent pleasure in no picture.
+
+
+Sec. 8. And connected analogies.
+
+And I think I am supported in this feeling by the unanimous practice, if
+not the confessed opinion, of all artists. The painter of portrait is
+unhappy without his conventional white stroke under the sleeve, or
+beside the arm-chair; the painter of interiors feels like a caged bird,
+unless he can throw a window open, or set the door ajar; the landscapist
+dares not lose himself in forest without a gleam of light under its
+farthest branches, nor ventures out in rain, unless he may somewhere
+pierce to a better promise in the distance, or cling to some closing gap
+of variable blue above;--escape, hope, infinity, by whatever
+conventionalism sought, the desire is the same in all, the instinct
+constant, it is no mere point of light that is wanted in the etching of
+Rembrandt above instanced, a gleam of armor or fold of temple curtain
+would have been utterly valueless, neither is it liberty, for though we
+cut down hedges and level hills, and give what waste and plain we
+choose, on the right hand and the left, it is all comfortless and
+undesired, so long as we cleave not a way of escape forward; and however
+narrow and thorny and difficult the nearer path, it matters not, so only
+that the clouds open for us at its close. Neither will any amount of
+beauty in nearer form, make us content to stay with it, so long as we
+are shut down to that alone, nor is any form so cold or so hurtful but
+that we may look upon it with kindness, so only that it rise against the
+infinite hope of light beyond. The reader can follow out the analogies
+of this unassisted.
+
+
+Sec. 9. How the dignity of treatment is proportioned to the expression of
+ infinity.
+
+But although this narrow portal of escape be all that is absolutely
+necessary, I think that the dignity of the painting increases with the
+extent and amount of the expression. With the earlier and mightier
+painters of Italy, the practice is commonly to leave their distance of
+pure and open sky, of such simplicity, that it in nowise shall interfere
+with or draw the attention from the interest of the figures, and of such
+purity, that especially towards the horizon, it shall be in the highest
+degree expressive of the infinite space of heaven. I do not mean to say
+that they did this with any occult or metaphysical motives. They did it,
+I think, with the child-like, unpretending simplicity of all earnest
+men; they did what they loved and felt; they sought what the heart
+naturally seeks, and gave what it most gratefully receives; and I look
+to them as in all points of principle (not, observe, of knowledge or
+empirical attainment) as the most irrefragable authorities, precisely on
+account of the child-like innocence, which never deemed itself
+authoritative, but acted upon desire, and not upon dicta, and sought for
+sympathy, not for admiration.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Examples among the Southern schools.
+
+And so we find the same simple and sweet treatment, the open sky, the
+tender, unpretending, horizontal white clouds, the far winding and
+abundant landscape, in Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Laurati, Angelico, Benozzo,
+Ghirlandajo, Francia, Perogino, and the young Raffaelle, the first
+symptom of conventionality appearing in Perugino, who, though with
+intense feeling of light and color he carried the glory of his luminous
+distance far beyond all his predecessors, began at the same time to use
+a somewhat morbid relief of his figures against the upper sky. Thus in
+the Assumption of the Florentine Academy, in that of l'Annunziata; and
+of the Gallery of Bologna, in all which pictures the lower portions are
+incomparably the finest, owing to the light distance behind the heads.
+Raffaelle, in his fall, betrayed the faith he had received from his
+father and his master, and substituted for the radiant sky of the
+Madonna del Cardellino, the chamber-wall of the Madonna della
+Sediola--and the brown wainscot of the Baldacchino. Yet it is curious to
+observe how much of the dignity even of his later pictures, depends on
+such portions as the green light of the lake, and sky behind the rocks,
+in the St. John of the tribune, and how the repainted distortion of the
+Madonna dell' Impannata, is redeemed into something like elevated
+character, merely by the light of the linen window from which it takes
+its name.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Among the Venetians.
+
+That which by the Florentines was done in pure simplicity of heart, was
+done by the Venetians with intense love of the color and splendor of the
+sky itself, even to the frequent sacrificing of their subject to the
+passion of its distance. In Carpaccio, John Bellini, Giorgione, Titian,
+Veronese, and Tintoret, the preciousness of the luminous sky, so far as
+it might be at all consistent with their subject, is nearly constant;
+abandoned altogether in portraiture only, seldom even there, and never
+with advantage. Titian and Veronese, who had less exalted feeling than
+the others, affording a few instances of exception, the latter
+overpowering his silvery distances with foreground splendor, the other
+sometimes sacrificing them to a luscious fulness of color, as in the
+Flagellation in the Louvre, by a comparison of which with the unequalled
+majesty of the Entombment opposite, the whole power and applicability of
+the general principle may at once be tested.
+
+
+Sec. 12. Among the painters of landscape.
+
+But of the value of this mode of treatment there is a farther and more
+convincing proof than its adoption either by the innocence of the
+Florentine or the ardor of the Venetian, namely, that when retained or
+imitated from them by the landscape painters of the seventeenth
+century, when appearing in isolation from all other good, among the
+weaknesses and paltrinesses of Claude, the mannerisms of Gaspar, and the
+caricatures and brutalities of Salvator, it yet redeems and upholds all
+three, conquers all foulness by its purity, vindicates all folly by its
+dignity, and puts an uncomprehended power of permanent address to the
+human heart, upon the lips of the senseless and the profane.[13]
+
+
+Sec. 13. Other modes in which the power of infinity is felt.
+
+Sec. 14. The beauty of curvature.
+
+Now, although I doubt not that the general value of this treatment will
+be acknowledged by all lovers of art, it is not certain that the point
+to prove which I have brought it forward, will be as readily conceded,
+namely, the inherent power of all representations of infinity over the
+human heart; for there are, indeed, countless associations of pure and
+religious kind, which combine with each other to enhance the impression,
+when presented in this particular form, whose power I neither deny nor
+am careful to distinguish, seeing that they all tend to the same Divine
+point, and have reference to heavenly hopes; delights they are in seeing
+the narrow, black, miserable earth fairly compared with the bright
+firmament, reachings forward unto the things that are before, and
+joyfulness in the apparent though unreachable nearness and promise of
+them. But there are other modes in which infinity may be represented,
+which are confused by no associations of the kind, and which would, as
+being in mere matter, appear trivial and mean, but for their
+incalculable influence on the forms of all that we feel to be beautiful.
+The first of these is the curvature of lines and surfaces, wherein it at
+first appears futile to insist upon any resemblance or suggestion of
+infinity, since there is certainly in our ordinary contemplation of it,
+no sensation of the kind. But I have repeated again and again that the
+ideas of beauty are instinctive, and that it is only upon consideration,
+and even then in doubtful and disputable way, that they appear in their
+typical character; neither do I intend at all to insist upon the
+particular meaning which they appear to myself to bear, but merely on
+their actual and demonstrable agreeableness, so that, in the present
+case, while I assert positively, and have no fear of being able to
+prove, that a curve of any kind is more beautiful than a right line, I
+leave it to the reader to accept or not, as he pleases, that reason of
+its agreeableness, which is the only one that I can at all trace,
+namely, that every curve divides itself infinitely by its changes of
+direction.
+
+
+Sec. 15. How constant in external nature.
+
+That all forms of acknowledged beauty are composed exclusively of curves
+will, I believe, be at once allowed; but that which there will be need
+more especially to prove, is the subtilty and constancy of curvature in
+all natural forms whatsoever. I believe that, except in crystals, in
+certain mountain forms admitted for the sake of sublimity or contrast,
+(as in the slope of debris,) in rays of light, in the levels of calm
+water and alluvial land, and in some few organic developments, there are
+no lines nor surfaces of nature without curvature, though as we before
+saw in clouds, more especially in their under lines towards the horizon,
+and in vast and extended plains, right lines are often suggested which
+are not actual. Without these we could not be sensible of the value of
+the contrasting curves, and while, therefore, for the most part, the eye
+is fed in natural forms with a grace of curvature which no hand nor
+instrument can follow, other means are provided to give beauty to those
+surfaces which are admitted for contrast, as in water by its reflection
+of the gradations which it possesses not itself. In freshly-broken
+ground, which nature has not yet had time to model, in quarries and
+pits which are none of her cutting, in those convulsions and evidences
+of convulsion, of whose influence on ideal landscape I shall presently
+have occasion to speak, and generally in all ruin and disease, and
+interference of one order of being with another, (as in the cattle line
+of park trees,) the curves vanish, and violently opposed or broken and
+unmeaning lines take their place.
+
+
+Sec. 16. The beauty of gradation.
+
+What curvature is to lines, gradation is to shades and colors. It is
+_there_ infinity, and divides them into an infinite number of degrees.
+Absolutely, without gradation no natural surface can possibly be, except
+under circumstances of so rare conjunction as to amount to a lusus
+naturae; for we have seen that few surfaces are without curvature, and
+every curved surface must be gradated by the nature of light, which is
+most intense when it impinges at the highest angle, and for the
+gradation of the few plane surfaces that exist, means are provided in
+local color, aerial perspective, reflected lights, etc., from which it
+is but barely conceivable that they should ever escape. Hence for
+instances of the complete absence of gradation we must look to man's
+work, or to his disease and decrepitude. Compare the gradated colors of
+the rainbow with the stripes of a target, and the gradual concentration
+of the youthful blood in the cheek with an abrupt patch of rouge, or
+with the sharply drawn veining of old age.
+
+
+Sec. 17. How found in Nature.
+
+Gradation is so inseparable a quality of all natural shade and color
+that the eye refuses in art to understand anything as either, which
+appears without it, while on the other hand nearly all the gradations of
+nature are so subtile and between degrees of tint so slightly separated,
+that no human hand can in any wise equal, or do anything more than
+suggest the idea of them. In proportion to the space over which
+gradation extends, and to its invisible subtilty, is its grandeur, and
+in proportion to its narrow limits and violent degrees, its vulgarity.
+In Correggio, it is morbid and vulgar in spite of its refinement of
+execution, because the eye is drawn to it, and it is made the most
+observable and characteristic part of the picture; whereas natural
+gradation is forever escaping observation to that degree that the
+greater part of artists in working from nature see it not, (except in
+certain of its marked developments,) but either lay down such
+continuous lines and colors, as are both disagreeable and impossible,
+or, receiving the necessity of gradation as a principle instead of a
+fact, use it in violently exaggerated measure, and so lose both the
+dignity of their own work, and by the constant dwelling of their eyes
+upon exaggerations, their sensibility to that of the natural forms. So
+that we find the majority of painters divided between the two evil
+extremes of insufficiency and affectation, and only a few of the
+greatest men capable of making gradation constant and yet extended over
+enormous spaces and within degrees of narrow difference, as in the body
+of a high light.
+
+
+Sec. 18. How necessary in Art.
+
+From the necessity of gradation results what is commonly given as a rule
+of art, though its authority as a rule obtains only from its being a
+fact of nature, that the extremes of high light and pure color, can
+exist only in points. The common rules respecting sixths and eighths,
+held concerning light and shade, are entirely absurd and conventional;
+according to the subject and the effect of light, the greater part of
+the picture will be or ought to be light or dark; but that principle
+which is not conventional, is that of all light, however high, there is
+some part that is higher than the rest, and that of all color, however
+pure, there is some part that is purer than the rest, and that generally
+of all shade, however deep, there is some part deeper than the rest,
+though this last fact is frequently sacrificed in art, owing to the
+narrowness of its means. But on the right gradation or focussing of
+light and color depends in great measure, the value of both. Of this, I
+have spoken sufficiently in pointing out the singular constancy of it in
+the works of Turner. Part II. Sect. II. Chap. II. Sec. 17. And it is
+generally to be observed that even raw and valueless color, if rightly
+and subtilely gradated will in some measure stand for light, and that
+the most transparent and perfect hue will be in some measure
+unsatisfactory, if entirely unvaried. I believe the early skies of
+Raffaelle owe their luminousness more to their untraceable and subtile
+gradation than to inherent quality of hue.
+
+
+Sec. 19. Infinity not rightly implied by vastness.
+
+Such are the expressions of infinity which we find in creation, of which
+the importance is to be estimated, rather by their frequency than their
+distinctness. Let, however, the reader bear constantly in mind that I
+insist not on his accepting any interpretation of mine, but only on his
+dwelling so long on those objects, which he perceives to be beautiful,
+as to determine whether the qualities to which I trace their beauty, be
+necessarily there or no. Farther expressions of infinity there are in
+the mystery of nature, and in some measure in her vastness, but these
+are dependent on our own imperfections, and therefore, though they
+produce sublimity, they are unconnected with beauty. For that which we
+foolishly call vastness is, rightly considered, not more wonderful, not
+more impressive, than that which we insolently call littleness, and the
+infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable, not
+concealed, but incomprehensible: it is a clear infinity, the darkness of
+the pure unsearchable sea.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [13] In one of the smaller rooms of the Pitti palace, over the door,
+ is a temptation of St. Anthony, by Salvator, wherein such power as
+ the artist possessed is fully manifested, with little,
+ comparatively, that is offensive. It is a vigorous and ghastly
+ thought, in that kind of horror which is dependent on scenic effect,
+ perhaps unrivalled, and I shall have occasion to refer to it again
+ in speaking of the powers of imagination. I allude to it here,
+ because the sky of the distance affords a remarkable instance of the
+ power of light at present under discussion. It is formed of flakes
+ of black cloud, with rents and openings of intense and lurid green,
+ and at least half of the impressiveness of the picture depends on
+ these openings. Close them, make the sky one mass of gloom, and the
+ spectre will be awful no longer. It owes to the light of the
+ distance both its size and its spirituality. The time would fail me
+ if I were to name the tenth part of the pictures which occur to me,
+ whose vulgarity is redeemed by this circumstance alone, and yet let
+ not the artist trust to such morbid and conventional use of it as
+ may be seen in the common blue and yellow effectism of the present
+ day. Of the value of moderation and simplicity in the use of this,
+ as of all other sources of pleasurable emotion, I shall presently
+ have occasion to speak farther.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+
+ OF UNITY, OR THE TYPE OF THE DIVINE COMPREHENSIVENESS.
+
+
+Sec. 1. The general conception of divine Unity.
+
+"All things," says Hooker, "(God only excepted,) besides the nature
+which they have in themselves, receive externally some perfection from
+other things." Hence the appearance of separation or isolation in
+anything, and of self-dependence, is an appearance of imperfection: and
+all appearances of connection and brotherhood are pleasant and right,
+both as significative of perfection in the things united, and as typical
+of that Unity which we attribute to God, and of which our true
+conception is rightly explained and limited by Dr. Brown in his XCII.
+lecture; that Unity which consists not in his own singleness or
+separation, but in the necessity of his inherence in all things that be,
+without which no creature of any kind could hold existence for a moment.
+Which necessity of Divine essence I think it better to speak of as
+comprehensiveness, than as unity, because unity is often understood in
+the sense of oneness or singleness, instead of universality, whereas the
+only Unity which by any means can become grateful or an object of hope
+to men, and whose types therefore in material things can be beautiful,
+is that on which turned the last words and prayer of Christ before his
+crossing of the Kidron brook. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for
+them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all
+may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee."
+
+
+Sec. 2. The glory of all things is their Unity.
+
+And so there is not any matter, nor any spirit, nor any creature, but it
+is capable of an unity of some kind with other creatures, and in that
+unity is its perfection and theirs, and a pleasure also for the
+beholding of all other creatures that can behold. So the unity of
+spirits is partly in their sympathy, and partly in their giving and
+taking, and always in their love; and these are their delight and their
+strength, for their strength is in their co-working and army fellowship,
+and their delight is in the giving and receiving of alternate and
+perpetual currents of good, their inseparable dependency on each other's
+being, and their essential and perfect depending on their Creator's: and
+so the unity of earthly creatures is their power and their peace, not
+like the dead and cold peace of undisturbed stones and solitary
+mountains, but the living peace of trust, and the living power of
+support, of hands that hold each other and are still: and so the unity
+of matter is, in its noblest form, the organization of it which builds
+it up into temples for the spirit, and in its lower form, the sweet and
+strange affinity, which gives to it the glory of its orderly elements,
+and the fair variety of change and assimilation that turns the dust into
+the crystal, and separates the waters that be above the firmament from
+the waters that be beneath, and in its lowest form; it is the working
+and walking and clinging together that gives their power to the winds,
+and its syllables and soundings to the air, and their weight to the
+waves, and their burning to the sunbeams, and their stability to the
+mountains, and to every creature whatsoever operation is for its glory
+and for others good.
+
+Now of that which is thus necessary to the perfection of all things, all
+appearance, sign, type, or suggestion must be beautiful, in whatever
+matter it may appear. And so to the perfection of beauty in lines, or
+colors, or forms, or masses, or multitudes, the appearance of some
+species of unity is in the most determined sense of the word essential.
+
+
+Sec. 3. The several kinds of unity. Subjectional. Original. Of sequence,
+ and of membership.
+
+But of the appearances of unity, as of unity itself, there are several
+kinds which it will be found hereafter convenient to consider
+separately. Thus there is the unity of different and separate things,
+subjected to one and the same influence, which may be called
+subjectional unity, and this is the unity of the clouds, as they are
+driven by the parallel winds, or as they are ordered by the electric
+currents, and this the unity of the sea waves, and this of the bending
+and undulation of the forest masses, and in creatures capable of will it
+is the unity of will or of inspiration. And there is unity of origin,
+which we may call original unity, which is of things arising from one
+spring and source, and speaking always of this their brotherhood, and
+this in matter is the unity of the branches of the trees, and of the
+petals and starry rays of flowers, and of the beams of light, and in
+spiritual creatures it is their filial relation to Him from whom they
+have their being. And there is unity of sequence, which is that of
+things that form links in chains, and steps in ascent, and stages in
+journeys, and this, in matter, is the unity of communicable forces in
+their continuance from one thing to another, and it is the passing
+upwards and downwards of beneficent effects among all things, and it is
+the melody of sounds, and the beauty of continuous lines, and the
+orderly succession of motions and times. And in spiritual creatures it
+is their own constant building up by true knowledge and continuous
+reasoning to higher perfection, and the singleness and
+straight-forwardness of their tendencies to more complete communion with
+God. And there is the unity of membership, which we may call essential
+unity, which is the unity of things separately imperfect into a perfect
+whole, and this is the great unity of which other unities are but parts
+and means, it is in matter the harmony of sounds and consistency of
+bodies, and among spiritual creatures, their love and happiness and very
+life in God.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Unity of membership. How secured.
+
+Now of the nature of this last kind of unity, the most important whether
+in moral or in those material things with which we are at present
+concerned, there is this necessary to be observed, that it cannot exist
+between things similar to each other. Two or more equal and like things
+cannot be members one of another, nor can they form one, or a whole
+thing. Two they must remain, both in nature and in our conception, so
+long as they remain alike, unless they are united by a third different
+from both. Thus the arms, which are like each other, remain two arms in
+our conception. They could not be united by a third arm, they must be
+united by something which is not an arm, and which, imperfect without
+them as they without it, shall form one perfect body; nor is unity even
+thus accomplished, without a difference and opposition of direction in
+the setting on of the like members. Therefore among all things which are
+to have unity of membership one with another, there must be difference
+or variety; and though it is possible that many like things may be made
+members of one body, yet it is remarkable that this structure appears
+characteristic of the lower creatures, rather than the higher, as the
+many legs of the caterpillar, and the many arms and suckers of the
+radiata, and that, as we rise in order of being, the number of similar
+members becomes less, and their structure commonly seems based on the
+principle of the unity of two things by a third, as Plato has it in the
+Timaeus, Sec. II.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Variety. Why required.
+
+Hence, out of the necessity of unity, arises that of variety, a
+necessity often more vividly, though never so deeply felt, because lying
+at the surfaces of things, and assisted by an influential principle of
+our nature, the love of change, and the power of contrast. But it is a
+mistake which has led to many unfortunate results, in matters respecting
+art, to insist on any inherent agreeableness of variety, without
+reference to a farther end. For it is not even true that variety as
+such, and in its highest degree, is beautiful. A patched garment of many
+colors is by no means so agreeable as one of a single and continuous
+hue; the splendid colors of many birds are eminently painful from their
+violent separation and inordinate variety, while the pure and colorless
+swan is, under certain circumstances, the most beautiful of all
+feathered creatures.[14] A forest of all manner of trees is poor, if not
+disagreeable in effect,[15] a mass of one species of tree is sublime. It
+is therefore only harmonious and chordal variety, that variety which is
+necessary to secure and extend unity, (for the greater the number of
+objects, which by their differences become members of one another, the
+more extended and sublime is their unity,) which is rightly agreeable,
+and so I name not variety as essential to beauty, because it is only so
+in a secondary and casual sense.[16]
+
+
+Sec. 6. Change, and its influence on beauty.
+
+Sec. 7. The love of change. How morbid and evil.
+
+Of the love of change as a principle of human nature, and the
+pleasantness of variety resulting from it, something has already been
+said, (Ch. IV. Sec. 4,) only as there I was opposing the idea that our
+being familiar with objects was the cause of our delight in them, so
+here, I have to oppose the contrary position, that their strangeness is
+the cause of it. For neither familiarity nor strangeness have more
+operation on, or connection with, impressions of one sense than of
+another, and they have less power over the impressions of sense
+generally, than over the intellect in its joyful accepting of fresh
+knowledge, and dull contemplation of that it has long possessed. Only in
+their operation on the senses they act contrarily at different times, as
+for instance the newness of a dress or of some kind of unaccustomed food
+may make it for a time delightful, but as the novelty passes away, so
+also may the delight, yielding to disgust or indifference, which in
+their turn, as custom begins to operate, may pass into affection and
+craving, and that which was first a luxury, and then a matter of
+indifference, becomes a necessity:[17] whereas in subjects of the
+intellect, the chief delight they convey is dependent upon their being
+newly and vividly comprehended, and as they become subjects of
+contemplation they lose their value, and become tasteless and
+unregarded, except as instruments for the reaching of others, only that
+though they sink down into the shadowy, effectless, heap of things
+indifferent, which we pack, and crush down, and stand upon, to reach
+things new, they sparkle afresh at intervals as we stir them by throwing
+a new stone into the heap, and letting the newly admitted lights play
+upon them. And both in subjects of the intellect and the senses it is to
+be remembered, that the love of change is a weakness and imperfection of
+our nature, and implies in it the state of probation, and that it is to
+teach us that things about us here are not meant for our continual
+possession or satisfaction, that ever such passion of change was put in
+us as that "custom lies upon us with a weight, heavy as frost, and deep
+almost as life," and only such weak back and baby grasp given to our
+intellect as that "the best things we do are painful, and the exercise
+of them grievous, being continued without intermission, so as in those
+very actions whereby we are especially perfected in this life we are not
+able to persist." And so it will be found that they are the
+weakest-minded and the hardest-hearted men that most love variety and
+change, for the weakest-minded are those who both wonder most at things
+new, and digest worst things old, in so far that everything they have
+lies rusty, and loses lustre for want of use; neither do they make any
+stir among their possessions, nor look over them to see what may be made
+of them, nor keep any great store, nor are householders with storehouses
+of things new and old, but they catch at the new-fashioned garments, and
+let the moth and thief look after the rest; and the hardest-hearted men
+are those that least feel the endearing and binding power of custom, and
+hold on by no cords of affection to any shore, but drive with the waves
+that cast up mire and dirt. And certainly it is not to be held that the
+perception of beauty and desire of it, are greatest in the hardest heart
+and weakest brain; but the love of variety is so, and therefore variety
+can be no cause of the beautiful, except, as I have said, when it is
+necessary for the perception of unity, neither is there any better test
+of that which is indeed beautiful than its surviving or annihilating the
+love of change; and this is a test which the best judges of art have
+need frequently to use; and the wisest of them will use it always, for
+there is much in art that surprises by its brilliancy, or attracts by
+its singularity, that can hardly but by course of time, though assuredly
+it will by course of time, be winnowed away from the right and real
+beauty whose retentive power is forever on the increase, a bread of the
+soul for which the hunger is continual.
+
+
+Sec. 8. The conducting of variety towards unity of subjection.
+
+Receiving, therefore, variety only as that which accomplishes unity, or
+makes it perceived, its operation is found to be very precious, both in
+that which I have called unity of subjection, and unity of sequence, as
+well as in unity of membership; for although things in all respects the
+same may, indeed, be subjected to one influence, yet the power of the
+influence, and their obedience to it, is best seen by varied operation
+of it on their individual differences, as in clouds and waves there is a
+glorious unity of rolling, wrought out by the wild and wonderful
+differences of their absolute forms, which, if taken away, would leave
+in them only multitudinous and petty repetition, instead of the majestic
+oneness of shared passion. And so in the waves and clouds of human
+multitude when they are filled with one thought, as we find frequently
+in the works of the early Italian men of earnest purpose, who despising,
+or happily ignorant of, the sophistications of theories, and the
+proprieties of composition, indicated by perfect similarity of action
+and gesture on the one hand, and by the infinite and truthful variation
+of expression on the other, the most sublime strength because the most
+absorbing unity, of multitudinous passion that ever human heart
+conceived. Hence, in the cloister of St. Mark's, the intense, fixed,
+statue-like silence of ineffable adoration upon the spirits in prison at
+the feet of Christ, side by side, the hands lifted, and the knees bowed,
+and the lips trembling together;[18] and in St. Domenico of Fiesole,[19]
+that whirlwind rush of the Angels and the redeemed souls round about him
+at his resurrection, so that we hear the blast of the horizontal
+trumpets mixed with the dying clangor of their ingathered wings. The
+same great feeling occurs throughout the works of the serious men,
+though most intensely in Angelico, and it is well to compare with it the
+vileness and falseness of all that succeeded, when men had begun to
+bring to the cross foot their systems instead of their sorrow. Take as
+the most marked and degraded instance, perhaps, to be anywhere found,
+Bronzino's treatment of the same subject (Christ visiting the spirits in
+prison,) in the picture now in the Tuscan room of the Uffizii, which,
+vile as it is in color, vacant in invention, void in light and shade, a
+heap of cumbrous nothingnesses, and sickening offensivenesses, is of all
+its voids most void in this, that the academy models therein huddled
+together at the bottom, show not so much unity or community of attention
+to the academy model with the flag in its hand above, as a street crowd
+would be to a fresh-staged charlatan. Some _point_ to the God who has
+burst the gates of death, as if the rest were incapable of
+distinguishing him for themselves, and others turn their backs upon him,
+to show their unagitated faces to the spectator.
+
+
+Sec. 9. And towards unity of sequence.
+
+In unity of sequence, the effect of variety is best exemplified by the
+melodies of music, wherein by the differences of the notes, they are
+connected with each other in certain pleasant relations. This connection
+taking place in quantities is proportion, respecting which certain
+general principles must be noted, as the subject is one open to many
+errors, and obscurely treated of by writers on art.
+
+
+Sec. 10. The nature of proportion. 1st, of apparent proportion.
+
+Proportion is of two distinct kinds. Apparent: when it takes place
+between qualities for the sake of connection only, without any ultimate
+object or casual necessity; and constructive: when it has reference to
+some function to be discharged by the quantities, depending on their
+proportion. From the confusion of these two kinds of proportion have
+arisen the greater part of the erroneous conceptions of the influence of
+either.
+
+Apparent proportion, or the sensible relation of quantities, is one of
+the most important means of obtaining unity between things which
+otherwise must have remained distinct in similarity, and as it may
+consist with every other kind of unity, and persist when every other
+means of it fails, it may be considered as lying at the root of most of
+our impressions of the beautiful. There is no sense of rightness, or
+wrongness connected with it, no sense of utility, propriety, or
+expediency. These ideas enter only where the proportion of quantities
+has reference to some function to be performed by them. It cannot be
+asserted that it is right or that it is wrong that A should be to B, as
+B to C; unless A, B, and C have some desirable operation dependent on
+that relation. But nevertheless it may be highly agreeable to the eye
+that A, B, and C, if visible things, should have visible connection of
+ratio, even though nothing be accomplished by such connection. On the
+other hand, constructive proportion, or the adaptation of quantities to
+functions, is agreeable not to the eye, but to the mind, which is
+cognizant of the function to be performed. Thus the pleasantness or
+rightness of the proportions of a column depends not on the mere
+relation of diameter and height, (which is not proportion at all, for
+proportion is between three terms at least,) but on three other involved
+terms, the strength of materials, the weight to be borne, and the scale
+of the building. The proportions of a wooden column are wrong in a stone
+one, and of a small building wrong in a large one,[20] and this owing
+solely to mechanical considerations, which have no more to do with
+ideas of beauty, than the relation between the arms of a lever, adapted
+to the raising of a given weight; and yet it is highly agreeable to
+perceive that such constructive proportion has been duly observed, as
+it is agreeable to see that anything is fit for its purpose or for ours,
+and also that it has been the result of intelligence in the workman of
+it, so that we sometimes feel a pleasure in apparent non-adaptation, if
+it be a sign of ingenuity; as in the unnatural and seemingly impossible
+lightness of Gothic spires and roofs.
+
+Now, the errors against which I would caution the reader in this matter
+are three. The first, is the overlooking or denial of the power of
+apparent proportion, of which power neither Burke nor any other writer
+whose works I have met with, take cognizance. The second, is the
+attribution of _beauty_ to the appearances of constructive proportion.
+The third, the denial with Burke of _any_ value or agreeableness in
+constructive proportion.
+
+
+Sec. 11. The value of apparent proportion in curvature.
+
+Now, the full proof of the influence of apparent proportion, I must
+reserve for illustration by diagram; one or two instances however may be
+given at present for the better understanding of its nature.
+
+We have already asserted that all curves are more beautiful than right
+lines. All curves, however, are not equally beautiful, and their
+differences of beauty depend on the different proportions borne to each
+other by those infinitely small right lines of which they may be
+conceived as composed.
+
+When these lines are equal and contain equal angles, there can be no
+connection or unity of sequence in them. The resulting curve, the
+circle, is therefore the least beautiful of all curves.
+
+When the lines bear to each other some certain proportion; or when, the
+lines remaining equal, the angles vary; or when by any means whatsoever,
+and in whatever complicated modes, such differences as shall imply
+connection are established between the infinitely small segments, the
+resulting curves become beautiful. The simplest of the beautiful curves
+are the conic, and the various spirals; but it is as rash as it is
+difficult to endeavor to trace any ground of superiority or inferiority
+among the infinite numbers of the higher curves. I believe that almost
+all are beautiful in their own nature, and that their comparative beauty
+depends on the constant quantities involved in their equations. Of this
+point I shall speak hereafter at greater length.
+
+
+Sec. 12. How by nature obtained.
+
+The universal forces of nature, and the individual energies of the
+matter submitted to them, are so appointed and balanced, that they are
+continually bringing out curves of this kind in all visible forms, and
+that circular lines become nearly impossible under any circumstances.
+The gradual acceleration, for instance, of velocity, in streams that
+descend from hill-sides, as it gradually increases their power of
+erosion increases in the same gradual degree the rate of curvature in
+the descent of the slope, until at a certain degree of steepness this
+descent meets, and is concealed by the right line of the detritus. The
+junction of this right line with the plain is again modified by the
+farther bounding of the larger blocks, and by the successively
+diminishing proportion of landslips caused by erosion at the bottom, so
+that the whole line of the hill is one of curvature, first, gradually
+increasing in rapidity to the maximum steepness of which the particular
+rock is capable, and then decreasing in a decreasing ratio, until it
+arrives at the plain level. This type of form, modified of course more
+or less by the original boldness of the mountain, and dependent both on
+its age, its constituent rock, and the circumstances of its exposure, is
+yet in its general formula applicable to all. So the curves of all
+things in motion, and of all organic forms, most rudely and simply in
+the shell spirals, and in their most complicated development in the
+muscular lines of the higher animals.
+
+This influence of apparent proportion, a proportion, be it observed,
+which has no reference to ultimate ends, but which is itself, seemingly,
+the end and object of operation in many of the forces of nature, is
+therefore at the root of all our delight in any beautiful form
+whatsoever. For no form can be beautiful which is not composed of curves
+whose unity is secured by relations of this kind.
+
+
+Sec. 13. Apparent proportion in melodies of line.
+
+Not only however in curvature, but in all associations of lines
+whatsoever, it is desirable that there should be reciprocal relation,
+and the eye is unhappy without perception of it. It is utterly vain to
+endeavor to reduce this proportion to finite rules, for it is as various
+as musical melody, and the laws to which it is subject are of the same
+general kind, so that the determination of right or wrong proportion is
+as much a matter of feeling and experience as the appreciation of good
+musical composition; not but that there is a science of both, and
+principles which may not be infringed, but that within these limits the
+liberty of invention is infinite, and the degrees of excellence infinite
+also, whence the curious error of Burke in imagining that because he
+could not fix upon some one given proportion of lines as better than any
+other, therefore proportion had no value nor influence at all, which is
+the same as to conclude that there is no such thing as melody in music,
+because there are melodies more than one.
+
+
+Sec. 14. Error of Burke in this matter.
+
+The argument of Burke on this subject is summed up in the following
+words:--"Examine the head of a beautiful horse, find what proportion
+that bears to his body and to his limbs, and what relations these have
+to each other, and when you have settled these proportions, as a
+standard of beauty, then take a dog or cat, or any other animal, and
+examine how far the same proportions between their heads and their
+necks, between those and the body, and so on, are found to hold; I think
+we may safely say, that they differ in every species, yet that there are
+individuals found in a great many species, so differing, that have a
+very striking beauty. Now if it be allowed that very different, and even
+contrary forms and dispositions, are consistent with beauty, it amounts,
+I believe, to a concession, that no certain measures operating from a
+natural principle are necessary to produce it, at least so far as the
+brute species is concerned."
+
+In this argument there are three very palpable fallacies: the first is
+the rough application of measurement to the heads, necks, and limbs,
+without observing the subtile differences of proportion and position of
+parts in the members themselves, for it would be strange if the
+different adjustment of the ears and brow in the dog and horse, did not
+require a harmonizing difference of adjustment in the head and neck. The
+second fallacy is that above specified, the supposition that proportion
+cannot be beautiful if susceptible of variation, whereas the whole
+meaning of the term has reference to the adjustment and functional
+correspondence of infinitely variable quantities. And the third error is
+the oversight of the very important fact, that, although "different and
+even contrary forms and dispositions are consistent with beauty," they
+are by no means consistent with equal _degrees_ of beauty, so that,
+while we find in all the presence of such proportion and harmony of
+form, as gifts them with positive agreeableness consistent with the
+station and dignity of each, we perceive, also, such superiority of
+proportion in some (as the horse, eagle, lion, and man for instance) as
+may best be in harmony with the nobler functions and more exalted powers
+of the animals.
+
+
+Sec. 15. Constructive proportion. Its influence in plants.
+
+And this allowed superiority of some animal forms to others is, in
+itself argument against the second error above named, that of
+attributing the sensation of beauty to the perception of expedient or
+constructive proportion. For everything that God has made is equally
+well constructed with reference to its intended functions. But all
+things are not equally beautiful. The megatherium is absolutely as well
+proportioned, with the view of adaptation of parts to purposes, as the
+horse or the swan; but by no means so handsome as either. The fact is,
+that the perception of expediency of proportion can but rarely affect
+our estimates of beauty, for it implies a knowledge which we very rarely
+and imperfectly possess, and the want of which we tacitly acknowledge.
+
+Let us consider that instance of the proportion of the stalk of a plant
+to its head, given by Burke. In order to judge of the expediency of this
+proportion, we must know, First, the scale of the plant (for the smaller
+the scale, the longer the stem may safely be). Secondly, the toughness
+of the materials of the stem and the mode of their mechanical structure.
+Thirdly, the specific gravity of the head. Fourthly, the position of the
+head which the nature of fructification requires. Fifthly, the accidents
+and influences to which the situation for which the plant was created is
+exposed. Until we know all this, we cannot say that proportion or
+disproportion exists, and because we cannot know all this, the idea of
+expedient proportion enters but slightly into our impression of
+vegetable beauty, but rather, since the existence of the plant proves
+that these proportions have been observed, and we know that nothing but
+our own ignorance prevents us from perceiving them, we take the
+proportion on credit, and are delighted by the variety of results which
+the Divine intelligence has attained in the various involutions of these
+quantities, and perhaps most when, to outward appearance, such
+proportions have been violated; more by the slenderness of the campanula
+than the security of the pine.
+
+
+Sec. 16. And animals.
+
+What is obscure in plants, is utterly incomprehensible in animals, owing
+to the greater number of means employed and functions performed. To
+judge of expedient proportion in them, we must know all that each member
+has to do, all its bones, all its muscles, and the amount of nervous
+energy communicable to them; and yet, forasmuch as we have more
+experience and instinctive sense of the strength of muscles than of
+wood, and more practical knowledge of the use of a head or a foot than
+of a flower or a stem, we are much more likely to presume upon our
+judgment respecting proportions here, we are very apt to assert that the
+plesiosaurus and camelopard have necks too long, that the turnspit has
+legs too short, and the elephant a body too ponderous.
+
+But the painfulness arising from the idea of this being the case is
+occasioned partly by our sympathy with the animal, partly by our false
+apprehension of incompletion in the Divine work,[21] nor in either case
+has it any connection with impressions of that typical beauty of which
+we are at present speaking; though some, perhaps, with that vital beauty
+which will hereafter come under discussion.
+
+
+Sec. 17. Summary.
+
+I wish therefore the reader to hold, respecting proportion generally.
+First, That apparent proportion, or the melodious connection of
+quantities, is a cause of unity, and therefore one of the sources of all
+beautiful form. Secondly, That constructive proportion is agreeable to
+the mind when it is known or supposed, and that its seeming absence is
+painful in a like degree, but that this pleasure and pain have nothing
+in common with those dependent on ideas of beauty.
+
+Farther illustrations of the value of unity I shall reserve for our
+detailed examination, as the bringing them forward here would interfere
+with the general idea of the subject-matter of the theoretic faculty
+which I wish succinctly to convey.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [14] Compare Chap. ix. Sec. 5, note.
+
+ [15] Spenser's various forest is the Forest of Error.
+
+ [16] It must be matter of no small wonderment to practical men to
+ observe how grossly the nature and connection of unity and variety
+ have been misunderstood and misstated, by those writers upon taste,
+ who have been guided by no experience of art; most singularly
+ perhaps by Mr. Alison, who, confounding unity with uniformity, and
+ leading his readers through thirty pages of discussion respecting
+ uniformity and variety, the intelligibility of which is not by any
+ means increased by his supposing uniformity to be capable of
+ existence in single things; at last substitutes for these two terms,
+ sufficiently contradictory already, those of similarity and
+ dissimilarity, the reconciliation of which opposites in one thing we
+ must, I believe, leave Mr. Alison to accomplish.
+
+ [17] [Greek: Kai to tauta prattein pollakis hedy;--to gar synethes
+ hedy en; kai to metaballein hedy; eis physin gar gignetai
+ metaballein.]--Arist. Rhet. I. II. 20.
+
+ [18] Fra Angelico's fresco, in a cell of the upper cloister. He
+ treated the subject frequently. Another characteristic example
+ occurs in the Vita di Christo of the Academy, a series now
+ unfortunately destroyed by the picture cleaners. Simon Memmi in
+ Santa Maria Novella (Chapelle des Espagnols) has given another very
+ beautiful instance. In Giotto the principle is universal, though his
+ multitudes are somewhat more dramatically and powerfully varied in
+ gesture than Angelico's. In Mino da Fiesole's altar-piece in the
+ church of St. Ambrogiot at Florence, close by Cosimo Rosselli's
+ fresco, there is a beautiful example in marble.
+
+ [19] The Predella of the picture behind the altar.
+
+ [20] It seems never to have been rightly understood, even by the
+ more intelligent among our architects, that proportion is in any way
+ connected with positive size; it seems to be held among them that a
+ small building may be expanded to a large one merely by
+ proportionally expanding all its parts: and that the harmony will be
+ equally agreeable on whatever scale it be rendered. Now this is true
+ of apparent proportion, but utterly false of constructive; and, as
+ much of the value of architectural proportion is constructive, the
+ error is often productive of the most painful results. It may be
+ best illustrated by observing the conditions of proportion in
+ animals. Many persons have thoughtlessly claimed admiration for the
+ strength--supposed gigantic--of insects and smaller animals; because
+ capable of lifting weights, leaping distances, and surmounting
+ obstacles, of proportion apparently overwhelming. Thus the Formica
+ Herculanea will lift in its mouth, and brandish like a baton, sticks
+ thicker than itself and six times its length, all the while
+ scrambling over crags of about the proportionate height of the
+ Cliffs of Dover, three or four in a minute. There is nothing
+ extraordinary in this, nor any exertion of strength necessarily
+ greater than human, in proportion to the size of the body. For it is
+ evident that if the size and strength of any creature be expanded or
+ diminished in proportion to each other, the distance through which
+ it can leap, the time it can maintain exertion, or any other third
+ term resultant, remains constant; that is, diminish weight of powder
+ and of ball proportionately, and the distance carried is constant or
+ nearly so. Thus, a grasshopper, a man, and a giant 100 feet high,
+ supposing their muscular strength equally proportioned to their
+ size, can or could all leap, not proportionate distance, but the
+ same or nearly the same distance--say, four feet the grasshopper, or
+ forty-eight times his length; six feet the man or his length
+ exactly; ten feet the giant or the tenth of his length. Hence all
+ small animals can, _coeteris paribus_, perform feats of strength
+ and agility, exactly so much greater than those to be executed by
+ large ones, as the animals themselves are smaller; and to enable an
+ elephant to leap like a grasshopper, he must be endowed with
+ strength a million times greater in _proportion_ to his size. Now
+ the consequence of this general mechanical law is, that as we
+ increase the scale of animals, their means of power, whether muscles
+ of motion or bones of support, must be increased in a more than
+ proportionate degree, or they become utterly unwieldy, and incapable
+ of motion;--and there is a limit to this increase of strength. If
+ the elephant had legs as long as a spider's, no combination of
+ animal matter that could be hide-bound would have strength enough to
+ move them: to support the megatherium, we must have a humerus a foot
+ in diameter, though perhaps not more than two feet long, and that in
+ a vertical position under him, while the gnat can hang on the window
+ frame, and poise himself to sting, in the middle of crooked stilts
+ like threads; stretched out to ten times the breadth of his body on
+ each side. Increase the size of the megatherium a little more, and
+ no phosphate of lime will bear him; he would crush his own legs to
+ powder. (Compare Sir Charles Bell, "Bridgewater Treatise on the
+ Hand," p. 296, and the note.) Hence there is not only a limit to the
+ size of animals, in the conditions of matter, but to their activity
+ also, the largest being always least capable of exertion; and this
+ would be the case to a far greater extent, but that nature
+ beneficently alters her proportions as she increases her scale;
+ giving, as we have seen, long legs and enormous wings to the smaller
+ tribes, and short and thick proportion to the larger. So in
+ vegetables--compare the stalk of an ear of oat, and the trunk of a
+ pine, the mechanical relations being in both the same. So also in
+ waves, of which the large never can be mere exaggerations of the
+ small, but have different slopes and curvatures: so in mountains and
+ all things else, necessarily, and from ordinary mechanical laws.
+ Whence in architecture, according to the scale of the building, its
+ proportions must be altered; and I have no hesitation in calling
+ that unmeaning exaggeration of parts in St. Peter's, of flutings,
+ volutes, friezes, etc., in the proportions of a smaller building, a
+ vulgar blunder, and one that destroys all the majesty that the
+ building ought to have had--and still more I should so call all
+ imitations and adaptations of large buildings on a small scale. The
+ true test of right proportion is that it shall itself inform us of
+ the scale of the building, and be such that even in a drawing it
+ shall instantly induce the conception of the actual size, or size
+ intended. I know not what Fuseli means by that aphorism of his:--
+
+ "Disproportion of parts is the element of hugeness--proportion, of
+ grandeur. All Gothic styles of Architecture are huge. The Greek
+ alone is grand." When a building _is_ vast, it ought to look so; and
+ the proportion is right which exhibits its vastness. Nature loses no
+ size by her proportion; her buttressed mountains have more of Gothic
+ than of Greek in them.
+
+ [21] For the just and severe reproof of which, compare Sir Charles
+ Bell, (on the hand,) pp. 31, 32.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+
+ OF REPOSE, OR THE TYPE OF DIVINE PERMANENCE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Universal feeling respecting the necessity of repose in art. Its
+ sources.
+
+There is probably no necessity more imperatively felt by the artist, no
+test more unfailing of the greatness of artistical treatment, than that
+of the appearance of repose, and yet there is no quality whose semblance
+in mere matter is more difficult to define or illustrate. Nevertheless,
+I believe that our instinctive love of it, as well as the cause to which
+I attribute that love, (although here also, as in the former cases, I
+contend not for the interpretation, but for the fact,) will be readily
+allowed by the reader. As opposed to passion, changefulness, or
+laborious exertion, repose is the especial and separating characteristic
+of the eternal mind and power; it is the "I am" of the Creator opposed
+to the "I become" of all creatures; it is the sign alike of the supreme
+knowledge which is incapable of surprise, the supreme power which is
+incapable of labor, the supreme volition which is incapable of change;
+it is the stillness of the beams of the eternal chambers laid upon the
+variable waters of ministering creatures; and as we saw before that the
+infinity which was a type of the Divine nature on the one hand, became
+yet more desirable on the other from its peculiar address to our prison
+hopes, and to the expectations of an unsatisfied and unaccomplished
+existence, so the types of this third attribute of the Deity might seem
+to have been rendered farther attractive to mortal instinct, through the
+infliction upon the fallen creature of a curse necessitating a labor
+once unnatural and still most painful, so that the desire of rest
+planted in the heart is no sensual nor unworthy one, but a longing for
+renovation and for escape from a state whose every phase is mere
+preparation for another equally transitory, to one in which permanence
+shall have become possible through perfection. Hence the great call of
+Christ to men, that call on which St. Augustine fixed essential
+expression of Christian hope, is accompanied by the promise of rest;[22]
+and the death bequest of Christ to men is peace.
+
+
+Sec. 2. Repose how expressed in matter.
+
+Repose, as it is expressed in material things, is either a simple
+appearance of permanence and quietness, as in the massy forms of a
+mountain or rock, accompanied by the lulling effect of all mighty sight
+and sound, which all feel and none define, (it would be less sacred if
+more explicable,) [Greek: heudousin dioreon koruphai te kai pharanges],
+or else it is repose proper, the rest of things in which there is
+vitality or capability of motion actual or imagined; and with respect to
+these the expression of repose is greater in proportion to the amount
+and sublimity of the action which is not taking place, as well as to the
+intensity of the negation of it. Thus we speak not of repose in a stone,
+because the motion of a stone has nothing in it of energy nor vitality,
+neither its repose of stability. But having once seen a great rock come
+down a mountain side, we have a noble sensation of its rest, now bedded
+immovably among the under fern, because the power and fearfulness of its
+motion were great, and its stability and negation of motion are now
+great in proportion. Hence the imagination, which delights in nothing
+more than the enhancing of the characters of repose, effects this
+usually by either attributing to things visibly energetic an ideal
+stability, or to things visibly stable an ideal activity or vitality.
+Hence Wordsworth, of the cloud, which in itself having too much of
+changefulness for his purpose, is spoken of as one "that heareth not the
+loud winds when they call, and moveth altogether, if it move at all."
+And again of children, which, that it may remove from them the child
+restlessness, the imagination conceives as rooted flowers "Beneath an
+old gray oak, as violets, lie." On the other hand, the scattered rocks,
+which have not, as such, vitality enough for rest, are gifted with it by
+the living image: they "lie couched around us like a flock of sheep."
+
+
+Sec. 3. The necessity to repose of an implied energy.
+
+Thus, as we saw that unity demanded for its expression what at first
+might have seemed its contrary (variety) so repose demands for its
+expression the implied capability of its opposite, energy, and this even
+in its lower manifestations, in rocks and stones and trees. By comparing
+the modes in which the mind is disposed to regard the boughs of a fair
+and vigorous tree, motionless in the summer air, with the effect
+produced by one of these same boughs hewn square and used for threshold
+or lintel, the reader will at once perceive the connection of vitality
+with repose, and the part they both bear in beauty.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Mental repose, how noble.
+
+But that which in lifeless things ennobles them by seeming to indicate
+life, ennobles higher creatures by indicating the exaltation of their
+earthly vitality into a Divine vitality; and raising the life of sense
+into the life of faith--faith, whether we receive it in the sense of
+adherence to resolution, obedience to law, regardfulness of promise, in
+which from all time it has been the test as the shield of the true being
+and life of man, or in the still higher sense of trustfulness in the
+presence, kindness, and word of God; in which form it has been exhibited
+under the Christian dispensation. For whether in one or other form,
+whether the faithfulness of men whose path is chosen and portion fixed,
+in the following and receiving of that path and portion, as in the
+Thermopylae camp; or the happier faithfulness of children in the good
+giving of their Father, and of subjects in the conduct of their king, as
+in the "Stand still and see the salvation of God" of the Red Sea shore,
+there is rest and peacefulness, the "standing still" in both, the
+quietness of action determined, of spirit unalarmed, of expectation
+unimpatient: beautiful, even when based only as of old, on the
+self-command and self-possession, the persistent dignity or the
+uncalculating love of the creature,[23] but more beautiful yet when the
+rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no more in the
+resolution we have taken, but in the hand we hold.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Its universal value as a test of art.
+
+Hence I think that there is no desire more intense or more exalted than
+that which exists in all rightly disciplined minds for the evidences of
+repose in external signs, and what I cautiously said respecting
+infinity, I say fearlessly respecting repose, that no work of art can be
+great without it, and that all art is great in proportion to the
+appearance of it. It is the most unfailing test of beauty, whether of
+matter or of motion, nothing can be ignoble that possesses it, nothing
+right that has it not, and in strict proportion to its appearance in the
+work is the majesty of mind to be inferred in the artificer. Without
+regard to other qualities, we may look to this for our evidence, and by
+the search for this alone we may be led to the rejection of all that is
+base, and the accepting of all that is good and great, for the paths of
+wisdom are all peace. We shall see by this light three colossal images
+standing up side by side, looming in their great rest of spirituality
+above the whole world horizon, Phidias, Michael Angelo, and Dante; and
+then, separated from their great religious thrones only by less fulness
+and earnestness of Faith, Homer, and Shakspeare; and from these we may
+go down step by step among the mighty men of every age, securely and
+certainly observant of diminished lustre in every appearance of
+restlessness and effort, until the last trace of true inspiration
+vanishes in the tottering affectations or the tortured insanities of
+modern times. There is no art, no pursuit, whatsoever, but its results
+may be classed by this test alone; everything of evil is betrayed and
+winnowed away by it, glitter and confusion and glare of color,
+inconsistency or absence of thought, forced expression, evil choice of
+subject, over accumulation of materials, whether in painting or
+literature, the shallow and unreflecting nothingness of the English
+schools of art, the strained and disgusting horrors of the French, the
+distorted feverishness of the German:--pretence, over decoration, over
+division of parts in architecture, and again in music, in acting, in
+dancing, in whatsoever art, great or mean, there are yet degrees of
+greatness or meanness entirely dependent on this single quality of
+repose.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Instances in the Laocoon and Theseus.
+
+Particular instances are at present both needless and cannot but be
+inadequate; needless, because I suppose that every reader, however
+limited his experience of art, can supply many for himself, and
+inadequate, because no number of them could illustrate the full extent
+of the influence of the expression. I believe, however, that by
+comparing the disgusting convulsions of the Laocoon, with the Elgin
+Theseus, we may obtain a general idea of the effect of the influence, as
+shown by its absence in one, and presence in the other, of two works
+which, as far as artistical merit is concerned, are in some measure
+parallel, not that I believe, even in this respect, the Laocoon
+justifiably comparable with the Theseus. I suppose that no group has
+exercised so pernicious an influence on art as this, a subject ill
+chosen, meanly conceived and unnaturally treated, recommended to
+imitation by subtleties of execution and accumulation of technical
+knowledge.[24]
+
+
+Sec. 7. And in altar tombs.
+
+In Christian art, it would be well to compare the feeling of the finer
+among the altar tombs of the middle ages, with any monumental works
+after Michael Angelo, perhaps more especially with works of Roubilliac
+or Canova.
+
+In the Cathedral of Lucca, near the entrance door of the north transept,
+there is a monument of Jacopo della Quercia's to Ilaria di Caretto, the
+wife of Paolo Guinigi. I name it not as more beautiful or perfect than
+other examples of the same period, but as furnishing an instance of the
+exact and right mean between the rigidity and rudeness of the earlier
+monumental effigies, and the morbid imitation of life, sleep, or death,
+of which the fashion has taken place in modern times.[25] She is lying
+on a simple couch, with a hound at her feet, not on the side, but with
+the head laid straight and simply on the hard pillow, in which, let it
+be observed, there is no effort at deceptive imitation of pressure. It
+is understood as a pillow, but not mistaken for one. The hair is bound
+in a flat braid over the fair brow, the sweet and arched eyes are
+closed, the tenderness of the loving lips is set and quiet, there is
+that about them which forbids breath, something which is not death nor
+sleep, but the pure image of both. The hands are not lifted in prayer,
+neither folded, but the arms are laid at length upon the body, and the
+hands cross as they fall. The feet are hidden by the drapery, and the
+forms of the limbs concealed, but not their tenderness.
+
+If any of us, after staying for a time beside this tomb, could see
+through his tears, one of the vain and unkind encumbrances of the grave,
+which, in these hollow and heartless days, feigned sorrow builds to
+foolish pride, he would, I believe, receive such a lesson of love as no
+coldness could refuse, no fatuity forget, and no insolence disobey.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [22] Matt. xi. 28.
+
+ [23] "The universal instinct of repose,
+ The longing for confirmed tranquillity
+ Inward and outward, humble, yet sublime.
+ The life where hope and memory are as one.
+ Earth quiet and unchanged; the human soul
+ Consistent in self-rule; and heaven revealed
+ To meditation, in that quietness."
+
+ WORDSWORTH. Excursion, Book iii.
+
+ But compare carefully (for this is put into the mouth of one
+ diseased in thought and erring in seeking) the opening of the ninth
+ book; and observe the difference between the mildew of
+ inaction,--the slumber of Death; and the Patience of the Saints--the
+ Rest of the Sabbath Eternal. (Rev. xiv. 13.)
+
+ Compare also, Chap. I. Sec. 6.
+
+ [24] I would also have the reader compare with the meagre lines and
+ contemptible tortures of the Laocoon, the awfulness and quietness of
+ M. Angelo's treatment of a subject in most respects similar, (the
+ plague of the Fiery Serpents,) but of which the choice was justified
+ both by the place which the event holds in the typical system he had
+ to arrange, and by the grandeur of the plague itself, in its
+ multitudinous grasp, and its mystical salvation; sources of
+ sublimity entirely wanting to the slaughter of the Dardan priest. It
+ is good to see how his gigantic intellect reaches after repose, and
+ truthfully finds it, in the falling hand of the near figure, and in
+ the deathful decline of that whose hands are held up even in their
+ venom coldness to the cross; and though irrelevant to our present
+ purpose, it is well also to note how the grandeur of this treatment
+ results, not merely from choice, but from a greater knowledge and
+ more faithful rendering of truth. For whatever knowledge of the
+ human frame there may be in the Laocoon, there is certainly none of
+ the habits of serpents. The fixing of the snake's head in the side
+ of the principal figure is as false to nature, as it is poor in
+ composition of line. A large serpent never wants to bite, it wants
+ to hold, it seizes therefore always where it can hold best, by the
+ extremities, or throat, it seizes once and forever, and that before
+ it coils, following up the seizure with the twist of its body round
+ the victim, as invisibly swift as the twist of a whip lash round any
+ hard object it may strike, and then it holds fast, never moving the
+ jaws or the body, if its prey has any power of struggling left, it
+ throws round another coil, without quitting the hold with the jaws;
+ if Laocoon had had to do with real serpents, instead of pieces of
+ tape with heads to them, he would have been held still, and not
+ allowed to throw his arms or legs about. It is most instructive to
+ observe the accuracy of Michael Angelo in the rendering of these
+ circumstances; the binding of the arms to the body, and the knotting
+ of the whole mass of agony together, until we hear the crashing of
+ the bones beneath the grisly sliding of the engine folds. Note also
+ the expression in all the figures of another circumstance, the
+ torpor and cold numbness of the limbs induced by the serpent venom,
+ which, though justifiably overlooked by the sculptor of the Laocoon,
+ as well as by Virgil--in consideration of the rapidity of the death
+ by crushing, adds infinitely to the power of the Florentine's
+ conception, and would have been better hinted by Virgil, than that
+ sickening distribution of venom on the garlands. In fact, Virgil has
+ missed both of truth and impressiveness every way--the "morsu
+ depascitur" is unnatural butchery--the "perfusus veneno" gratuitous
+ foulness--the "clamores horrendos," impossible degradation; compare
+ carefully the remarks on this statue in Sir Charles Bell's Essay on
+ Expression, (third edition, p. 192) where he has most wisely and
+ uncontrovertibly deprived the statue of all claim to expression of
+ energy and fortitude of mind, and shown its common and coarse intent
+ of mere bodily exertion and agony, while he has confirmed Payne
+ Knight's just condemnation of the passage in Virgil.
+
+ If the reader wishes to see the opposite or imaginative view of the
+ subject, let him compare Winkelmann; and Schiller, Letters on
+ Aesthetic Culture.
+
+ [25] Whenever, in monumental work, the sculptor reaches a deceptive
+ appearance of life or death, or of concomitant details, he has gone
+ too far. The statue should be felt for such, not look like a dead or
+ sleeping body; it should not convey the impression of a corpse, nor
+ of sick and outwearied flesh, but it should be the marble _image_ of
+ death or weariness. So the concomitants should be distinctly marble,
+ severe and monumental in their lines, not shroud, not bedclothes,
+ not actual armor nor brocade, not a real soft pillow, not a
+ downright hard stuffed mattress, but the mere type and suggestion of
+ these: a certain rudeness and incompletion of finish is very noble
+ in all. Not that they are to be unnatural, such lines as are given
+ should be pure and true, and clear of the hardness and mannered
+ rigidity of the strictly Gothic types, but lines so few and grand as
+ to appeal to the imagination only, and always to stop short of
+ realization. There is a monument put up lately by a modern Italian
+ sculptor in one of the side chapels of Santa Croce, the face fine
+ and the execution dexterous. But it looks as if the person had been
+ restless all night, and the artist admitted to a faithful study of
+ the disturbed bedclothes in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ OF SYMMETRY, OR THE TYPE OF DIVINE JUSTICE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Symmetry, what and how found in organic nature.
+
+Sec. 2. How necessary in art.
+
+We shall not be long detained by the consideration of this, the fourth
+constituent of beauty, as its nature is universally felt and understood.
+In all perfectly beautiful objects, there is found the opposition of one
+part to another and a reciprocal balance obtained; in animals the
+balance being commonly between opposite sides, (note the
+disagreeableness occasioned by the exception in flat fish, having the
+eyes on one side of the head,) but in vegetables the opposition is less
+distinct, as in the boughs on opposite sides of trees, and the leaves
+and sprays on each side of the boughs, and in dead matter less perfect
+still, often amounting only to a certain tendency towards a balance, as
+in the opposite sides of valleys and alternate windings of streams. In
+things in which perfect symmetry is from their nature impossible or
+improper, a balance must be at least in some measure expressed before
+they can be beheld with pleasure. Hence the necessity of what artists
+require as opposing lines or masses in composition, the propriety of
+which, as well as their value, depends chiefly on their inartificial and
+natural invention. Absolute equality is not required, still less
+absolute similarity. A mass of subdued color may be balanced by a point
+of a powerful one, and a long and latent line overpowered by a short and
+conspicuous one. The only error against which it is necessary to guard
+the reader with respect to symmetry, is the confounding it with
+proportion, though it seems strange that the two terms could ever have
+been used as synonymous. Symmetry is the _opposition_ of _equal_
+quantities to each other. Proportion the _connection_ of _unequal_
+quantities with each other. The property of a tree in sending out equal
+boughs on opposite sides is symmetrical. Its sending out shorter and
+smaller towards the top, proportional. In the human face its balance
+of opposite sides is symmetry, its division upwards, proportion.
+
+[Illustration: TOMB OF THE ILARIA DI CARETTO, LUCCA. From a photograph.]
+
+
+Sec. 3. To what its agreeableness is referable. Various instances.
+
+Sec. 4. Especially in religious art.
+
+Whether the agreeableness of symmetry be in any way referable to its
+expression of the Aristotelian [Greek: isotes], that is to say of
+abstract justice, I leave the reader to determine; I only assert
+respecting it, that it is necessary to the dignity of every form, and
+that by the removal of it we shall render the other elements of beauty
+comparatively ineffectual: though, on the other hand, it is to be
+observed that it is rather a mode of arrangement of qualities than a
+quality itself; and hence symmetry has little power over the mind,
+unless all the other constituents of beauty be found together with it. A
+form may be symmetrical and ugly, as many Elizabethan ornaments, and yet
+not so ugly as it had been if unsymmetrical, but bettered always by
+increasing degrees of symmetry; as in star figures, wherein there is a
+circular symmetry of many like members, whence their frequent use for
+the plan and ground of ornamental designs; so also it is observable that
+foliage in which the leaves are concentrically grouped, as in the
+chestnuts, and many shrubs--rhododendrons for instance--(whence the
+perfect beauty of the Alpine rose)--is far nobler in its effect than any
+other, so that the sweet chestnut of all trees most fondly and
+frequently occurs in the landscape of Tintoret and Titian, beside which
+all other landscape grandeur vanishes: and even in the meanest things
+the rule holds, as in the kaleidoscope, wherein agreeableness is given
+to forms altogether accidental merely by their repetition and reciprocal
+opposition; which orderly balance and arrangement are essential to the
+perfect operation of the more earnest and solemn qualities of the
+beautiful, as being heavenly in their nature, and contrary to the
+violence and disorganization of sin, so that the seeking of them and
+submission to them is always marked in minds that have been subjected to
+high moral discipline, constant in all the great religious painters, to
+the degree of being an offence and a scorn to men of less tuned and
+tranquil feeling. Equal ranks of saints are placed on each side of the
+picture, if there be a kneeling figure on one side, there is a
+corresponding one on the other, the attendant angels beneath and above
+are arranged in like order. The Raffaelle at Blenheim, the Madonna di
+St. Sisto, the St. Cicilia, and all the works of Perugino, Francia, and
+John Bellini present some such form, and the balance at least is
+preserved even in pictures of action necessitating variety of grouping,
+as always by Giotto; and by Ghirlandajo in the introduction of his
+chorus-like side figures, and by Tintoret most eminently in his noblest
+work, the Crucifixion, where not only the grouping but the arrangement
+of light is absolutely symmetrical. Where there is no symmetry, the
+effects of passion and violence are increased, and many very sublime
+pictures derive their sublimity from the want of it, but they lose
+proportionally in the diviner quality of beauty. In landscape the same
+sense of symmetry is preserved, as we shall presently see, even to
+artificialness, by the greatest men, and it is one of the principal
+sources of deficient feeling in the landscapes of the present day, that
+the symmetry of nature is sacrificed to irregular picturesqueness. Of
+this, however, hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+
+ OF PURITY, OR THE TYPE OF DIVINE ENERGY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. The influence of light as a sacred symbol.
+
+It may at first appear strange that I have not in my enumeration of the
+types of Divine attributes, included that which is certainly the most
+visible and evident of all, as well as the most distinctly expressed in
+Scripture; God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But I could
+not logically class the presence of an actual substance or motion with
+mere conditions and modes of being, neither could I logically separate
+from any of these, that which is evidently necessary to the perception
+of all. And it is also to be observed, that though the love of light is
+more instinctive in the human heart than any other of the desires
+connected with beauty, we can hardly separate its agreeableness in its
+own nature from the sense of its necessity and value for the purposes of
+life, neither the abstract painfulness of darkness from the sense of
+danger and incapacity connected with it; and note also that it is not
+_all_ light, but light possessing the universal qualities of beauty,
+diffused or infinite rather than in points, tranquil, not startling and
+variable, pure, not sullied or oppressed, which is indeed pleasant and
+perfectly typical of the Divine nature.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The idea of purity connected with it.
+
+Observe, however, that there is one quality, the idea of which had been
+just introduced in connection with light, which might have escaped us in
+the consideration of mere matter, namely purity, and yet I think that
+the original notion of this quality is altogether material, and has only
+been attributed to color when such color is suggestive of the condition
+of matter from which we originally received the idea. For I see not in
+the abstract how one color should be considered purer than another,
+except as more or less compounded, whereas there is certainly a sense of
+purity or impurity in the most compound and neutral colors, as well as
+in the simplest, a quality difficult to define, and which the reader
+will probably be surprised by my calling the type of energy, with which
+it has certainly little traceable connection in the mind.
+
+
+Sec. 3. Originally derived from conditions of matter.
+
+Sec. 4. Associated ideas adding to the power of the impression. Influence
+ of clearness.
+
+Sec. 5. Perfect beauty of surface, in what consisting.
+
+I believe however if we carefully analyze the nature of our ideas of
+impurity in general, we shall find them refer especially to conditions
+of matter in which its various elements are placed in a relation
+incapable of healthy or proper operation; and most distinctly to
+conditions in which the negation of vital or energetic action is most
+evident, as in corruption and decay of all kinds, wherein particles
+which once, by their operation on each other, produced a living and
+energetic whole, are reduced to a condition of perfect passiveness, in
+which they are seized upon and appropriated, one by one, piecemeal, by
+whatever has need of them, without any power of resistance or energy of
+their own. And thus there is a peculiar painfulness attached to any
+associations of inorganic with organic matter, such as appear to involve
+the inactivity and feebleness of the latter, so that things which are
+not felt to be foul in their own nature, yet become so in association
+with things of greater inherent energy; as dust or earth, which in a
+mass excites no painful sensation, excites a most disagreeable one when
+strewing or staining an animal's skin, because it implies a decline and
+deadening of the vital and healthy power of the skin. But all reasoning
+about this impression is rendered difficult, by the host of associated
+ideas connected with it; for the ocular sense of impurity connected with
+corruption is infinitely enhanced by the offending of other senses and
+by the grief and horror of it in its own nature, as the special
+punishment and evidence of sin, and on the other hand, the ocular
+delight in purity is mingled, as I before observed, with the love of the
+mere element of light, as a type of wisdom and of truth; whence it seems
+to me that we admire the transparency of bodies, though probably it is
+still rather owing to our sense of more perfect order and arrangement of
+particles, and not to our love of light, that we look upon a piece of
+rock crystal as purer than a piece of marble, and on the marble as purer
+than a piece of chalk. And let it be observed also that the most lovely
+objects in nature are only partially transparent. I suppose the utmost
+possible sense of beauty is conveyed by a feebly translucent, smooth,
+but not lustrous surface of white, and pale warm red, subdued by the
+most pure and delicate grays, as in the finer portions of the human
+frame; in wreaths of snow, and in white plumage under rose light,[26] so
+Viola of Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Homer of Atrides wounded.[27] And
+I think that transparency and lustre, both beautiful in themselves, are
+incompatible with the highest beauty because they destroy form, on the
+full perception of which more of the divinely character of the object
+depends than upon its color. Hence, in the beauty of snow and of flesh,
+so much translucency is allowed as is consistent with the full
+explanation of the forms, while we are suffered to receive more intense
+impressions of light and transparency from other objects which,
+nevertheless, owing to their necessarily unperceived form, are not
+perfectly nor affectingly beautiful. A fair forehead outshines its
+diamond diadem. The sparkle of the cascade withdraws not our eyes from
+the snowy summits in their evening silence.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Purity only metaphorically a type of sinlessness.
+
+It may seem strange to many readers that I have not spoken of purity in
+that sense in which it is most frequently used, as a type of
+sinlessness. I do not deny that the frequent metaphorical use of it in
+Scripture may have and ought to have much influence on the sympathies
+with which we regard it, and that probably the immediate agreeableness
+of it to most minds arises far more from this source than from that to
+which I have chosen to attribute it. But, in the first place, if it be
+indeed in the signs of Divine and not of human attributes that beauty
+consists, I see not how the idea of sin can be formed with respect to
+the Deity, for it is an idea of a relation borne by us to Him, and not
+in any way to be attached to his abstract nature. And if the idea of sin
+is incapable of being formed with respect to Him, so also is its
+negative, for we cannot form an idea of negation, where we cannot form
+an idea of presence. If for instance one could conceive of taste or
+flavor in a proposition of Euclid, so also might we of insipidity, but
+if not of the one, then not of the other. So that, in speaking of the
+goodness of God, it cannot be that we mean anything more than his Love,
+Mercifulness, and Justice, and these attributes I have shown to be
+expressed by other qualities of beauty, and I cannot trace any rational
+connection between them and the idea of spotlessness in matter. Neither
+can I trace any more distinct relation between this idea, and any of the
+virtues which make up the righteousness of man, except perhaps those of
+truth and openness, of which I have already spoken as more expressed by
+the transparency than the mere purity of matter. So that I conceive the
+whole use of the terms purity, spotlessness, etc., in moral subjects, to
+be merely metaphorical, and that it is rather that we illustrate these
+virtues by the desirableness of material purity, than that we desire
+material purity because it is illustrative of these virtues.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Energy, how expressed by purity of matter.
+
+I repeat, then, that the only idea which I think can be legitimately
+connected with purity of matter, is this of vital and energetic
+connection among its particles, and that the idea of foulness is
+essentially connected with dissolution and death. Thus the purity of the
+rock, contrasted with the foulness of dust or mould, is expressed by the
+epithet "living," very singularly given in the rock, in almost all
+languages; singularly I say, because life is almost the last attribute
+one would ascribe to stone, but for this visible energy and connection
+of its particles: and so of water as opposed to stagnancy. And I do not
+think that, however pure a powder or dust may be, the idea of beauty is
+ever connected with it, for it is not the mere purity, but the _active_
+condition of the substance which is desired, so that as soon as it
+shoots into crystals, or gathers into efflorescence, a sensation of
+_active_ or real purity is received which was not felt in the calcined
+caput mortuum.
+
+
+Sec. 8. And of color.
+
+Sec. 9. Spirituality, how so expressed.
+
+And again in color. I imagine that the quality of it which we term
+purity is dependent on the full energizing of the rays that compose it,
+whereof if in compound hues any are overpowered and killed by the rest,
+so as to be of no value nor operation, foulness is the consequence;
+while so long as all act together, whether side by side, or from
+pigments seen one through the other, so that all the coloring matter
+employed comes into play in the harmony desired, and none be quenched
+nor killed, purity results. And so in all cases I suppose that pureness
+is made to us desirable, because expressive of the constant presence and
+energizing of the Deity in matter, through which all things live and
+move, and have their being, and that foulness is painful as the
+accompaniment of disorder and decay, and always indicative of the
+withdrawal of Divine support. And the practical analogies of life, the
+invariable connection of outward foulness with mental sloth and
+degradation, as well as with bodily lethargy and disease, together with
+the contrary indications of freshness and purity belonging to every
+healthy and active organic frame, (singularly seen in the effort of the
+young leaves when first their inward energy prevails over the earth,
+pierces its corruption, and shakes its dust away from their own white
+purity of life,) all these circumstances strengthen the instinct by
+associations countless and irresistible. And then, finally, with the
+idea of purity comes that of spirituality, for the essential
+characteristic of matter is its inertia, whence, by adding to it purity
+or energy, we may in some measure spiritualize even matter itself. Thus
+in the descriptions of the Apocalypse it is its purity that fits it for
+its place in heaven; the river of the water of life, that proceeds out
+of the throne of the Lamb, is clear as crystal, and the pavement of the
+city is pure gold, like unto clear glass.[28]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [26] The reader will observe that I am speaking at present of mere
+ material qualities. If he would obtain perfect ideas respecting
+ loveliness of luminous surface, let him closely observe a swan with
+ its wings expanded in full light five minutes before sunset. The
+ human cheek or the rose leaf are perhaps hardly so pure, and the
+ forms of snow, though individually as beautiful, are less
+ exquisitely combined.
+
+ [27] [Greek: hos d' ote tis t' elephanta gyne phoiniki miene
+ Meonis.]
+
+ So Spenser of Shamefacedness, an exquisite piece of glowing
+ color--and sweetly of Belphoebe--(so the roses and lilies of all
+ poets.) Compare the making of the image of Florimell.
+
+ "The substance whereof she the body made
+ Was purest snow, in massy mould congealed,
+ Which she had gathered in a shady glade
+ Of the Riphoean hills.
+ The same she tempered with fine mercury,
+ And mingled them with perfect vermily."
+
+ With Una he perhaps overdoes the white a little. She is two degrees
+ of comparison above snow. Compare his questioning in the Hymn to
+ Beauty, about that mixture made of colors fair; and goodly
+ temperament, of pure complexion.
+
+ "Hath white and red in it such wondrous power
+ That it can pierce through the eyes into the heart?"
+
+ Where the distinction between typical and vital beauty is very
+ gloriously carried out.
+
+ [28] I have not spoken here of any of the associations connected
+ with warmth or coolness of color, they are partly connected with
+ vital beauty, compare Chap. xiv. Sec. 22, 23, and partly with
+ impressions of the sublime, the discussion of which is foreign to
+ the present subject; purity, however, it is which gives value to
+ both, for neither warm nor cool color, can be beautiful, if impure.
+
+ Neither have I spoken of any questions relating to melodies of
+ color, a subject of separate science--whose general principle has
+ been already stated in the seventh chapter respecting unity of
+ sequence. Those qualities only are here noted which give absolute
+ beauty, whether to separate color or to melodies of it--for all
+ melodies are not beautiful, but only those which are expressive of
+ certain pleasant or solemn emotions; and the rest startling, or
+ curious, or cheerful, or exciting, or sublime, but not beautiful,
+ (and so in music.) And all questions relating to this grandeur,
+ cheerfulness, or other characteristic impression of color must be
+ considered under the head of ideas of relation.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+
+ OF MODERATION, OR THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT BY LAW.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Meaning of the terms Chasteness and Refinement.
+
+Of objects which, in respect of the qualities hitherto considered,
+appear to have equal claims to regard, we find, nevertheless, that
+certain are preferred to others in consequence of an attractive power,
+usually expressed by the terms "chasteness, refinement, or elegance,"
+and it appears also that things which in other respects have little in
+them of natural beauty, and are of forms altogether simple and adapted
+to simple uses, are capable of much distinction and desirableness in
+consequence of these qualities only. It is of importance to discover the
+real nature of the ideas thus expressed.
+
+
+Sec. 2. How referable to temporary fashions.
+
+Something of the peculiar meaning of the words is referable to the
+authority of fashion and the exclusiveness of pride, owing to which that
+which is the mode of a particular time is submissively esteemed, and
+that which by its costliness or its rarity is of difficult attainment,
+or in any way appears to have been chosen as the best of many things,
+(which is the original sense of the words elegant and exquisite,) is
+esteemed for the witness it bears to the dignity of the chooser.
+
+But neither of these ideas are in any way connected with eternal beauty,
+neither do they at all account for that agreeableness of color and form
+which is especially termed chasteness, and which it would seem to be a
+characteristic of rightly trained mind in all things to prefer, and of
+common minds to reject.
+
+
+Sec. 3. How to the perception of completion.
+
+Sec. 4. Finish, by great masters esteemed essential.
+
+There is however another character of artificial productions, to which
+these terms have partial reference, which it is of some importance to
+note, that of finish, exactness, or refinement, which are commonly
+desired in the works of men, owing both to their difficulty of
+accomplishment and consequent expression of care and power (compare
+Chapter on Ideas of Power, Part I. Sect, i.,) and from their greater
+resemblance to the working of God, whose "absolute exactness," says
+Hooker, "all things imitate, by tending to that which is most exquisite
+in every particular." And there is not a greater sign of the
+imperfection of general taste, than its capability of contentment with
+forms and things which, professing completion, are yet not exact nor
+complete, as in the vulgar with wax and clay and china figures, and in
+bad sculptors with an unfinished and clay-like modelling of surface, and
+curves and angles of no precision or delicacy; and in general, in all
+common and unthinking persons with an imperfect rendering of that which
+might be pure and fine, as church-wardens are content to lose the sharp
+lines of stone carving under clogging obliterations of whitewash, and as
+the modern Italians scrape away and polish white all the sharpness and
+glory of the carvings on their old churches, as most miserably and
+pitifully on St. Mark's at Venice, and the Baptisteries of Pistoja and
+Pisa, and many others; so also the delight of vulgar painters in coarse
+and slurred painting, merely for the sake of its coarseness,[29] as of
+Spagnoletto, Salvator, or Murillo, opposed to the divine finish which
+the greatest and mightiest of men disdained not, but rather wrought out
+with painfulness and life spending; as Leonardo and Michael Angelo, (for
+the latter, however many things he left unfinished, did finish, if at
+all, with a refinement that the eye cannot follow, but the feeling only,
+as in the Pieta of Genoa,) and Perugino always, even to the gilding of
+single hairs among his angel tresses, and the young Raffaelle, when he
+was heaven taught, and Angelico, and Pinturicchio, and John Bellini, and
+all other such serious and loving men. Only it is to be observed that
+this finish is not a part or constituent of beauty, but the full and
+ultimate rendering of it, so that it is an idea only connected with the
+works of men, for all the works of the Deity are finished with the same,
+that is, infinite care and completion: and so what degrees of beauty
+exist among them can in no way be dependent upon this source, inasmuch
+as there are between them no degrees of care. And therefore, as there
+certainly is admitted a difference of degree in what we call chasteness,
+even in Divine work, (compare the hollyhock or the sunflower with the
+vale lily,) we must seek for it some other explanation and source than
+this.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Moderation, its nature and value
+
+And if, bringing down our ideas of it from complicated objects to simple
+lines and colors, we analyze and regard them carefully, I think we shall
+be able to trace them to an under-current of constantly agreeable
+feeling, excited by the appearance in material things of a
+self-restrained liberty, that is to say, by the image of that acting of
+God with regard to all his creation, wherein, though free to operate in
+whatever arbitrary, sudden, violent, or inconstant ways he will, he yet,
+if we may reverently so speak, restrains in himself this his omnipotent
+liberty, and works always in consistent modes, called by us laws. And
+this restraint or moderation, according to the words of Hooker, ("that
+which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the
+form and measure of working, the same we term a law,") is in the Deity
+not restraint, such as it is said of creatures, but, as again says
+Hooker, "the very being of God is a law to his working," so that every
+appearance of painfulness or want of power and freedom in material
+things is wrong and ugly; for the right restraint, the image of Divine
+operation, is both in them, and in men, a willing and not painful
+stopping short of the utmost degree to which their power might reach,
+and the appearance of fettering or confinement is the cause of ugliness
+in the one, as the slightest painfulness or effort in restraint is a
+sign of sin in the other.
+
+
+Sec. 6. It is the girdle of beauty.
+
+Sec. 7. How found in natural curves and colors.
+
+Sec. 8. How difficult of attainment, yet essential to all good.
+
+I have put this attribute of beauty last, because I consider it the
+girdle and safeguard of all the rest, and in this respect the most
+essential of all, for it is possible that a certain degree of beauty may
+be attained even in the absence of one of its other constituents, as
+sometimes in some measure without symmetry or without unity. But the
+least appearance of violence or extravagance, of the want of moderation
+and restraint, is, I think, destructive of all beauty whatsoever in
+everything, color, form, motion, language, or thought, giving rise to
+that which in color we call glaring, in form inelegant, in motion
+ungraceful, in language coarse, in thought undisciplined, in all
+unchastened; which qualities are in everything most painful, because the
+signs of disobedient and irregular operation. And herein we at last find
+the reason of that which has been so often noted respecting the subtilty
+and almost invisibility of natural curves and colors, and why it is that
+we look on those lines as least beautiful which fall into wide and far
+license of curvature, and as most beautiful which approach nearest (so
+that the curvilinear character be distinctly asserted) to the government
+of the right line, as in the pure and severe curves of the draperies of
+the religious painters; and thus in color it is not red, but rose-color
+which is most beautiful, neither such actual green as we find in summer
+foliage partly, and in our painting of it constantly; but such gray
+green as that into which nature modifies her distant tints, or such pale
+green and uncertain as we see in sunset sky, and in the clefts of the
+glacier and the chrysoprase, and the sea-foam; and so of all colors, not
+that they may not sometimes be deep and full, but that there is a solemn
+moderation even in their very fulness, and a holy reference beyond and
+out of their own nature to great harmonies by which they are governed,
+and in obedience to which is their glory. Whereof the ignorance is shown
+in all evil colorists by the violence and positiveness of their hues,
+and by dulness and discordance consequent, for the very brilliancy and
+real power of all color is dependent on the chastening of it, as of a
+voice on its gentleness, and as of action on its calmness, and as all
+moral vigor on self-command. And therefore as that virtue which men
+last, and with most difficulty attain unto, and which many attain not at
+all, and yet that which is essential to the conduct and almost to the
+being of all other virtues, since neither imagination, nor invention,
+nor industry, nor sensibility, nor energy, nor any other good having, is
+of full avail without this of self-command, whereby works truly
+masculine and mighty are produced, and by the signs of which they are
+separated from that lower host of things brilliant, magnificent and
+redundant, and farther yet from that of the loose, the lawless, the
+exaggerated, the insolent, and the profane, I would have the necessity
+of it foremost among all our inculcating, and the name of it largest
+among all our inscribing, in so far that, over the doors of every school
+of Art, I would have this one word, relieved out in deep letters of pure
+gold,--Moderation.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [29] It is to be carefully noted that when rude execution is
+ evidently not the result of imperfect feeling and desire (as in
+ these men above named, it is) but of thought; either impatient,
+ which there was necessity to note swiftly, or impetuous, which it
+ was well to note in mighty manner, as pre-eminently and in both
+ kinds the case with Tintoret, and often with Michael Angelo, and in
+ lower and more degraded modes with Rubens, and generally in the
+ sketches and first thoughts of great masters; there is received a
+ very noble pleasure, connected both with ideas of power (compare
+ again Part I. Sect. ii. Chap. I.) and with certain actions of the
+ imagination of which we shall speak presently. But this pleasure is
+ not received from the beauty of the work, for nothing can be
+ perfectly beautiful unless complete, but from its simplicity and
+ sufficiency to its immediate purpose, where the purpose is not of
+ beauty at all, as often in things rough-hewn, pre-eminently for
+ instance in the stones of the foundations of the Pitti and Strozzi
+ palaces, whose noble rudeness is to be opposed both to the useless
+ polish, and the barbarous rustications of modern times, (although
+ indeed this instance is not without exception to be received, for
+ the majesty of these rocky buildings depends also in some measure
+ upon the real beauty and finish of the natural curvilinear
+ fractures, opposed to the coarseness of human chiselling,) and
+ again, as it respects works of higher art, the pleasure of their
+ hasty or imperfect execution is not indicative of their beauty, but
+ of their majesty and fulness of thought and vastness of power. Shade
+ is only beautiful when it magnifies and sets forth the forms of fair
+ things, so negligence is only noble when it is, as Fuseli hath it,
+ "the shadow of energy." Which that it may be, secure the substance
+ and the shade will follow, but let the artist beware of stealing the
+ manner of giant intellects when he has not their intention, and of
+ assuming large modes of treatment when he has little thoughts to
+ treat. There is large difference between indolent impatience of
+ labor and intellectual impatience of delay, large difference between
+ leaving things unfinished because we have more to do, or because we
+ are satisfied with what we have done. Tintoret, who prayed hard, and
+ hardly obtained, that he might be permitted, the charge of his
+ colors only being borne, to paint a new built house from base to
+ battlement, was not one to shun labor, it is the pouring in upon him
+ of glorious thoughts in inexpressible multitude that his sweeping
+ hand follows so fast. It is as easy to know the slightness of
+ earnest haste from the slightness of blunt feeling, indolence, or
+ affectation, as it is to know the dust of a race, from the dust of
+ dissolution.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+
+ GENERAL INFERENCES RESPECTING TYPICAL BEAUTY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. The subject incompletely treated, yet admitting of general
+ conclusions.
+
+I have now enumerated, and in some measure explained those
+characteristics of mere matter by which I conceive it becomes agreeable
+to the theoretic faculty, under whatever form, dead, organized, or
+animated, it may present itself. It will be our task in the succeeding
+volume to examine, and illustrate by examples, the mode in which these
+characteristics appear in every division of creation, in stones,
+mountains, waves, clouds, and all organic bodies; beginning with
+vegetables, and then taking instances in the range of animals from the
+mollusc to man; examining how one animal form is nobler than another, by
+the more manifest presence of these attributes, and chiefly endeavoring
+to show how much there is of admirable and lovely, even in what is
+commonly despised. At present I have only to mark the conclusions at
+which we have as yet arrived respecting the rank of the theoretic
+faculty, and then to pursue the inquiry farther into the nature of vital
+beauty.
+
+As I before said, I pretend not to have enumerated all the sources of
+material beauty, nor the analogies connected with them; it is probable
+that others may occur to many readers, or to myself as I proceed into
+more particular inquiry, but I am not careful to collect all conceivable
+evidence on the subject. I desire only to assert and prove some certain
+principles, and by means of these to show, in some measure, the inherent
+worthiness and glory of God's works and something of the relations they
+bear to each other and to us, leaving the subject to be fully pursued,
+as it only can be, by the ardor and affection of those whom it may
+interest.
+
+
+Sec. 2. Typical beauty not created for man's sake.
+
+Sec. 3. But degrees of it for his sake admitted.
+
+Sec. 4. What encouragement hence to be received.
+
+The qualities above enumerated are not to be considered as stamped upon
+matter for our teaching or enjoyment only, but as the necessary
+consequence of the perfection of God's working, and the inevitable stamp
+of his image on what he creates. For it would be inconsistent with his
+Infinite perfection to work imperfectly in any place, or in any matter;
+wherefore we do not find that flowers and fair trees, and kindly skies,
+are given only where man may see them and be fed by them, but the Spirit
+of God works everywhere alike, where there is no eye to see, covering
+all lonely places with an equal glory, using the same pencil and
+outpouring the same splendor, in the caves of the waters where the
+sea-snakes swim, and in the desert where the satyrs dance, among the
+fir-trees of the stork, and the rocks of the conies, as among those
+higher creatures whom he has made capable witnesses of his working.
+Nevertheless, I think that the admission of different degrees of this
+glory and image of himself upon creation, has the look of something
+meant especially for us; for although, in pursuance of the appointed
+system of government by universal laws, these same degrees exist where
+we cannot witness them, yet the existence of degrees at all seems at
+first unlikely in Divine work, and I cannot see reason for it unless
+that palpable one of increasing in us the understanding of the sacred
+characters by showing us the results of their comparative absence. For I
+know not that if all things had been equally beautiful, we could have
+received the idea of beauty at all, or if we had, certainly it had
+become a matter of indifference to us, and of little thought, whereas
+through the beneficent ordaining of degrees in its manifestation, the
+hearts of men are stirred by its occasional occurrence in its noblest
+form, and all their energies are awakened in the pursuit of it, and
+endeavor to arrest it or recreate it for themselves. But whatever doubt
+there may be respecting the exact amount of modification of created
+things admitted reference to us, there can be none respecting the
+dignity of that faculty by which we receive the mysterious evidence of
+their divine origin. The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from
+whatever is a type or semblance of Divine attributes, and from nothing
+but that which is so, is the most glorious of all that can be
+demonstrated of human nature; it not only sets a great gulf of specific
+separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems a promise of a
+communion ultimately deep, close, and conscious, with the Being whose
+darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in.
+Probably to every order of intelligence more of his image becomes
+palpable in all around them, and the glorified spirits and the angels
+have perceptions as much more full and rapturous than ours, as ours than
+those of beasts and creeping things. And receiving it, as we must, for
+an universal axiom that "no natural desire can be entirely frustrate,"
+and seeing that these desires are indeed so unfailing in us that they
+have escaped not the reasoners of any time, but were held divine of old,
+and in even heathen countries,[30] it cannot be but that there is in
+these visionary pleasures, lightly as we now regard them, cause for
+thankfulness, ground for hope, anchor for faith, more than in all the
+other manifold gifts and guidances, wherewith God crowns the years, and
+hedges the paths of men.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [30] [Greek: He de teleia eudaimonia theoretike tis eotin henergeia.
+ * * tois men gar theois apas ho bios makarios, tois d anthropois,
+ eph hoson homoioma ti tes toiantes henergeias huparchei. ton d
+ hallon zoon ouden eudaimonei. hepeide oudame koinonei
+ theorias.]--Arist. Eth. Lib. 10th. The concluding book of the Ethics
+ should be carefully read. It is all most valuable.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+
+ OF VITAL BEAUTY. FIRST, AS RELATIVE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Transition from typical to vital Beauty.
+
+I proceed more particularly to examine the nature of that second kind of
+beauty of which I spoke in the third chapter, as consisting in "the
+appearance of felicitous fulfilment of function in living things." I
+have already noticed the example of very pure and high typical beauty
+which is to be found in the lines and gradations of unsullied snow: if,
+passing to the edge of a sheet of it, upon the lower Alps, early in May,
+we find, as we are nearly sure to find, two or three little round
+openings pierced in it, and through these emergent, a slender, pensive,
+fragile flower[31] whose small dark, purple-fringed bell hangs down and
+shudders over the icy cleft that it has cloven, as if partly wondering
+at its own recent grave, and partly dying of very fatigue after its hard
+won victory; we shall be, or we ought to be, moved by a totally
+different impression of loveliness from that which we receive among the
+dead ice and the idle clouds. There is now uttered to us a call for
+sympathy, now offered to us an image of moral purpose and achievement,
+which, however unconscious or senseless the creature may indeed be that
+so seems to call, cannot be heard without affection, nor contemplated
+without worship, by any of us whose heart is rightly tuned, or whose
+mind is clearly and surely sighted.
+
+Throughout the whole of the organic creation every being in a perfect
+state exhibits certain appearances, or evidences, of happiness, and
+besides is in its nature, its desires, its modes of nourishment,
+habitation, and death, illustrative or expressive of certain moral
+dispositions or principles. Now, first, in the keenness of the sympathy
+which we feel in the happiness, real or apparent, of all organic beings,
+and which, as we shall presently see, invariably prompts us, from the
+joy we have in it, to look upon those as most lovely which are most
+happy; and secondly, in the justness of the moral sense which rightly
+reads the lesson they are all intended to teach, and classes them in
+orders of worthiness and beauty according to the rank and nature of that
+lesson, whether it be of warning or example, of those that wallow or of
+those that soar, of the fiend-hunted swine by the Gennesaret lake, or of
+the dove returning to its ark of rest; in our right accepting and
+reading of all this, consists, I say, the ultimately perfect condition
+of that noble theoretic faculty, whose place in the system of our nature
+I have already partly vindicated with respect to typical, but which can
+only fully be established with respect to vital beauty.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The perfection of the theoretic faculty as concerned with vital
+ beauty, is charity.
+
+Its first perfection, therefore, relating to vital beauty, is the
+kindness and unselfish fulness of heart, which receives the utmost
+amount of pleasure from the happiness of all things. Of which in high
+degree the heart of man is incapable, neither what intense enjoyment the
+angels may have in all that they see of things that move and live, and
+in the part they take in the shedding of God's kindness upon them, can
+we know or conceive: only in proportion as we draw near to God, and are
+made in measure like unto him, can we increase this our possession of
+charity, of which the entire essence is in God only.
+
+Wherefore it is evident that even the ordinary exercise of this faculty
+implies a condition of the whole moral being in some measure right and
+healthy, and that to the entire exercise of it there is necessary the
+entire perfection of the Christian character, for he who loves not God,
+nor his brother, cannot love the grass beneath his feet and the
+creatures that fill those spaces in the universe which he needs not, and
+which live not for his uses; nay, he has seldom grace to be grateful
+even to those that love him and serve him, while, on the other hand,
+none can love God nor his human brother without loving all things which
+his Father loves, nor without looking upon them every one as in that
+respect his brethren also, and perhaps worthier than he, if in the under
+concords they have to fill, their part is touched more truly. Wherefore
+it is good to read of that kindness and humbleness of St. Francis of
+Assisi, who spoke never to bird nor to cicala, nor even to wolf and
+beast of prey, but as his brother; and so we find are moved the minds of
+all good and mighty men, as in the lesson that we have from the Mariner
+of Coleridge, and yet more truly and rightly taught in the Heartleap
+well,
+
+ "Never to blend our pleasure, or our pride,
+ With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels,"
+
+and again in the White Doe of Rylstone, with the added teaching of that
+gift, which we have from things beneath us, in thanks for the love they
+cannot equally return; that anguish of our own,
+
+ "Is tempered and allayed by sympathies,
+ Aloft ascending and descending deep,
+ Even to the inferior kinds,"
+
+so that I know not of anything more destructive of the whole theoretic
+faculty, not to say of the Christian character and human intellect, than
+those accursed sports in which man makes of himself, cat, tiger,
+serpent, chaetodon, and alligator in one, and gathers into one
+continuance of cruelty for his amusement all the devices that brutes
+sparingly and at intervals use against each other for their
+necessities.[32]
+
+
+Sec. 3. Only with respect to plants, less affection than sympathy.
+
+As we pass from those beings of whose happiness and pain we are certain
+to those in which it is doubtful or only seeming, as possibly in
+plants, (though I would fain hold, if I might, "the faith that every
+flower, enjoys the air it breathes," neither do I ever crush or gather
+one without some pain,) yet our feeling for them has in it more of
+sympathy than of actual love, as receiving from them in delight far more
+than we can give; for love, I think, chiefly grows in giving, at least
+its essence is the desire of doing good, or giving happiness, and we
+cannot feel the desire of that which we cannot conceive, so that if we
+conceive not of a plant as capable of pleasure, we cannot desire to give
+it pleasure, that is, we cannot love it in the entire sense of the term.
+
+Nevertheless, the sympathy of very lofty and sensitive minds usually
+reaches so far as to the conception of life in the plant, and so to
+love, as with Shelley, of the sensitive plant, and Shakspeare always, as
+he has taught us in the sweet voices of Ophelia and Perdita, and
+Wordsworth always, as of the daffodils, and the celandine.
+
+ "It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold.
+ This neither is its courage, nor its choice,
+ But its necessity in being old,"--
+
+and so all other great poets (that is to say, great seers;[33]) nor do I
+believe that any mind, however rude, is without some slight perception
+or acknowledgment of joyfulness in breathless things, as most certainly
+there are none but feel instinctive delight in the appearances of such
+enjoyment.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Which is proportioned to the appearance of energy in the plants.
+
+For it is matter of easy demonstration, that setting the characters of
+typical beauty aside, the pleasure afforded by every organic form is in
+proportion to its appearance of healthy vital energy; as in a rose-bush,
+setting aside all considerations of gradated flushing of color and fair
+folding of line, which it shares with the cloud or the snow-wreath, we
+find in and through all this, certain signs pleasant and acceptable as
+signs of life and enjoyment in the particular individual plant itself.
+Every leaf and stalk is seen to have a function, to be constantly
+exercising that function, and as it seems _solely_ for the good and
+enjoyment of the plant. It is true that reflection will show us that the
+plant is not living for itself alone, that its life is one of
+benefaction, that it gives as well as receives, but no sense of this
+whatsoever mingles with our perception of physical beauty in its forms.
+Those forms which appear to be necessary to its health, the symmetry of
+its leaflets, the smoothness of its stalks, the vivid green of its
+shoots, are looked upon by us as signs of the plant's own happiness and
+perfection; they are useless to us, except as they give us pleasure in
+our sympathizing with that of the plant, and if we see a leaf withered
+or shrunk or worm-eaten, we say it is ugly, and feel it to be most
+painful, not because it hurts _us_, but because it seems to hurt the
+plant, and conveys to us an idea of pain and disease and failure of life
+in _it_.
+
+That the amount of pleasure we receive is in exact proportion to the
+appearance of vigor and sensibility in the plant, is easily proved by
+observing the effect of those which show the evidences of it in the
+least degree, as, for instance, any of the cacti not in flower. Their
+masses are heavy and simple, their growth slow, their various parts
+jointed on one to another, as if they were buckled or pinned together
+instead of growing out of each other, (note the singular imposition in
+many of them, the prickly pear for instance, of the fruit upon the body
+of the plant, so that it looks like a swelling or disease,) and often
+farther opposed by harsh truncation of line as in the cactus
+truncatophylla. All these circumstances so concur to deprive the plant
+of vital evidences, that we receive from it more sense of pain than of
+beauty; and yet even here, the sharpness of the angles, the symmetrical
+order and strength of the spines, the fresh and even color of the body,
+are looked for earnestly as signs of healthy condition, our pain is
+increased by their absence, and indefinitely increased if blotches, and
+other appearances of bruise and decay interfere with that little life
+which the plant seems to possess.
+
+The same singular characters belong in animals to the crustacea, as to
+the lobster, crab, scorpion, etc., and in great measure deprive them of
+the beauty which we find in higher orders, so that we are reduced to
+look for their beauty to single parts and joints, and not to the whole
+animal.
+
+
+Sec. 5. This sympathy is unselfish, and does not regard utility.
+
+Now I wish particularly to impress upon the reader that all these
+sensations of beauty in the plant arise from our unselfish sympathy with
+its happiness, and not from any view of the qualities in it which may
+bring good to us, nor even from our acknowledgment in it of any moral
+condition beyond that of mere felicity; for such an acknowledgment,
+belongs to the second operation of the theoretic faculty (compare Sec. 2,)
+and not to the sympathetic part which we are at present examining; so
+that we even find that in this respect, the moment we begin to look upon
+any creature as subordinate to some purpose out of itself, some of the
+sense of organic beauty is lost. Thus, when we are told that the leaves
+of a plant are occupied in decomposing carbonic acid, and preparing
+oxygen for us, we begin to look upon it with some such indifference as
+upon a gasometer. It has become a machine; some of our sense of its
+happiness is gone; its emanation of inherent life is no longer pure. The
+bending trunk, waving to and fro in the wind above the waterfall, is
+beautiful because it is happy, though it is perfectly useless to us. The
+same trunk, hewn down and thrown across the stream, has lost its beauty.
+It serves as a bridge,--it has become useful; it lives not for itself,
+and its beauty is gone, or what it retains is purely typical, dependent
+on its lines and colors, not on its functions. Saw it into planks, and
+though now adapted to become permanently useful, its whole beauty is
+lost forever, or to be regained only in part when decay and ruin shall
+have withdrawn it again from use, and left it to receive from the hand
+of nature the velvet moss and varied lichen, which may again suggest
+ideas of inherent happiness, and tint its mouldering sides with hues of
+life.
+
+There is something, I think, peculiarly beautiful and instructive in
+this unselfishness of the theoretic faculty, and in its abhorrence of
+all utility which is based on the pain or destruction of any creature,
+for in such ministering to each other as is consistent with the essence
+and energy of both, it takes delight, as in the clothing of the rock by
+the herbage, and the feeding of the herbage by the stream.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Especially with respect to animals.
+
+Sec. 7. And it is destroyed by evidences of mechanism.
+
+But still more distinct evidence of its being indeed the expression of
+happiness to which we look for our first pleasure in organic form, is
+to be found in the way in which we regard the bodily frame of animals:
+of which it is to be noted first, that there is not anything which
+causes so intense and tormenting a sense of ugliness as any scar, wound,
+monstrosity, or imperfection which seems inconsistent with the animal's
+ease and health; and that although in vegetables, where there is no
+immediate sense of pain, we are comparatively little hurt by
+excrescences and irregularities, but are sometimes even delighted with
+them, and fond of them, as children of the oak-apple, and sometimes look
+upon them as more interesting than the uninjured conditions, as in the
+gnarled and knotted trunks of trees; yet the slightest approach to
+anything of the kind in animal form is regarded with intense horror,
+merely from the sense of pain it conveys. And, in the second place, it
+is to be noted that whenever we dissect the animal frame, or conceive it
+as dissected, and substitute in our ideas the neatness of mechanical
+contrivance for the pleasure of the animal; the moment we reduce
+enjoyment to ingenuity, and volition to leverage, that instant all sense
+of beauty disappears. Take, for instance, the action of the limb of the
+ostrich, which is beautiful so long as we see it in its swift uplifting
+along the desert sands, and trace in the tread of it her scorn of the
+horse and his rider, but would infinitely lose of its impressiveness, if
+we could see the spring ligament playing backwards and forwards in
+alternate jerks over the tubercle at the hock joint. Take again the
+action of the dorsal fin of the shark tribe. So long as we observe the
+uniform energy of motion in the whole frame, the lash of the tail, bound
+of body, and instantaneous lowering of the dorsal, to avoid the
+resistance of the water as it turns, there is high sense of organic
+power and beauty. But when we dissect the dorsal, and find that its
+superior ray is supported in its position by a peg in a notch at its
+base, and that when the fin is to be lowered, the peg has to be taken
+out, and when it is raised put in again; although we are filled with
+wonder at the ingenuity of the mechanical contrivance, all our sense of
+beauty is gone, and not to be recovered until we again see the fin
+playing on the animal's body, apparently by its own will alone, with the
+life running along its rays. It is by a beautiful ordinance of the
+Creator that all these mechanisms are concealed from sight, though open
+to investigation, and that in all which is outwardly manifested we seem
+to see his presence rather than his workmanship, and the mysterious
+breath of life, rather than the manipulation of matter.
+
+As, therefore, it appears from all evidence that it is the sense of
+felicity which we first desire in organic form, it is evident from
+reason, as demonstrable by experience, that those forms will be the most
+beautiful (always, observe, leaving typical beauty out of the question)
+which exhibit most of power, and seem capable of most quick and joyous
+sensation. Hence we find gradations of beauty from the apparent
+impenetrableness of hide and slow motion of the elephant and rhinoceros,
+from the foul occupation of the vulture, from the earthy struggling of
+the worm, to the brilliancy of the butterfly, the buoyancy of the lark,
+the swiftness of the fawn and the horse, the fair and kingly sensibility
+of man.
+
+
+Sec. 8. The second perfection of the theoretic faculty as concerned with
+ life is justice of moral judgment.
+
+Thus far then, the theoretic faculty is concerned with the happiness of
+animals, and its exercise depends on the cultivation of the affections
+only. Let us next observe how it is concerned with the moral functions
+of animals, and therefore how it is dependent on the cultivation of
+every moral sense. There is not any organic creature, but in its history
+and habits it shall exemplify or illustrate to us some moral excellence
+or deficiency, or some point of God's providential government, which it
+is necessary for us to know. Thus the functions and the fates of animals
+are distributed to them, with a variety which exhibits to us the dignity
+and results of almost every passion and kind of conduct, some filthy and
+slothful, pining and unhappy; some rapacious, restless, and cruel; some
+ever earnest and laborious, and, I think, unhappy in their endless
+labor, creatures, like the bee, that heap up riches and cannot tell who
+shall gather them, and others employed like angels in endless offices of
+love and praise. Of which when, in right condition of mind, we esteem
+those most beautiful, whose functions are the most noble, whether as
+some, in mere energy, or as others, in moral honor, so that we look with
+hate on the foulness of the sloth, and the subtlety of the adder, and
+the rage of the hyena: with the honor due to their earthly wisdom we
+invest the earnest ant and unwearied bee; but we look with full
+perception of sacred function to the tribes of burning plumage and
+choral voice.[34] And so what lesson we might receive for our earthly
+conduct from the creeping and laborious things, was taught us by that
+earthly king who made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones (yet
+thereafter was less rich towards God). But from the lips of an heavenly
+King, who had not where to lay his head, we were taught what lesson we
+have to learn from those higher creatures who sow not, nor reap, nor
+gather into barns, for their Heavenly Father feedeth them.
+
+
+Sec. 9. How impeded.
+
+Sec. 10. The influence of moral signs in expression.
+
+There is much difficulty in the way of our looking with this rightly
+balanced judgment on the moral functions of the animal tribes, owing to
+the independent and often opposing characters of typical beauty, which
+are among them, as it seems, arbitrarily distributed, so that the most
+fierce and cruel are often clothed in the liveliest colors, and
+strengthened by the noblest forms, with this only exception, that so far
+as I know, there is no high beauty in any slothful animal, but even
+among those of prey, its characters exist in exalted measure upon those
+that range and pursue, and are in equal degree withdrawn from those that
+lie subtly and silently in the covert of the reed and fens. But that
+mind only is fully disciplined in its theoretic power, which can, when
+it chooses, throwing off the sympathies and repugnancies with which the
+ideas of destructiveness or of innocence accustom us to regard the
+animal tribes, as well as those meaner likes and dislikes which arise, I
+think, from the greater or less resemblance of animal powers to our own,
+can pursue the pleasures of typical beauty down to the scales of the
+alligator, the coils of the serpent, and the joints of the beetle; and
+again, on the other hand, regardless of the impressions of typical
+beauty, accept from each creature, great or small, the more important
+lessons taught by its position in creation as sufferer or chastiser, as
+lowly or having dominion, as of foul habit or lofty aspiration, and from
+the several perfections which all illustrate or possess, courage,
+perseverance, industry, or intelligence, or, higher yet, of love and
+patience, and fidelity and rejoicing, and never wearied praise. Which
+moral perfections that they indeed are productive, in proportion to
+their expression, of instant beauty instinctively felt, is best proved
+by comparing those parts of animals in which they are definitely
+expressed, as for instance the eye, of which we shall find those ugliest
+which have in them no expression nor life whatever, but a corpse-like
+stare, or an indefinite meaningless glaring, as in some lights, those of
+owls and cats, and mostly of insects and of all creatures in which the
+eye seems rather an external, optical instrument than a bodily member
+through which emotion and virtue of soul may be expressed, (as
+pre-eminently in the chameleon,) because the seeming want of sensibility
+and vitality in a living creature is the most painful of all wants. And
+next to these in ugliness come the eyes that gain vitality indeed, but
+only by means of the expression of intense malignity, as in the serpent
+and alligator; and next to these, to whose malignity is added the virtue
+of subtlety and keenness, as of the lynx and hawk; and then, by
+diminishing the malignity and increasing the expressions of
+comprehensiveness and determination, we arrive at those of the lion and
+eagle, and at last, by destroying malignity altogether, at the fair eye
+of the herbivorous tribes, wherein the superioity of beauty consists
+always in the greater or less sweetness and gentleness primarily, as in
+the gazelle, camel, and ox, and in the greater or less intellect,
+secondarily, as in the horse and dog, and finally, in gentleness and
+intellect both in man. And again, taking the mouth, another source of
+expression, we find it ugliest where it has none, as mostly in fish, or
+perhaps where without gaining much in expression of any kind, it becomes
+a formidable destructive instrument, as again in the alligator, and
+then, by some increase of expression, we arrive at birds' beaks, wherein
+there is more obtained by the different ways of setting on the mandibles
+than is commonly supposed, (compare the bills of the duck and the
+eagle,) and thence we reach the finely developed lips of the carnivora,
+which nevertheless lose that beauty they have, in the actions of
+snarling and biting, and from these we pass to the nobler because
+gentler and more sensible, of the horse, camel, and fawn, and so again
+up to man, only there is less traceableness of the principle in the
+mouths of the lower animals, because they are in slight measure only
+capable of expression, and chiefly used as instruments, and that of low
+function, whereas in man the mouth is given most definitely as a means
+of expression, beyond and above its lower functions. Compare the remarks
+of Sir Charles Bell on this subject in his Essay on Expression, and
+compare the mouth of the negro head given by him (p. 28, third edition)
+with that of Raffaelle's St. Catherine. I shall illustrate the subject
+farther hereafter by giving the mouth of one of the demons of Orcagna's
+Inferno, with projecting incisors, and that of a fish and a swine, in
+opposition to pure graminivorous and human forms; but at present it is
+sufficient for my purpose to insist on the single great principle, that,
+wherever expression is possible, and uninterfered with by characters of
+typical beauty, which confuse the subject exceedingly as regards the
+mouth, (for the typical beauty of the carnivorous lips is on a grand
+scale, while it exists in very low degree in the beaks of birds,)
+wherever, I say, these considerations do not interfere, the beauty of
+the animal form is in exact proportion to the amount of moral or
+intellectual virtue expressed by it; and wherever beauty exists at all,
+there is some kind of virtue to which it is owing, as the majesty of the
+lion's eye is owing not to its ferocity, but to its seriousness and
+seeming intellect, and of the lion's mouth to its strength and
+sensibility, and not its gnashing of teeth, nor wrinkling in its wrath;
+and farther be it noted, that of the intellectual or moral virtues, the
+moral are those which are attended with most beauty, so that the gentle
+eye of the gazelle is fairer to look upon than the more keen glance of
+men, if it be unkind.
+
+
+Sec. 11. As also in plants.
+
+Of the parallel effects of expression upon plants there is little to be
+noted, as the mere naming of the subject cannot but bring countless
+illustrations to the mind of every reader: only this, that, as we saw
+they were less susceptible of our sympathetic love, owing to the absence
+in them of capability of enjoyment, so they are less open to the
+affections based upon the expression of moral virtue, owing to their
+want of volition; so that even on those of them which are deadly and
+unkind we look not without pleasure, the more because this their evil
+operation cannot be by them outwardly expressed, but only by us
+empirically known; so that of the outward seemings and expressions of
+plants, there are few but are in some way good and therefore beautiful,
+as of humility, and modesty, and love of places and things, in the
+reaching out of their arms, and clasping of their tendrils; and energy
+of resistance, and patience of suffering, and beneficence one towards
+another in shade and protection, and to us also in scents and fruits
+(for of their healing virtues, however important to us, there is no more
+outward sense nor seeming than of their properties mortal or dangerous).
+
+
+Sec. 12 Recapitulation.
+
+Whence, in fine, looking to the whole kingdom of organic nature, we find
+that our full receiving of its beauty depends first on the sensibility
+and then on the accuracy and touchstone faithfulness of the heart in its
+moral judgments, so that it is necessary that we should not only love
+all creatures well, but esteem them in that order which is according to
+God's laws and not according to our own human passions and
+predilections, not looking for swiftness, and strength, and cunning,
+rather than for patience and kindness, still less delighting in their
+animosity and cruelty one towards another, neither, if it may be
+avoided, interfering with the working of nature in any way, nor, when we
+interfere to obtain service, judging from the morbid conditions of the
+animal or vegetable so induced; for we see every day the theoretic
+faculty entirely destroyed in those who are interested in particular
+animals, by their delight in the results of their own teaching, and by
+the vain straining of curiosity for new forms such as nature never
+intended, as the disgusting types for instance, which we see earnestly
+sought for by the fanciers of rabbits and pigeons, and constantly in
+horses, substituting for the true and balanced beauty of the free
+creature some morbid development of a single power, as of swiftness in
+the racer, at the expense, in certain measure, of the animal's healthy
+constitution and fineness of form; and so the delight of horticulturists
+in the spoiling of plants; so that in all cases we are to beware of such
+opinions as seem in any way referable to human pride, or even to the
+grateful or pernicious influence of things upon ourselves, and to cast
+the mind free, and out of ourselves, humbly, and yet always in that
+noble position of pause above the other visible creatures, nearer God
+than they, which we authoritatively hold, thence looking down upon them,
+and testing the clearness of our moral vision by the extent, and
+fulness, and constancy of our pleasure in the light of God's love as it
+embraces them, and the harmony of his holy laws, that forever bring
+mercy out of rapine, and religion out of wrath.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [31] Soldanella Alpina.
+
+ [32] I would have Mr. Landseer, before he gives us any more writhing
+ otters, or yelping packs, reflect whether that which is best worthy
+ of contemplation in a hound be its ferocity, or in an otter its
+ agony, or in a human being its victory, hardly achieved even with
+ the aid of its more sagacious brutal allies over a poor little
+ fish-catching creature, a foot long.
+
+ [33] Compare Milton.
+
+ "They at her coming sprung
+ And touched by her fair tendance, gladlier grew"
+
+ [34] "Type of the wise--who soar, but never roam,
+ True to the kindred points of heaven and home."
+ (WORDSWORTH.--To the Skylark.)
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ OF VITAL BEAUTY.--SECONDLY AS GENERIC.
+
+
+Sec. 1. The beauty of fulfilment of appointed function in every animal.
+
+Hitherto we have observed the conclusions of the theoretic faculty with
+respect to the relations of happiness, and of more or less exalted
+function existing between different orders of organic being. But we must
+pursue the inquiry farther yet, and observe what impressions of beauty
+are connected with more or less perfect fulfilment of the appointed
+function by different individuals of the same species. We are now no
+longer called to pronounce upon worthiness of occupation or dignity of
+disposition; but both employment and capacity being known, and the
+animal's position and duty fixed, we have to regard it in that respect
+alone, comparing it with other individuals of its species, and to
+determine how far it worthily executes its office; whether, if scorpion,
+it hath poison enough, or if tiger, strength enough, or if dove,
+innocence enough, to sustain rightly its place in creation, and come up
+to the perfect idea of dove, tiger, or scorpion.
+
+In the first or sympathetic operation of the theoretic faculty, it will
+be remembered, we receive pleasure from the signs of mere happiness in
+living things. In the second theoretic operation of comparing and
+judging, we constituted ourselves such judges of the lower creatures as
+Adam was made by God when they were brought to him to be named, and we
+allowed of beauty in them as they reached, more or less, to that
+standard of moral perfection by which we test ourselves. But, in the
+third place, we are to come down again from the judgment seat, and
+taking it for granted that every creature of God is in some way good,
+and has a duty and specific operation providentially accessory to the
+well-being of all, we are to look in this faith to that employment and
+nature of each, and to derive pleasure from their entire perfection and
+fitness for the duty they have to do, and in their entire fulfilment of
+it: and so we are to take pleasure and find beauty in the magnificent
+binding together of the jaws of the ichthyosaurus for catching and
+holding, and in the adaptation of the lion for springing, and of the
+locust for destroying, and of the lark for singing, and in every
+creature for the doing of that which God has made it to do. Which
+faithful pleasure in the perception of the perfect operation of lower
+creatures I have placed last among the perfections of the theoretic
+faculty concerning them, because it is commonly last acquired, both
+owing to the humbleness and trustfulness of heart which it demands, and
+because it implies a knowledge of the habits and structure of every
+creature, such as we can but imperfectly possess.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The two senses of the word "ideal." Either it refers to action of
+ the imagination.
+
+The perfect _idea_ of the form and condition in which all the properties
+of the species are fully developed, is called the ideal of the species.
+The question of the nature of ideal conception of species, and of the
+mode in which the mind arrives at it, has been the subject of so much
+discussion, and source of so much embarrassment, chiefly owing to that
+unfortunate distinction between idealism and realism which leads most
+people to imagine the ideal opposed to the real, and therefore _false_,
+that I think it necessary to request the reader's most careful attention
+to the following positions.
+
+Any work of art which represents, not a material object, but the mental
+conception of a material object, is, in the primary sense of the word
+ideal; that is to say, it represents an idea, and not a thing. Any work
+of art which represents or realizes a material object, is, in the
+primary sense of the term, unideal.
+
+Ideal works of art, therefore, in this first sense, represent the result
+of an act of imagination, and are good or bad in proportion to the
+healthy condition and general power of the imagination, whose acts they
+represent.
+
+Unideal works of art (the studious production of which is termed
+realism) represent actual existing things, and are good or bad in
+proportion to the perfection of the representation.
+
+All entirely bad works of art may be divided into those which,
+professing to be imaginative, bear no stamp of imagination, and are
+therefore false, and those which, professing to be representative of
+matter, miss of the representation and are therefore nugatory.
+
+It is the habit of most observers to regard art as representative of
+matter, and to look only for the entireness of representation; and it
+was to this view of art that I limited the arguments of the former
+sections of the present work, wherein having to oppose the conclusions
+of a criticism entirely based upon the realist system, I was compelled
+to meet that criticism on its own grounds. But the greater part of works
+of art, more especially those devoted to the expression of ideas of
+beauty, are the results of the agency of imagination, their worthiness
+depending, as above stated, on the healthy condition of the imagination.
+
+Hence it is necessary for us, in order to arrive at conclusions
+respecting the worthiness of such works, to define and examine the
+nature of the imaginative faculty, and to determine first what are the
+signs or conditions of its existence at all; and secondly, what are the
+evidences of its healthy and efficient existence, upon which examination
+I shall enter in the second section of the present part.
+
+
+Sec. 3. Or to perfection of type.
+
+But there is another sense of the word ideal besides this, and it is
+that with which we are here concerned. It is evident that, so long as we
+use the word to signify that art which represents ideas and not things,
+we may use it as truly of the art which represents an idea of Caliban,
+and not real Caliban, as of the art which represents an idea of
+Antinous, and not real Antinous. For that is as much imagination which
+conceives the monster as which conceives the man. If, however, Caliban
+and Antinous be creatures of the same species, and the form of the one
+contain not the fully developed types or characters of the species,
+while the form of the other presents the greater part of them, then the
+latter is said to be a form more ideal than the other, as a nearer
+approximation to the general idea or conception of the species.
+
+
+Sec. 4. This last sense how inaccurate, yet to be retained.
+
+Now it is evident that this use of the word ideal is much less accurate
+than the other, from which it is derived, for it rests on the assumption
+that the assemblage of all the characters of a species in their perfect
+development cannot exist but in the imagination. For if it can actually
+and in reality exist, it is not right to call it ideal or imaginary; it
+would be better to call it characteristic or general, and to reserve the
+word ideal for the results of the operation of the imagination, either
+on the perfect or imperfect forms.
+
+Nevertheless, the word ideal has been so long and universally accepted
+in this sense, that I think it better to continue the use of it, so only
+that the reader will be careful to observe the distinction in the sense,
+according to the subject matter under discussion. At present then, using
+it as expressive of the noble generic form which indicates the full
+perfection of the creature in all its functions, I wish to examine how
+far this perception exists or may exist in nature, and if not in nature,
+how it is by us discoverable or imaginable.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Of Ideal form. First, in the lower animals.
+
+Now it is better, when we wish to arrive at truth, always to take
+familiar instances, wherein the mind is not likely to be biassed by any
+elevated associations or favorite theories. Let us ask therefore, first,
+what kind of ideal form may be attributed to a limpet or an oyster, that
+is to say, whether all oysters do or do not come up to the entire notion
+or idea of an oyster. I apprehend that, although in respect of size,
+age, and kind of feeding, there may be some difference between them, yet
+of those which are of full size and healthy condition there will be
+found many which fulfil the conditions of an oyster in every respect,
+and that so perfectly, that we could not, by combining the features of
+two or more together, produce a more perfect oyster than any that we
+see. I suppose also, that, out of a number of healthy fish, birds, or
+beasts of the same species, it would not be easy to select an individual
+as superior to _all_ the rest; neither by comparing two or more of the
+nobler examples together, to arrive at the conception of a form superior
+to that of either; but that, though the accidents of more abundant food
+or more fitting habitation may induce among them some varieties of size,
+strength, and color, yet the entire generic form would be presented by
+many, neither would any art be able to add to or diminish from it.
+
+
+Sec. 6. In what consistent.
+
+It is, therefore, hardly right to use the word ideal of the generic
+forms of these creatures, of which we see actual examples; but if we are
+to use it, then be it distinctly understood that their ideality consists
+in the full development of all the powers and properties of the creature
+as such, and is inconsistent with accidental or imperfect developments,
+and even with great variation from average size, the ideal size being
+neither gigantic nor diminutive, but the utmost grandeur and entireness
+of proportion at a certain point above the mean size; for as more
+individuals always fall short of generic size than rise above it, the
+generic is above the average or mean size. And this perfection of the
+creature invariably involves the utmost possible degree of all those
+properties of beauty, both typical and vital, which it is appointed to
+possess.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Ideal form in vegetables.
+
+Let us next observe the conditions of ideality in vegetables. Out of a
+large number of primroses or violets, I apprehend that, although one or
+two might be larger than all the rest, the greater part would be very
+sufficient primroses and violets. And that we could, by no study nor
+combination of violets, conceive of a better violet than many in the
+bed. And so generally of the blossoms and separate members of all
+vegetables.
+
+But among the entire forms of the complex vegetables, as of oak-trees,
+for instance, there exists very large and constant difference, some
+being what we hold to be fine oaks, as in parks, and places where they
+are taken care of, and have their own way, and some are but poor and
+mean oaks, which have had no one to take care of them, but have been
+obliged to maintain themselves.
+
+That which we have to determine is, whether ideality be predicable of
+the fine oaks only, or whether the poor and mean oaks also may be
+considered as ideal, that is, coming up to the conditions of oak, and
+the general notion of oak.
+
+
+Sec. 8. The difference of position between plants and animals.
+
+Now there is this difference between the positions held in creation by
+animals and plants, and thence in the dispositions with which we regard
+them; that the animals, being for the most part locomotive, are capable
+both of living where they choose, and of obtaining what food they want,
+and of fulfilling all the conditions necessary to their health and
+perfection. For which reason they are answerable for such health and
+perfection, and we should be displeased and hurt if we did not find it
+in one individual as well as another.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Admits of variety in the ideal of the former.
+
+But the case is evidently different with plants. They are intended
+fixedly to occupy many places comparatively unfit for them, and to fill
+up all the spaces where greenness, and coolness, and ornament, and
+oxygen are wanted, and that with very little reference to their comfort
+or convenience. Now it would be hard upon the plant if, after being tied
+to a particular spot, where it is indeed much wanted, and is a great
+blessing, but where it has enough to do to live, whence it cannot move
+to obtain what it wants or likes, but must stretch its unfortunate arms
+here and there for bare breath and light, and split its way among rocks,
+and grope for sustenance in unkindly soil; it would be hard upon the
+plant, I say, if under all these disadvantages, it were made answerable
+for its appearance, and found fault with because it was not a fine plant
+of the kind. And so we find it ordained that in order that no unkind
+comparisons may be drawn between one and another, there are not
+appointed to plants the fixed number, position, and proportion of
+members which are ordained in animals, (and any variation from which in
+these is unpardonable,) but a continually varying number and position,
+even among the more freely growing examples, admitting therefore all
+kinds of license to those which have enemies to contend with, and that
+without in any way detracting from their dignity and perfection.
+
+So then there is in trees no perfect form which can be fixed upon or
+reasoned out as ideal; but that is always an ideal oak which, however
+poverty-stricken, or hunger-pinched, or tempest-tortured, is yet seen to
+have done, under its appointed circumstances, all that could be expected
+of oak.
+
+The ideal, therefore, of the park oak is that to which I alluded in the
+conclusion of the former part of this work, full size, united terminal
+curve, equal and symmetrical range of branches on each side. The ideal
+of the mountain oak may be anything, twisting, and leaning, and
+shattered, and rock-encumbered, so only that amidst all its misfortunes,
+it maintain the dignity of oak; and, indeed, I look upon this kind of
+tree as more ideal than the other, in so far as by its efforts and
+struggles, more of its nature, enduring power, patience in waiting for,
+and ingenuity in obtaining what it wants, is brought out, and so more of
+the essence of oak exhibited, than under more fortunate conditions.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Ideal form in vegetables destroyed by cultivation.
+
+And herein, then, we at last find the cause of that fact which we have
+twice already noted, that the exalted or seemingly improved condition,
+whether of plant or animal, induced by human interference, is not the
+true and artistical ideal of it.[35] It has been well shown by Dr.
+Herbert,[36] that many plants are found alone on a certain soil or
+subsoil in a wild state, not because such soil is favorable to them, but
+because they alone are capable of existing on it, and because all
+dangerous rivals are by its inhospitality removed. Now if we withdraw
+the plant from this position, which it hardly endures, and supply it
+with the earth, and maintain about it the temperature that it delights
+in; withdrawing from it at the same time all rivals which, in such
+conditions nature would have thrust upon it, we shall indeed obtain a
+magnificently developed example of the plant, colossal in size, and
+splendid in organization, but we shall utterly lose in it that moral
+ideal which is dependent on its right fulfilment of its appointed
+functions. It was intended and created by the Deity for the covering of
+those lonely spots where no other plant could live; it has been thereto
+endowed with courage, and strength, and capacities of endurance
+unequalled; its character and glory are not therefore in the gluttonous
+and idle feeling of its own over luxuriance, at the expense of other
+creatures utterly destroyed and rooted out for its good alone, but in
+its right doing of its hard duty; and forward climbing into those spots
+of forlorn hope where it alone can bear witness to the kindness and
+presence of the Spirit that cutteth out rivers among the rocks, as it
+covers the valleys with corn: and there, in its vanward place, and only
+there, where nothing is withdrawn for it, nor hurt by it, and where
+nothing can take part of its honor, nor usurp its throne, are its
+strength, and fairness, and price, and goodness in the sight of God, to
+be truly esteemed.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Instance in the Soldanella and Ranunculus.
+
+The first time that I saw the soldanella alpina, before spoken of, it
+was growing, of magnificent size, on a sunny Alpine pasture, among
+bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle, associated with a profusion of
+geum montanum, and ranunculus pyrenaeus. I noticed it only because new to
+me, nor perceived any peculiar beauty in its cloven flower. Some days
+after, I found it alone, among the rack of the higher clouds, and
+howling of glacier winds, and, as I described it, piercing through an
+edge of avalanche, which in its retiring had left the new ground brown
+and lifeless, and as if burned by recent fire; the plant was poor and
+feeble, and seemingly exhausted with its efforts, but it was then that I
+comprehended its ideal character, and saw its noble function and order
+of glory among the constellations of the earth.
+
+The ranunculus glacialis might perhaps, by cultivation, be blanched from
+its wan and corpse-like paleness to purer white, and won to more
+branched and lofty development of its ragged leaves. But the ideal of
+the plant is to be found only in the last, loose stones of the moraine,
+alone there; wet with the cold, unkindly drip of the glacier water, and
+trembling as the loose and steep dust to which it clings yields ever and
+anon, and shudders and crumbles away from about its root.
+
+
+Sec. 12. The beauty of repose and felicity, how consistent with such ideal.
+
+And if it be asked how this conception of the utmost beauty of ideal
+form is consistent with what we formerly argued respecting the
+pleasantness of the appearance of felicity in the creature, let it be
+observed, and forever held, that the right and true happiness of every
+creature, is in this very discharge of its function, and in those
+efforts by which its strength and inherent energy are developed: and
+that the repose of which we also spoke as necessary to all beauty, is,
+as was then stated, repose not of inanition, nor of luxury, nor of
+irresolution, but the repose of magnificent energy and being; in action,
+the calmness of trust and determination; in rest, the consciousness of
+duty accomplished and of victory won, and this repose and this felicity
+can take place as well in the midst of trial and tempest, as beside the
+waters of comfort; they perish only when the creature is either
+unfaithful to itself, or is afflicted by circumstances unnatural and
+malignant to its being, and for the contending with which it was neither
+fitted nor ordained. Hence that rest which is indeed glorious is of the
+chamois couched breathless on his granite bed, not of the stalled ox
+over his fodder, and that happiness which is indeed beautiful is in the
+bearing of those trial tests which are appointed for the proving of
+every creature, whether it be good, or whether it be evil; and in the
+fulfilment to the uttermost of every command it has received, and the
+out-carrying to the uttermost of every power and gift it has gotten from
+its God.
+
+
+Sec. 13. The ideality of Art.
+
+Therefore the task of the painter in his pursuit of ideal form is to
+attain accurate knowledge, so far as may be in his power, of the
+character, habits, and peculiar virtues and duties of every species of
+being; down even to the stone, for there is an ideality of stones
+according to their kind, an ideality of granite and slate and marble,
+and it is in the utmost and most exalted exhibition of such individual
+character, order, and use, that all ideality of art consists. The more
+cautious he is in assigning the right species of moss to its favorite
+trunk, and the right kind of weed to its necessary stone, in marking the
+definite and characteristic leaf, blossom, seed, fracture, color, and
+inward anatomy of everything, the more truly ideal his work becomes. All
+confusion of species, all careless rendering of character, all unnatural
+and arbitrary association, is vulgar and unideal in proportion to its
+degree.
+
+
+Sec. 14. How connected with the imaginative faculties.
+
+It is to be noted, however, that nature sometimes in a measure herself
+conceals these generic differences, and that when she displays them it
+is commonly on a scale too small for human hand to follow.
+
+The pursuit and seizure of the generic differences in their concealment,
+and the display of them on a larger and more palpable scale, is one of
+the wholesome and healthy operations of the imagination of which we are
+presently to speak.[37]
+
+Generic differences being commonly exhibited by art in different manner
+and way from that of their natural occurrence, are in this respect more
+strictly and truly ideal in art than in reality.
+
+
+Sec. 15. Ideality, how belonging to ages and conditions.
+
+This only remains to be noted, that, of all creatures whose existence
+involves birth, progress, and dissolution, ideality is predicable all
+through their existence, so that they be perfect with reference to their
+supposed period of being. Thus there is an ideal of infancy, of youth,
+of old age, of death, and of decay. But when the ideal form of the
+species is spoken of or conceived in general terms, the form is
+understood to be of that period when the generic attributes are
+perfectly developed, and previous to the commencement of their decline.
+At which period all the characters of vital and typical beauty are
+commonly most concentrated in them, though the arrangement and
+proportion of these characters varies at different periods, youth having
+more of the vigorous beauty, and age of the reposing; youth of typical
+outward fairness, and age of expanded and etherealized moral expression;
+the babe, again, in some measure atoning in gracefulness for its want of
+strength, so that the balanced glory of the creature continues in solemn
+interchange, perhaps even
+
+ "Filling more and more with crystal light,
+ As pensive evening deepens into night."
+
+Hitherto, however, we have confined ourselves to the examination of
+ideal form in the lower animals, and we have found that, to arrive at
+it, no combination of forms nor exertion of fancy is required, but only
+simple choice among those naturally presented, together with careful
+investigation and anatomizing of the habits of the creatures. I fear we
+shall arrive at a very different conclusion, in considering the ideal
+form of man.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [35] I speak not here of those conditions of vegetation which have
+ especial reference to man, as of seeds and fruits, whose sweetness
+ and farina seem in great measure given, not for the plant's sake,
+ but for his, and to which therefore the interruption in the harmony
+ of creation of which he was the cause is extended, and their
+ sweetness and larger measure of good to be obtained only by his
+ redeeming labor. His curse has fallen on the corn and the vine, and
+ the wild barley misses of its fulness, that he may eat bread by the
+ sweat of his brow.
+
+ [36] Journal of the Horticultural Society. Part I.
+
+ [37] Compare Sect. II. Chap. IV.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ OF VITAL BEAUTY.--THIRDLY, IN MAN.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Condition of the human creature entirely different from that of the
+ lower animals.
+
+Having thus passed gradually through all the orders and fields of
+creation, and traversed that goodly line of God's happy creatures who
+"leap not, but express a feast, where all the guests sit close, and
+nothing wants," without finding any deficiency which human invention
+might supply, nor any harm which human interference might mend, we come
+at last to set ourselves face to face with ourselves, expecting that in
+creatures made after the image of God we are to find comeliness and
+completion more exquisite than in the fowls of the air and the things
+that pass through the paths of the sea.
+
+But behold now a sudden change from all former experience. No longer
+among the individuals of the race is there equality or likeness, a
+distributed fairness and fixed type visible in each, but evil diversity,
+and terrible stamp of various degradation; features seamed with
+sickness, dimmed by sensuality, convulsed by passion, pinched by
+poverty, shadowed by sorrow, branded with remorse; bodies consumed with
+sloth, broken down by labor, tortured by disease, dishonored in foul
+uses; intellects without power, hearts without hope, minds earthly and
+devilish; our bones full of the sin of our youth, the heaven revealing
+our iniquity, the earth rising up against us, the roots dried up
+beneath, and the branch cut off above; well for us only, if, after
+beholding this our natural face in a glass, we desire not straightway to
+forget what manner of men we be.
+
+
+Sec. 2. What room here for idealization.
+
+Herein there is at last something, and too much, for that short stopping
+intelligence and dull perception of ours to accomplish, whether in
+earnest fact, or in the seeking for the outward image of beauty:--to
+undo the devil's work, to restore to the body the grace and the power
+which inherited disease has destroyed, to return to the spirit the
+purity, and to the intellect the grasp that they had in Paradise. Now,
+first of all, this work, be it observed is in no respect a work of
+imagination. Wrecked we are, and nearly all to pieces; but that little
+good by which we are to redeem ourselves is to be got out of the old
+wreck, beaten about and full of sand though it be; and not out of that
+desert island of pride on which the devils split first, and we after
+them: and so the only restoration of the body that we can reach is not
+to be coined out of our fancies, but to be collected out of such
+uninjured and bright vestiges of the old seal as we can find and set
+together, and so the ideal of the features, as the good and perfect soul
+is seen in them, is not to be reached by imagination, but by the seeing
+and reaching forth of the better part of the soul to that of which it
+must first know the sweetness and goodness in itself, before it can much
+desire, or rightly find, the signs of it in others.
+
+I say much desire and rightly find, because there is not any soul so
+sunk but that it shall in some measure feel the impression of mental
+beauty in the human features, and detest in others its own likeness, and
+in itself despise that which of itself it has made.
+
+
+Sec. 3. How the conception of the bodily ideal is reached.
+
+Now, of the ordinary process by which the realization of ideal bodily
+form is reached, there is explanation enough in all treatises on art,
+and it is so far well comprehended that I need not stay long to consider
+it. So far as the sight and knowledge of the human form, of the purest
+race, exercised from infancy constantly, but not excessively in all
+exercises of dignity, not in twists and straining dexterities, but in
+natural exercises of running, casting, or riding; practised in
+endurance, not of extraordinary hardship, for that hardens and degrades
+the body, but of natural hardship, vicissitudes of winter and summer,
+and cold and heat, yet in a climate where none of these are severe;
+surrounded also by a certain degree of right luxury, so as to soften and
+refine the forms of strength; so far as the sight of all this could
+render the mental intelligence of what is right in human form so acute
+as to be able to abstract and combine from the best examples so
+produced, that which was most perfect in each, so far the Greek
+conceived and attained the ideal of bodily form: and on the Greek modes
+of attaining it, as well as on what he produced, as a perfect example of
+it, chiefly dwell those writers whose opinions on this subject I have
+collected; wholly losing sight of what seems to me the most important
+branch of the inquiry, namely, the influence for good or evil of the
+mind upon the bodily shape, the wreck of the mind itself, and the modes
+by which we may conceive of its restoration.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Modifications of the bodily ideal owing to influence of mind.
+ First, of intellect.
+
+Now, the operation of the mind upon the body, and evidence of it
+thereon, may be considered under the following three general heads.
+
+First, the operation of the intellectual powers upon the features, in
+the fine cutting and chiselling of them, and removal from them of signs
+of sensuality and sloth, by which they are blunted and deadened, and
+substitution of energy and intensity for vacancy and insipidity, (by
+which wants alone the faces of many fair women are utterly spoiled and
+rendered valueless,) and by the keenness given to the eye and fine
+moulding and development to the brow, of which effects Sir Charles Bell
+has well noted the desirableness and opposition to brutal types, (p. 59,
+third edition;) only this he has not sufficiently observed, that there
+are certain virtues of the intellect in measure inconsistent with each
+other, as perhaps great subtlety with great comprehensiveness, and high
+analytical with high imaginative power, or that at least, if consistent
+and compatible, their signs upon the features are not the same, so that
+the outward form cannot express both, without in a measure expressing
+neither; and so there are certain separate virtues of the outward form
+correspondent with the more constant employment or more prevailing
+capacity of the brain, as the piercing keenness, or open and reflective
+comprehensiveness of the eye and forehead, and that all these virtues of
+form are ideal, only those the most so which are the signs of the
+worthiest powers of intellect, though which these be, we will not at
+present stay to inquire.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Secondly, of the moral feelings.
+
+Sec. 6. What beauty is bestowed by them
+
+The second point to be considered in the influence of mind upon body, is
+the mode of operation and conjunction of the moral feelings on and with
+the intellectual powers, and then their conjoint influence on the bodily
+form. Now, the operation of the right moral feelings on the intellect is
+always for the good of the latter, for it is not possible that
+selfishness should reason rightly in any respect, but must be blind in
+its estimation of the worthiness of all things, neither anger, for that
+overpowers the reason or outcries it, neither sensuality, for that
+overgrows and chokes it, neither agitation, for that has no time to
+compare things together, neither enmity, for that must be unjust,
+neither fear, for that exaggerates all things, neither cunning and
+deceit, for that which is voluntarily untrue will soon be unwittingly
+so: but the great reasoners are self-command, and trust unagitated, and
+deep-looking Love, and Faith, which as she is above Reason, so she best
+holds the reins of it from her high seat: so that they err grossly who
+think of the right development even of the intellectual type as
+possible, unless we look to higher sources of beauty first.
+Nevertheless, though in their operation _upon_ them the moral feelings
+are thus elevatory of the mental faculties, yet in their conjunction
+_with_ them they seem to occupy, in their own fulness, such room as to
+absorb and overshadow all else, so that the simultaneous exercise of
+both is in a sort impossible; for which cause we occasionally find the
+moral part in full development and action, without corresponding
+expanding of the intellect (though never without healthy condition of
+it,) as in that of Wordsworth,
+
+ "In such high hour
+ Of visitation from the Living God,
+ Thought was not;"
+
+only I think that if we look far enough, we shall find that it is not
+intelligence itself, but the immediate act and effort of a laborious,
+struggling, and imperfect intellectual faculty, with which high moral
+emotion is inconsistent; and that though we cannot, while we feel
+deeply, reason shrewdly, yet I doubt if, _except_ when we feel deeply,
+we can ever comprehend fully; so that it is only the climbing and
+mole-like piercing, and not the sitting upon their central throne, nor
+emergence into light, of the intellectual faculties which the full heart
+feeling allows not. Hence, therefore, in the indications of the
+countenance, they are only the hard cut lines, and rigid settings, and
+wasted hollows, that speak of past effort and painfulness of mental
+application, which are inconsistent with expression of moral feeling,
+for all these are of infelicitous augury; but not the full and serene
+development of habitual command in the look, and solemn thought in the
+brow, only these, in their unison with the signs of emotion, become
+softened and gradually confounded with a serenity and authority of
+nobler origin. But of the sweetness which that higher serenity (of
+happiness,) and the dignity which that higher authority (of Divine law,
+and not human reason,) can and must stamp on the features, it would be
+futile to speak here at length, for I suppose that both are acknowledged
+on all hands, and that there is not any beauty but theirs to which men
+pay long obedience: at all events, if not by sympathy discovered, it is
+not in words explicable with what divine lines and lights the exercise
+of godliness and charity will mould and gild the hardest and coldest
+countenance, neither to what darkness their departure will consign the
+loveliest. For there is not any virtue the exercise of which, even
+momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the features, neither
+on them only, but on the whole body, both the intelligence and the moral
+faculties have operation, for even all the movement and gestures,
+however slight, are different in their modes according to the mind that
+governs them, and on the gentleness and decision of just feeling there
+follows a grace of action, and through continuance of this a grace of
+form, which by no discipline may be taught or attained.
+
+
+Sec. 7. How the soul culture interferes harmfully with the bodily ideal.
+
+The third point to be considered with respect to the corporeal
+expression of mental character is, that there is a certain period of the
+soul culture when it begins to interfere with some of the characters of
+typical beauty belonging to the bodily frame, the stirring of the
+intellect wearing down the flesh, and the moral enthusiasm burning its
+way out to heaven, through the emaciation of the earthen vessel; and
+that there is, in this indication of subduing of the mortal by the
+immortal part, an ideal glory of perhaps a purer and higher range than
+that of the more perfect material form. We conceive, I think, more nobly
+of the weak presence of Paul, than of the fair and ruddy countenance of
+Daniel.
+
+
+Sec. 8. The inconsistency among the effects of the mental virtues on the
+ form.
+
+Sec. 9. Is a sign of God's kind purpose towards the race.
+
+Sec. 10. Consequent separation and difference of ideals.
+
+Now, be it observed that in our consideration of these three directions
+of mental influence, we have several times been compelled to stop short
+of definite conclusions owing to the apparent inconsistency of certain
+excellences and beauties to which they tend, as, first, of different
+kinds of intellect with each other; and secondly, of the moral faculties
+with the intellectual, (and if we had separately examined the moral
+emotions, we should have found certain inconsistencies among them also,)
+and again of the soul culture generally with the bodily perfections.
+Such inconsistencies we should find in the perfections of no other
+animal. The strength or swiftness of the dog are not inconsistent with
+his sagacity, nor is bodily labor in the ant or bee destructive of their
+acuteness of instinct. And this peculiarity of relation among the
+perfections of man is no result of his fall or sinfulness, but an
+evidence of his greater nobility, and of the goodness of God towards
+him. For the individuals of each race of lower animals, being not
+intended to hold among each other those relations of charity which are
+the privilege of humanity, are not adapted to each other's assistance,
+admiration, or support, by differences of power and function. But the
+love of the human race is increased by their individual differences, and
+the unity of the creature, as before we saw of all unity, made perfect
+by each having something to bestow and to receive, bound to the rest by
+a thousand various necessities and various gratitudes, humility in each
+rejoicing to admire in his fellow that which he finds not in himself,
+and each being in some respect the complement of his race. Therefore, in
+investigating the signs of the ideal or perfect type of humanity, we
+must not presume on the singleness of that type, and yet, on the other
+hand, we must cautiously distinguish between differences conceivably
+existing in a perfect state, and differences resulting from immediate
+and present operation of the Adamite curse. Of which the former are
+differences that bind, and the latter that separate. For although we can
+suppose the ideal or perfect human heart, and the perfect human
+intelligence, equally adapted to receive every right sensation and
+pursue every order of truth, yet as it is appointed for some to be in
+authority and others in obedience, some in solitary functions and others
+in relative ones, some to receive and others to give, some to teach and
+some to discover; and as all these varieties of office are not only
+conceivable as existing in a perfect state of man, but seem almost to be
+implied by it, and at any rate cannot be done away with but by a total
+change of his constitution and dependencies, of which the imagination
+can take no hold; so there are habits and capacities of expression
+induced by these various offices, which admit of many separate ideals of
+equal perfection, according to the functions of the creatures, so that
+there is an ideal of authority, of judgment, of affection, of reason,
+and of faith; neither can any combination of these ideals be attained,
+not that the just judge is to be supposed incapable of affection, nor
+the king incapable of obedience, but as it is impossible that any
+essence short of the Divine should at the same instant be equally
+receptive of all emotions, those emotions which, by right and order,
+have the most usual victory, both leave the stamp of their habitual
+presence on the body, and render the individual more and more
+susceptible of them in proportion to the frequency of their prevalent
+recurrence; added to which causes of distinctive character are to be
+taken into account the differences of age and sex, which, though
+seemingly of more finite influence, cannot be banished from any human
+conception. David, ruddy and of a fair countenance, with the brook stone
+of deliverance in his hand, is not more ideal than David leaning on the
+old age of Barzillai, returning chastened to his kingly home. And they
+who are as the angels of God in heaven, yet cannot be conceived as so
+assimilated that their different experiences and affections upon earth
+shall then be forgotten and effectless: the child taken early to his
+place cannot be imagined to wear there such a body, nor to have such
+thoughts, as the glorified apostle who has finished his course and kept
+the faith on earth. And so whatever perfections and likeness of love we
+may attribute to either the tried or the crowned creatures, there is the
+difference of the stars in glory among them yet; differences of original
+gifts, though not of occupying till their Lord come, different
+dispensations of trial and of trust, of sorrow and support, both in
+their own inward, variable hearts, and in their positions of exposure or
+of peace, of the gourd shadow and the smiting sun, of calling at heat of
+day or eleventh hour, of the house unroofed by faith, and the clouds
+opened by revelation: differences in warning, in mercies, in sicknesses,
+in signs, in time of calling to account; like only they all are by that
+which is not of them, but the gift of God's unchangeable mercy. "I will
+give unto this last even as unto thee."
+
+
+Sec. 11. The _effects_ of the Adamite curse are to be distinguished from
+ signs of its immediate activity.
+
+Sec. 12. Which latter only are to be banished from ideal form.
+
+Hence, then, be it observed, that what we must determinedly banish from
+the human form and countenance in our seeking of its ideal, is not
+everything which can be ultimately traced to the Adamite fall for its
+cause, but only the immediate operation and presence of the degrading
+power or sin. For there is not any part of our feeling of nature, nor
+can there be through eternity, which shall not be in some way influenced
+and affected by the fall, and that not in any way of degradation, for
+the renewing in the divinity of Christ is a nobler condition than ever
+that of Paradise, and yet throughout eternity it must imply and refer to
+the disobedience, and the corrupt state of sin and death, and the
+suffering of Christ himself, which can we conceive of any redeemed soul
+as for an instant forgetting, or as remembering without sorrow? Neither
+are the alternations of joy and such sorrow as by us is inconceivable,
+being only as it were a softness and silence in the pulse of an infinite
+felicity, inconsistent with the state even of the unfallen, for the
+angels who rejoice over repentance cannot but feel an uncomprehended
+pain as they try and try again in vain, whether they may not warm hard
+hearts with the brooding of their kind wings. So that we have not to
+banish from the ideal countenance the evidences of sorrow, nor of past
+suffering, nor even of past and conquered sin, but only the immediate
+operation of any evil, or the immediate coldness and hollowness of any
+good emotion. And hence in that contest before noted, between the body
+and the soul, we may often have to indicate the body as far conquered
+and outworn, and with signs of hard struggle and bitter pain upon it,
+and yet without ever diminishing the purity of its ideal; and because it
+is not in the power of any human imagination to reason out or conceive
+the countless modifications of experience, suffering, and separated
+feeling, which have modelled and written their indelible images in
+various order upon every human countenance, so no right ideal can be
+reached by any combination of feature nor by any moulding and melting of
+individual beauties together, and still less without model or example
+conceived; but there is a perfect ideal to be wrought out of _every_
+face around us that has on its forehead the writing and the seal of the
+angel ascending from the East,[38] by the earnest study and penetration
+of the written history thereupon, and the banishing of the blots and
+stains, wherein we still see in all that is human, the visible and
+instant operation of unconquered sin.
+
+
+Sec. 13. Ideal form is only to be obtained by portraiture.
+
+Now I see not how any of the steps of the argument by which we have
+arrived at this conclusion can be evaded, and yet it would be difficult
+to state anything more directly opposite to the usual teaching and
+practice of artists. It is usual to hear portraiture opposed to the
+pursuit of ideality, and yet we find that no face can be ideal which is
+not a portrait. Of this general principle, however, there are certain
+modifications which we must presently state; let us first, however,
+pursue it a little farther, and deduce its practical consequences.
+
+
+Sec. 14. Instances among the greater of the ideal Masters.
+
+These are, first, that the pursuit of idealism in humanity, as of
+idealism in lower nature, can be successful only when followed through
+the most constant, patient, and humble rendering of actual models,
+accompanied with that earnest mental as well as ocular study of each,
+which can interpret all that is written upon it, disentangle the
+hieroglyphics of its sacred history, rend the veil of the bodily temple,
+and rightly measure the relations of good and evil contending within it
+for mastery,[39] that everything done without such study must be shallow
+and contemptible, that generalization or combination of individual
+character will end less in the mending than the losing of it, and,
+except in certain instances of which we shall presently take note, is
+valueless and vapid, even if it escape being painful from its want of
+truth, which in these days it often in some measure does, for we indeed
+find faces about us with want enough of life or wholesome character in
+them to justify anything. And that habit of the old and great painters
+of introducing portrait into all their highest works, I look to, not as
+error in them, but as the very source and root of their superiority in
+all things, for they were too great and too humble not to see in every
+face about them that which was above them, and which no fancies of
+theirs could match nor take place of, wherefore we find the custom of
+portraiture constant with them, both portraiture of study and for
+purposes of analysis, as with Leonardo; and actual, professed,
+serviceable, hardworking portraiture of the men of their time, as with
+Raffaelle, and Titian, and Tintoret; and portraiture of Love, as with
+Fra Bartolomeo of Savonarola, and Simon Memmi of Petrarch, and Giotto of
+Dante, and Gentile Bellini of a beloved imagination of Dandolo, and with
+Raffaelle constantly; and portraiture in real downright necessity of
+models, even in their noblest works, as was the practice of Ghirlandajo
+perpetually, and Masaccio and Raffaelle, and manifestly of the men of
+highest and purest ideal purpose, as again, Giotto, and in his
+characteristic monkish heads, Angelico, and John Bellini, (note
+especially the St. Christopher at the side of that mighty picture of St.
+Jerome, at Venice,) and so of all: which practice had indeed a perilous
+tendency for men of debased mind, who used models such as and where they
+ought not, as Lippi and the corrupted Raffaelle; and is found often at
+exceeding disadvantage among men who looked not at their models with
+intellectual or loving penetration, but took the outside of them, or
+perhaps took the evil and left the good, as Titian in that Academy study
+at Venice which is called a St. John, and all workers whatsoever that I
+know of, after Raffaelle's time, as Guido and the Caracci, and such
+others: but it is nevertheless the necessary and sterling basis of all
+ideal art, neither has any great man ever been able to do without it,
+nor dreamed of doing without it even to the close of his days.
+
+
+Sec. 15. Evil results of opposite practice in modern times.
+
+And therefore there is not any greater sign of the utter want of
+vitality and hopefulness in the schools of the present day than that
+unhappy prettiness and sameness under which they mask, or rather for
+which they barter, in their lentile thirst, all the birthright and power
+of nature, which prettiness, wrought out and spun fine in the study, out
+of empty heads, till it hardly betters the blocks on which dresses and
+hair are tried in barbers' windows and milliners' books, cannot but be
+revolting to any man who has his eyes, even in a measure, open to the
+divinity of the immortal seal on the common features that he meets in
+the highways and hedges hourly and momentarily, outreaching all efforts
+of conception as all power of realization, were it Raffaelle's three
+times over, even when the glory of the wedding garment is not there.
+
+
+Sec. 16. The right use of the model.
+
+So far, then, of the use of the model and the preciousness of it in all
+art, from the highest to the lowest. But the use of the model is not
+all. It must be used in a certain way, and on this choice of right or
+wrong way all our ends are at stake, for the art, which is of no power
+without the model, is of pernicious and evil power if the model be
+wrongly used. What the right use is, has been at least established, if
+not fully explained, in the argument by which we arrived at the general
+principle.
+
+The right ideal is to be reached, we have asserted, only by the
+banishment of the immediate signs of sin upon the countenance and body.
+How, therefore, are the signs of sin to be known and separated?
+
+
+Sec. 17. Ideal form to be reached only by love.
+
+No intellectual operation is here of any avail. There is not any
+reasoning by which the evidences of depravity are to be traced in
+movements of muscle or forms of feature; there is not any knowledge, nor
+experience, nor diligence of comparison that can be of avail. Here, as
+throughout the operation of the theoretic faculty, the perception is
+altogether moral, an instinctive love and clinging to the lines of
+light. Nothing but love can read the letters, nothing but sympathy catch
+the sound, there is no pure passion that can be understood or painted
+except by pureness of heart; the foul or blunt feeling will see itself
+in everything, and set down blasphemies; it will see Beelzebub in the
+casting out of devils, it will find its god of flies in every alabaster
+box of precious ointment. The indignation of zeal towards God (nemesis)
+it will take for anger against man, faith and veneration it will miss
+of, as not comprehending, charity it will turn into lust, compassion
+into pride, every virtue it will go over against, like Shimei, casting
+dust. But the right Christian mind will in like manner find its own
+image wherever it exists, it will seek for what it loves, and draw it
+out of all dens and caves, and it will believe in its being, often when
+it cannot see it, and always turn away its eyes from beholding vanity;
+and so it will lie lovingly over all the faults and rough places of the
+human heart, as the snow from heaven does over the hard, and black, and
+broken mountain rocks, following their forms truly, and yet catching
+light for them to make them fair, and that must be a steep and unkindly
+crag indeed which it cannot cover.
+
+
+Sec. 18. Practical principles deducible.
+
+Now of this spirit there will always be little enough in the world, and
+it cannot be given nor taught by men, and so it is of little use to
+insist on it farther, only I may note some practical points respecting
+the ideal treatment of human form, which may be of use in these
+thoughtless days. There is not the face, I have said, which the painter
+may not make ideal if he choose, but that subtile feeling which shall
+find out all of good that there is in any given countenance is not,
+except by concern for other things than art, to be acquired. But certain
+broad indications of evil there are which the bluntest feeling may
+perceive, and which the habit of distinguishing and casting out would
+both ennoble the schools of art, and lead in time to greater acuteness
+of perception with respect to the less explicable characters of soul
+beauty.
+
+
+Sec. 19. Expressions chiefly destructive of ideal character. 1st. Pride.
+
+Those signs of evil which are commonly most manifest on the human
+features are roughly divisible into these four kinds, the signs of
+pride, of sensuality, of fear, and of cruelty. Any one of which will
+destroy the ideal character of the countenance and body.
+
+
+Sec. 20. Portraiture ancient and modern.
+
+Now of these, the first, pride, is perhaps the most destructive of all
+the four, seeing it is the undermost and original story of all sin; and
+it is base also from the necessary foolishness of it, because at its
+best, that is when grounded on a just estimation of our own elevation
+or superiority above certain others, it cannot but imply that our eyes
+look downward only, and have never been raised above our own measure,
+for there is not the man so lofty in his standing nor capacity but he
+must be humble in thinking of the cloud habitation and far sight of the
+angelic intelligences above him, and in perceiving what infinity there
+is of things he cannot know nor even reach unto, as it stands compared
+with that little body of things he can reach, and of which nevertheless
+he can altogether understand not one; not to speak of that wicked and
+fond attributing of such excellency as he may have to himself, and
+thinking of it as his own getting, which is the real essence and
+criminality of pride, nor of those viler forms of it, founded on false
+estimation of things beneath us and irrational contemning of them: but
+taken at its best, it is still base to that degree that there is no
+grandeur of feature which it cannot destroy and make despicable, so that
+the first step towards the ennobling of any face is the ridding it of
+its vanity; to which aim there cannot be anything more contrary than
+that principle of portraiture which prevails with us in these days,
+whose end seems to be the expression of vanity throughout, in face and
+in all circumstances of accompaniment, tending constantly to insolence
+of attitude, and levity and haughtiness of expression, and worked out
+farther in mean accompaniments of worldly splendor and possession,
+together with hints or proclamations of what the person has done or
+supposes himself to have done, which, if known, it is gratuitous in the
+portrait to exhibit, and if unknown, it is insolent in the portrait to
+proclaim; whence has arisen such a school of portraiture as must make
+the people of the nineteenth century the shame of their descendants, and
+the butt of all time. To which practices are to be opposed both the
+glorious severity of Holbein, and the mighty and simple modesty of
+Raffaelle, Titian, Giorgione, and Tintoret, with whom armor does not
+constitute the warrior, neither silk the dame. And from what feeling the
+dignity of that portraiture arose is best traceable at Venice, where we
+find their victorious doges painted neither in the toil of battle nor
+the triumph of return, nor set forth with thrones and curtains of state,
+but kneeling always crownless, and returning thanks to God for his help,
+or as priests, interceding for the nation in its affliction. Which
+feeling and its results have been so well traced out by Rio,[40] that I
+need not speak of it farther.
+
+
+Sec. 21. Secondly, Sensuality.
+
+Sec. 22. How connected with impurity of color.
+
+Sec. 23. And prevented by its splendor.
+
+Sec. 24. Or by severity of drawing.
+
+That second destroyer of ideal form, the appearance of sensual
+character, though not less fatal in its operation on modern art, is more
+difficult to trace, owing to its peculiar subtlety. For it is not
+possible to say by what minute differences the right conception of the
+human form is separated from that which is luscious and foul: for the
+root of all is in the love and seeking of the painter, who, if of impure
+and feeble mind, will cover all that he touches with clay staining, as
+Bandinelli puts a foul scent of human flesh about his marble Christ, and
+as many whom I will not here name, among moderns; but if of mighty mind
+or pure, may pass through all places of foulness, and none will stay
+upon him, as Michael Angelo, or he will baptize all things and wash them
+with pure water, as our own Stothard. Now, so far as this power is
+dependent on the seeking of the artist, and is only to be seen in the
+work of good and spiritually-minded men, it is vain to attempt to teach
+or illustrate it, neither is it here the place to take note of the way
+in which it belongs to the representation of the mental image of things,
+instead of things themselves, of which we are to speak in treating of
+the imagination; but thus much may here be noted of broad, practical
+principle, that the purity of flesh painting depends in very
+considerable measure on the intensity and warmth of its color. For if it
+be opaque, and clay cold, and colorless, and devoid of all the radiance
+and value of flesh, the lines of its true beauty, being severe and firm,
+will become so hard in the loss of the glow and gradation by which
+nature illustrates them, that the painter will be compelled to sacrifice
+them for a luscious fulness and roundness, in order to give the
+conception of flesh; which, being done, destroys ideality of form as of
+color, and gives all over to lasciviousness of surface; showing also
+that the painter sought for this, and this only, since otherwise he had
+not taken a subject in which he knew himself compelled to surrender all
+sources of dignity. Whereas, right splendor of color both bears out a
+nobler severity of form, and is in itself purifying and cleansing, like
+fire, furnishing also to the painter an excuse for the choice of his
+subject, seeing that he may be supposed as not having painted it but in
+the admiration of its abstract glory of color and form, and with no
+unworthy seeking. But the mere power of perfect and glowing color will
+in some sort redeem even a debased tendency of mind itself, as eminently
+the case with Titian, who, though of little feeling, and often treating
+base subjects, or elevated subjects basely, as in the disgusting
+Magdalen of the Pitti palace, and that of the Barberigo at Venice, yet
+redeems all by his glory of hue, so that he cannot paint altogether
+coarsely; and with Giorgione, who had nobler and more serious intellect,
+the sense of nudity is utterly lost, and there is no need nor desire of
+concealment any more, but his naked figures move among the trees like
+fiery pillars, and lie on the grass like flakes of sunshine.[41] With
+the religious painters on the other hand, such nudity as they were
+compelled to treat is redeemed as much by severity of form and hardness
+of line as by color, so that generally their draped figures are
+preferable, as in the Francia of our own gallery. But these, with
+Michael Angelo and the Venetians, except Titian, form a great group,
+pure in sight and aim, between which and all other schools by which the
+nude has been treated, there is a gulf fixed, and all the rest, compared
+with them, seem striving how best to illustrate that of Spenser.
+
+ "Of all God's works, which doe this worlde adorn,
+ There is no one more faire, and excellent
+ Than is man's body both for power and forme
+ Whiles it is kept in sober government.
+ But none than it more foul and indecent
+ Distempered through misrule and passions bace."
+
+
+Sec. 25. Degrees of descent in this respect: Rubens, Correggio, and Guido.
+
+Sec. 26. And modern art.
+
+Of these last, however, with whom ideality is lost, there are some
+worthier than others, according to that measure of color they reach, and
+power they possess, whence much may be forgiven to Rubens, (as to our
+own Etty,) less, as I think, to Correggio, who with less apparent and
+evident coarseness has more of inherent sensuality, wrought out with
+attractive and luscious refinement, and that alike in all subjects, as
+in the Madonna of the Incoronazione, over the high altar of San Giovanni
+at Parma, of which the head and upper portion of the figure, now
+preserved in the library, might serve as a model of attitude and
+expression to a ballet figurante:[42] and again in the lascivious St.
+Catherine of the Giorno, and in the Charioted Diana, (both at Parma,)
+not to name any of his works of aim more definitely evil. Beneath which
+again will fall the works devoid alike of art and decency, as that
+Susannah of Guido, in our own gallery, and so we may descend to the
+absolute clay of the moderns, only noticing in all how much of what is
+evil and base in subject or tendency, is redeemed by what is pure and
+right in hue, so that I do not assert that the purpose and object of
+many of the grander painters of the nude, as Titian for instance, was
+always elevated, but only that we, who cannot paint the lamp of fire
+within the earthen pitcher, must take other weapons in our left hands.
+And it is to be noted, also, that in climates where the body can be more
+openly and frequently visited by sun and weather, the nude both comes to
+be regarded in a way more grand and pure, as necessarily awakening no
+ideas of base kind, (as pre-eminently with the Greeks,) and also from
+that exposure receives a firmness and sunny elasticity very different
+from the silky softness of the clothed nations of the north, where every
+model necessarily looks as if accidentally undressed; and hence from the
+very fear and doubt with which we approach the nude, it becomes
+expressive of evil, and for that daring frankness of the old men, which
+seldom missed of human grandeur, even when it failed of holy feeling, we
+have substituted a mean, carpeted, gauze-veiled, mincing sensuality of
+curls and crisping pins, out of which I believe nothing can come but
+moral enervation and mental paralysis.
+
+
+Sec. 27. Thirdly, ferocity and fear. The latter how to be distinguished
+ from awe.
+
+Sec. 28. Holy fear, how distinct from human terror.
+
+Sec. 29. Ferocity is joined always with fear. Its unpardonableness.
+
+Respecting those two other vices of the human face, the expressions of
+fear and ferocity, there is less to be noted, as they only occasionally
+enter into the conception of character; only it is most necessary to
+make careful distinction between the conception of power,
+destructiveness, or majesty, in matter, influence, or agent, and the
+actual fear of any of these, for it is possible to conceive of
+terribleness, without being in a position obnoxious to the danger of it,
+and so without fear, and the feeling arising from this contemplation of
+dreadfulness, ourselves being in safety, as of a stormy sea from the
+shore, is properly termed awe, and is a most noble passion; whereas fear
+mortal and extreme, may be felt respecting things ignoble, as the
+falling from a window, and without any conception of terribleness or
+majesty in the thing, or the accident dreaded; and even when fear is
+felt respecting things sublime, as thunder, or storm of battle, yet the
+tendency of it is to destroy all power of contemplation of their
+majesty, and to freeze and shrink all the intellect into a shaking heap
+of clay, for absolute acute fear is of the same unworthiness and
+contempt from whatever source it arise, and degrades the mind and the
+outward bearing of the body alike, even though it be among hail of
+heaven and fire running along the ground. And so among the children of
+God, while there is always that fearful and bowed apprehension of his
+majesty, and that sacred dread of all offence to him, which is called
+the fear of God, yet of real and essential fear there is not any but
+clinging of confidence to him, as their Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer,
+and perfect love, and casting out of fear, so that it is not possible
+that while the mind is rightly bent on him, there should be dread of
+anything either earthly or supernatural, and the more dreadful seems the
+height of his majesty, the less fear they feel that dwell in the shadow
+of it, ("Of whom shall I be afraid?") so that they are as David was,
+devoted to his fear; whereas, on the other hand, those who, if they may
+help it, never conceive of God, but thrust away all thought and memory
+of him, and in his real terribleness and omnipresence fear him not nor
+know him, yet are of real, acute, piercing, and ignoble fear, haunted
+for evermore; fear inconceiving and desperate that calls to the rocks,
+and hides in the dust; and hence the peculiar baseness of the expression
+of terror, a baseness attributed to it in all times, and among all
+nations, as of a passion atheistical, brutal, and profane. So also, it
+is always joined with ferocity, which is of all passions the least
+human; for of sensual desires there is license to men, as necessity; and
+of vanity there is intellectual cause, so that when seen in a brute it
+is pleasant and a sign of good wit; and of fear there is at times
+necessity and excuse, as being allowed for prevention of harm; but of
+ferocity there is no excuse nor palliation, but it is pure essence of
+tiger and demon, and it casts on the human face the paleness alike of
+the horse of Death, and the ashes of hell.
+
+
+Sec. 30. Such expressions how sought by painters powerless and impious.
+
+Wherefore, of all subjects that can be admitted to sight, the
+expressions of fear and ferocity are the most foul and detestable, and
+so there is in them I know not what sympathetic attractiveness for minds
+cowardly and base, as the vulgar of most nations, and forasmuch as they
+are easily rendered by men who can render nothing else, they are often
+trusted in by the herd of painters incapable and profane, as in that
+monstrous abortion of the first room of the Louvre, called the Deluge,
+whose subject is pure, acute, mortal fear; and so generally the
+senseless horrors of the modern French schools, spawn of the guillotine:
+also there is not a greater test of grandeur or meanness of mind than
+the expressions it will seek for and develop in the features and forms
+of men in fierce strife, whether determination and devotion, and all the
+other attributes of that unselfishness which constitutes heroism, as in
+the warrior of Agasias; and distress not agitated nor unworthy, though
+mortal, as in the Dying Gladiator, or brutal ferocity and butchered
+agony, of which the lowest and least palliated examples are those
+battles of Salvator Rosa, which none but a man, base-born and
+thief-bred, could have dwelt upon for an instant without sickening, of
+which I will only name that example in the Pitti palace, wherein the
+chief figure in the foreground is a man with his arm cut off at the
+shoulder, run through the other hand into the breast with a lance.[43]
+And manifold instances of the same feeling are to be found in the
+repainting of the various representations of the Inferno, so common
+through Italy, more especially that of Orcagna's in the Campo Santo,
+wherein the few figures near the top that yet remain untouched are grand
+in their severe drawing and expressions of enduring despair, while those
+below, repainted by Solazzino, depend for their expressiveness upon
+torrents of blood; so in the Inferno of Santa Maria Novella, and of the
+Arena chapel, not to speak of the horrible images of the Passion, by
+which vulgar Romanism has always striven to excite the languid
+sympathies of its untaught flocks. Of which foulness let us reason no
+farther, the very image and memory of them being pollution, only
+noticing this, that there has always been a morbid tendency in Romanism
+towards the contemplation of bodily pain, owing to the attribution of
+saving power to it, which, like every other moral error, has been of
+fatal effect in art, leaving not altogether without the stain and blame
+of it, even the highest of the pure Romanist painters; as Fra Angelico,
+for instance, who, in his Passion subjects, always insists weakly on the
+bodily torture, and is unsparing of blood; and Giotto, though his
+treatment is usually grander, as in that Crucifixion over the door of
+the Convent of St. Mark's, where the blood is hardly actual, but issues
+from the feet in a typical and conventional form, and becomes a crimson
+cord which is twined strangely beneath about a skull; only that which
+these holy men did to enhance, even though in their means mistaken, the
+impression and power of the sufferings of Christ, or of his saints, is
+always in a measure noble, and to be distinguished with all reverence
+from the abominations of the irreligious painters following, as of
+Camillo Procaccini, in one of his martyrdoms in the Gallery of the
+Brera, at Milan, and other such, whose names may be well spared to the
+reader.
+
+
+Sec. 31. Of passion generally.
+
+Sec. 32. It is never to be for itself exhibited--at least on the face.
+
+These, then, are the four passions whose presence in any degree on the
+human face is degradation. But of all passion it is to be generally
+observed, that it becomes ignoble either when entertained respecting
+unworthy objects, and therefore shallow or unjustifiable, or when of
+impious violence, and so destructive of human dignity. Thus grief is
+noble or the reverse, according to the dignity and worthiness of the
+object lamented, and the grandeur of the mind enduring it. The sorrow of
+mortified vanity or avarice is simply disgusting, even that of bereaved
+affection may be base if selfish and unrestrained. All grief that
+convulses the features is ignoble, because it is commonly shallow and
+certainly temporary, as in children, though in the shock and shiver of a
+strong man's features under sudden and violent grief there may be
+something of sublime. The grief of Guercino's Hagar, in the Brera
+gallery at Milan, is partly despicable, partly disgusting, partly
+ridiculous; it is not the grief of the injured Egyptian, driven forth
+into the desert with the destiny of a nation in her heart, but of a
+servant of all work, turned away for stealing tea and sugar. Common
+painters forget that passion is not absolutely and in itself great or
+violent, but only in proportion to the weakness of the mind it has to
+deal with; and that in exaggerating its outward signs, they are not
+exalting the passion, but evaporating the hero.[44] They think too much
+of passions as always the same in their nature, forgetting that the love
+of Achilles is different from the love of Paris, and of Alcestis from
+that of Laodamia. The use and value of passion is not as a subject in
+contemplation in itself, but as it breaks up the fountains of the great
+deep of the human mind, or displays its mightiness and ribbed majesty,
+as mountains are seen in their stability best among the coil of clouds;
+whence, in fine, I think it is to be held that all passion which attains
+overwhelming power, so that it is not as resisting, but as conquered,
+that the creature is contemplated, is unfit for high art, and
+destructive of the ideal character of the countenance: and in this
+respect, I cannot but hold Raffaelle to have erred in his endeavor to
+express passion of such acuteness in the human face; as in the fragment
+of the Massacre of the Innocents in our own gallery, (wherein, repainted
+though it be, I suppose the purpose of the master is yet to be
+understood,) for if such subjects are to be represented at all, their
+entire expression may be given without degrading the face, as we shall
+presently see done with unspeakable power by Tintoret,[45] and I think
+that all subjects of the kind, all human misery, slaughter, famine,
+plague, peril, and crime, are better in the main avoided, as of
+unprofitable and hardening influence, unless so far as out of the
+suffering, hinted rather than expressed, we may raise into nobler relief
+the eternal enduring of fortitude and affection, of mercy and
+self-devotion, or when, as by the threshing-floor of Ornan, and by the
+cave of Lazarus, the angel of the Lord is to be seen in the
+chastisement, and his love to be manifested to the despair of men.
+
+
+Sec. 33. Recapitulation
+
+Thus, then, we have in some sort enumerated those evil signs which are
+most necessary to be shunned in the seeking of ideal beauty,[46] though
+it is not the knowledge of them, but the dread and hatred of them, which
+will effectually aid the painter; as on the other hand it is not by mere
+admission of the loveliness of good and holy expression that its subtile
+characters are to be traced. Raffaelle himself, questioned on this
+subject, made doubtful answer; he probably could not trace through what
+early teaching, or by what dies of emotion the image had been sealed
+upon his heart. Our own Bacon, who well saw the impossibility of
+reaching it by the combination of many separate beauties, yet explains
+not the nature of that "kind of felicity" to which he attributes
+success. I suppose those who have conceived and wrought the loveliest
+things, have done so by no theorizing, but in simple labor of love, and
+could not, if put to a bar of rationalism, defend all points of what
+they had done, but painted it in their own delight, and to the delight
+of all besides, only always with that respect of conscience and "fear of
+swerving from that which is right, which maketh diligent observers of
+circumstances the loose regard whereof is the nurse of vulgar folly, no
+less than Solomon's attention thereunto was of natural furtherances the
+most effectual to make him eminent above others, for he gave good heed,
+and pierced everything to the very ground."[47]
+
+With which good heed, and watching of the instants when men feel warmly
+and rightly, as the Indians do for the diamond in their washing of sand,
+and that with the desire and hope of finding true good in men, and not
+with the ready vanity that sets itself to fiction instantly, and carries
+its potter's wheel about with it always, (off which there will come only
+clay vessels of regular shape after all,) instead of the pure
+mirror that can show the seraph standing by the human body--standing as
+signal to the heavenly land:[48] with this heed and this charity, there
+are none of us that may not bring down that lamp upon his path of which
+Spenser sang:--
+
+ "That beauty is not, as fond men misdeem
+ An outward show of things, that only seem;
+ But that fair lamp, from whose celestial ray
+ That light proceeds, which kindleth lover's fire,
+ Shall never be extinguished nor decay.
+ But when the vital spirits do expire,
+ Unto her native planet shall retire,
+ For it is heavenly born and cannot die,
+ Being a parcel of the purest sky."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [38] Rev. vii. 2.
+
+ [39] Compare Part II. Sec. I. Chap. III Sec. 6.
+
+ [40] De la Poesie Chretienne. Forme de l'Art. Chap. VIII.
+
+ [41] As in the noble Louvre picture.
+
+ [42] The Madonna turns her back to Christ, and bends her head over
+ her shoulder to receive the crown, the arms being folded with
+ studied grace over the bosom.
+
+ [43] Compare Michelet, (Du Pretre, de la Femme, de la Famille,)
+ Chap. III. note. He uses language too violent to be quoted; but
+ excuses Salvator by reference to the savage character of the Thirty
+ Years' War. That this excuse has no validity may be proved by
+ comparing the painter's treatment of other subjects. See Sec. II.
+ Chap. III. Sec. 19, note.
+
+ [44] "The fire, that mounts the liquor, till it run o'er
+ In seeming to augment it, wastes it."
+
+ HENRY VIII.
+
+ [45] Sect. II. Chap. III. Sec. 22.
+
+ [46] Let it be observed that it is always of beauty, not of human
+ character in its lower and criminal modifications, that we have been
+ speaking. That variety of character, therefore, which we have
+ affirmed to be necessary, is the variety of Giotto and Angelico, not
+ of Hogarth. Works concerned with the exhibition of general
+ character, are to be spoken of in the consideration of Ideas of
+ Relation.
+
+ [47] Hooker, Book V. Chap. I. Sec. 2.
+
+ [48] "Each corse lay flat, lifeless and flat,
+ And by the holy rood,
+ A man all light, a seraph man
+ By every corse there stood.
+ This seraph band, each waved his hand,
+ It was a heavenly sight;
+ They stood as signals to the land,
+ Each one a lovely light."
+
+ ANCIENT MARINER
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+
+ GENERAL CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING THE THEORETIC FACULTY.
+
+
+Sec. 1. There are no sources of the emotion of beauty more than those found
+ in things visible.
+
+Sec. 2. What imperfection exists in visible things. How in a sort by
+ imagination removable.
+
+Sec. 3. Which however affects not our present conclusions.
+
+Of the sources of beauty open to us in the visible world, we have now
+obtained a view which, though most feeble in its grasp and scanty in its
+detail, is yet general in its range. Of no other sources than these
+visible can we, by any effort in our present condition of existence,
+conceive. For what revelations have been made to humanity inspired, or
+caught up to heaven of things to the heavenly region belonging, have
+been either by unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to
+utter, or else by their very nature incommunicable, except in types and
+shadows; and ineffable by words belonging to earth, for of things
+different from the visible, words appropriated to the visible can convey
+no image. How different from earthly gold that clear pavement of the
+city might have seemed to the eyes of St. John, we of unreceived sight
+cannot know; neither of that strange jasper and sardine can we conceive
+the likeness which he assumed that sat on the throne above the crystal
+sea; neither what seeming that was of slaying that the Root of David
+bore in the midst of the elders; neither what change it was upon the
+form of the fourth of them that walked in the furnace of Dura, that even
+the wrath of idolatry knew for the likeness of the Son of God. The
+knowing that is here permitted to us is either of things outward only,
+as in those it is whose eyes faith never opened, or else of that dark
+part that her glass shows feebly, of things supernatural, that gleaming
+of the Divine form among the mortal crowd, which all may catch if they
+will climb the sycamore and wait; nor how much of God's abiding at the
+house may be granted to those that so seek, and how much more may be
+opened to them in the breaking of bread, cannot be said; but of that
+only we can reason which is in a measure revealed to all, of that which
+is by constancy and purity of affection to be found in the things and
+the beings around us upon earth. Now among all those things whose beauty
+we have hitherto examined, there has been a measure of imperfection.
+Either inferiority of kind, as the beauty of the lower animals, or
+resulting from degradation, as in man himself; and although in
+considering the beauty of human form, we arrived at some conception of
+restoration, yet we found that even the restoration must be in some
+respect imperfect, as incapable of embracing all qualities, moral and
+intellectual, at once, neither to be freed from all signs of former evil
+done or suffered. Consummate beauty, therefore, is not to be found on
+earth, though often such intense measure of it as shall drown all
+capacity of receiving; neither is it to be respecting humanity
+legitimately conceived. But by certain operations of the imagination
+upon ideas of beauty received from things around us, it is possible to
+conceive respecting superhuman creatures (of that which is more than
+creature, no creature ever conceived) a beauty in some sort greater than
+we see. Of this beauty, however, it is impossible to determine anything
+until we have traced the imaginative operations to which it owes its
+being, of which operations this much may be prematurely said, that they
+are not creative, that no new ideas are elicited by them, and that their
+whole function is only a certain dealing with, concentrating or mode of
+regarding the impressions received from external things, that therefore,
+in the beauty to which they will conduct us, there will be found no new
+element, but only a peculiar combination or phase of those elements that
+we now know, and that therefore we may at present draw all the
+conclusions with respect to the rank of the theoretic faculty, which the
+knowledge of its subject matter can warrant.
+
+
+Sec. 4. The four sources from which the pleasure of beauty is derived are
+ all divine.
+
+We have seen that this subject matter is referable to four general
+heads. It is either the record of conscience, printed in things
+external, or it is a symbolizing of Divine attributes in matter, or it
+is the felicity of living things, or the perfect fulfilment of their
+duties and functions. In all cases it is something Divine, either the
+approving voice of God, the glorious symbol of him, the evidence of his
+kind presence, or the obedience to his will by him induced and
+supported.
+
+All these subjects of contemplation are such as we may suppose will
+remain sources of pleasure to the perfected spirit throughout eternity.
+Divine in their nature, they are addressed to the immortal part of men.
+
+
+Sec. 5. What objections may be made to this conclusion.
+
+There remain, however, two points to be noticed before I can hope that
+this conclusion will be frankly accepted by the reader. If it be the
+moral part of us to which beauty addresses itself, how does it happen,
+it will be asked, that it is ever found in the works of impious men, and
+how is it possible for such to desire or conceive it?
+
+On the other hand, how does it happen that men in high state of moral
+culture are often insensible to the influence of material beauty, and
+insist feebly upon it as an instrument of soul culture.
+
+These two objections I shall endeavor briefly to answer, not that they
+can be satisfactorily treated without that detailed examination of the
+whole body of great works of art, on which I purpose to enter in the
+following volume. For the right determination of these two questions is
+indeed the whole end and aim of my labor, (and if it could be here
+accomplished, I should bestow no effort farther,) namely, the proving
+that no supreme power of art can be attained by impious men; and that
+the neglect of art, as an interpreter of divine things, has been of evil
+consequence to the Christian world.
+
+At present, however, I would only meet such objections as must
+immediately arise in the reader's mind.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Typical beauty may be aesthetically pursued. Instances.
+
+Sec. 7. How interrupted by false feeling.
+
+And first, it will be remembered that I have, throughout the examination
+of typical beauty, asserted its instinctive power, the moral meaning of
+it being only discoverable by faithful thought. Now this instinctive
+sense of it varies in intensity among men, being given, like the hearing
+ear of music, to some more than to others: and if those to whom it is
+given in large measure be unfortunately men of impious or unreflecting
+spirit, it is very possible that the perceptions of beauty should be by
+them cultivated on principles merely aesthetic, and so lose their
+hallowing power; for though the good seed in them is altogether divine,
+yet, there being no blessing in the springing thereof, it brings forth
+wild grapes in the end. And yet these wild grapes are well discernible,
+like the deadly gourds of Gilgal. There is in all works of such men a
+taint and stain, and jarring discord, blacker and louder exactly in
+proportion to the moral deficiency, of which the best proof and measure
+is to be found in their treatment of the human form, (since in landscape
+it is nearly impossible to introduce definite expression of evil,) of
+which the highest beauty has been attained only once, and then by no
+system taught painter, but by a most holy Dominican monk of Fiesole; and
+beneath him all stoop lower and lower in proportion to their inferior
+sanctity, though with more or less attainment of that which is noble,
+according to their intellectual power and earnestness, as Raffaelle in
+his St. Cecilia, (a mere study of a passionate, dark-eyed, large formed
+Italian model,) and even Perugino, in that there is about his noblest
+faces a shortcoming, indefinable; an absence of the full outpouring of
+the sacred spirit that there is in Angelico; traceable, I doubt not, to
+some deficiencies and avaricious flaws of his heart, whose consequences
+in his conduct were such as to give Vasari hope that his lies might
+stick to him (for the contradiction of which in the main, if there be
+not contradiction enough in every line that the hand of Perugino drew,
+compare Rio, de la Poesie Chretienne, and note also what Rio has
+singularly missed observing, that Perugino, in his portrait of himself
+in the Florence gallery, has put a scroll into the hand, with the words
+"Timete Deum," thus surely indicating that which he considered his duty
+and message:) and so all other even of the sacred painters, not to speak
+of the lower body of men in whom, on the one hand, there is marked
+sensuality and impurity in all that they seek of beauty, as in
+Correggio and Guido, or, on the other, a want in measure of the sense of
+beauty itself, as in Rubens and Titian, showing itself in the adoption
+of coarse types of feature and form; sometimes also (of which I could
+find instances in modern times,) in a want of evidence of delight in
+what they do; so that, after they have rendered some passage of
+exceeding beauty, they will suffer some discordant point to interfere
+with it, and it will not hurt them, as if they had no pleasure in that
+which was best, but had done it in inspiration that was not profitable
+to them, as deaf men might touch an instrument with a feeling in their
+heart, which yet returns not outwardly upon them, and so know not when
+they play false: and sometimes by total want of choice, for there is a
+choice of love in all rightly tempered men, not that ignorant and
+insolent choice which rejects half nature as empty of the right, but
+that pure choice that fetches the right out of everything; and where
+this is wanting, we may see men walking up and down in dry places,
+finding no rest, ever and anon doing something noble, and yet not
+following it up, but dwelling the next instant on something impure or
+profitless with the same intensity and yet impatience, so that they are
+ever wondered at and never sympathized with, and while they dazzle all,
+they lead none; and then, beneath these again, we find others on whose
+works there are definite signs of evil mind, ill-repressed, and then
+inability to avoid, and at last perpetual seeking for and feeding upon
+horror and ugliness, and filthiness of sin, as eminently in Salvator and
+Caravaggio, and the lower Dutch schools, only in these last less
+painfully as they lose the villanous in the brutal, and the horror of
+crime in its idiocy.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Greatness and truth are sometimes by the Deity sustained and spoken
+ in and through evil men.
+
+But secondly, it is to be noted that it is neither by us uncertainable
+what moments of pure feeling or aspiration may occur to men of minds
+apparently cold and lost, nor by us to be pronounced through what
+instruments, and in what strangely occurrent voices, God may choose to
+communicate good to men. It seems to me that much of what is great, and
+to all men beneficial, has been wrought by those who neither intended
+nor knew the good they did, and that many mighty harmonies have been
+discoursed by instruments that had been dumb or discordant, but that
+God knew their stops. The Spirit of Prophecy consisted with the avarice
+of Balaam, and the disobedience of Saul. Could we spare from its page
+that parable, which he said, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling
+into a trance, but having his eyes open, though we know that the sword
+of his punishment was then sharp in its sheath beneath him in the plains
+of Moab? or shall we not lament with David over the shield cast away on
+the Gilboa mountains, of him to whom God gave _another heart_ that day
+when he turned his back to go from Samuel? It is not our part to look
+hardly, nor to look always, to the character or the deeds of men, but to
+accept from all of them, and to hold fast that which we can prove good,
+and feel to be ordained for us. We know that whatever good there is in
+them is itself divine, and wherever we see the virtue of ardent labor
+and self-surrendering to a single purpose, wherever we find constant
+reference made to the written scripture of natural beauty, this at least
+we know is great and good, this we know is not granted by the counsel of
+God, without purpose, nor maintained without result: Their
+interpretation we may accept, into their labor we may enter, but they
+themselves must look to it, if what they do has no intent of good, nor
+any reference to the Giver of all gifts. Selfish in their industry,
+unchastened in their wills, ungrateful for the Spirit that is upon them,
+they may yet be helmed by that Spirit whithersoever the Governor
+listeth; involuntary instruments they may become of others' good;
+unwillingly they may bless Israel, doubtingly discomfit Amalek, but
+shortcoming there will be of their glory, and sure, of their punishment.
+
+
+Sec. 9. The second objection arising from the coldness of Christian men to
+ external beauty.
+
+I believe I shall be able, incidentally, in succeeding investigations,
+to prove this shortcoming, and to examine the sources of it, not
+absolutely indeed, (seeing that all reasoning on the characters of men
+must be treacherous, our knowledge on this head being as corrupt as it
+is scanty, while even in living with them it is impossible to trace the
+working, or estimate the errors of great and self-secreted minds,) but
+at least enough to establish the general principle upon such grounds of
+fact as may satisfy those who demand the practical proof (often in a
+measure impossible) of things which can hardly be doubted in their
+rational consequence. At present, it would be useless to enter on an
+examination for which we have no materials; and I proceed, therefore, to
+notice that other and opposite error of Christian men in thinking that
+there is little use or value in the operation of the theoretic faculty,
+not that I at present either feel myself capable, or that this is the
+place for the discussion of that vast question of the operation of taste
+(as it is called) on the minds of men, and the national value of its
+teaching, but I wish shortly to reply to that objection which might be
+urged to the real moral dignity of the faculty, that many Christian men
+seem to be in themselves without it, and even to discountenance it in
+others.
+
+It has been said by Schiller, in his letters on aesthetic culture, that
+the sense of beauty never farthered the performance of a single duty.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Reasons for this coldness in the anxieties of the world. These
+ anxieties overwrought and criminal.
+
+Sec. 11. Evil consequences of such coldness.
+
+Sec. 12. Theoria the service of Heaven.
+
+Although this gross and inconceivable falsity will hardly be accepted by
+any one in so many terms, seeing that there are few so utterly lost but
+that they receive, and know that they receive, at certain moments,
+strength of some kind, or rebuke from the appealings of outward things;
+and that it is not possible for a Christian man to walk across so much
+as a rood of the natural earth, with mind unagitated and rightly poised,
+without receiving strength and hope from some stone, flower, leaf, or
+sound, nor without a sense of a dew falling upon him out of the sky;
+though, I say, this falsity is not wholly and in terms admitted, yet it
+seems to be partly and practically so in much of the doing and teaching
+even of holy men, who in the recommending of the love of God to us,
+refer but seldom to those things in which it is most abundantly and
+immediately shown; though they insist much on his giving of bread, and
+raiment, and health, (which he gives to all inferior creatures,) they
+require us not to thank him for that glory of his works which he has
+permitted us alone to perceive: they tell us often to meditate in the
+closet, but they send us not, like Isaac, into the fields at even, they
+dwell on the duty of self-denial, but they exhibit not the duty of
+delight. Now there are reasons for this, manifold, in the toil and
+warfare of an earnest mind, which, in its efforts at the raising of men
+from utter loss and misery, has often but little time or disposition to
+take heed of anything more than the bare life, and of those so occupied
+it is not for us to judge, but I think, that, of the weaknesses,
+distresses, vanities, schisms, and sins, which often even in the holiest
+men, diminish their usefulness, and mar their happiness, there would be
+fewer if, in their struggle with nature fallen, they sought for more aid
+from nature undestroyed. It seems to me that the real sources of
+bluntness in the feelings towards the splendor of the grass and glory of
+the flower, are less to be found in ardor of occupation, in seriousness
+of compassion, or heavenliness of desire, than in the turning of the eye
+at intervals of rest too selfishly within; the want of power to shake
+off the anxieties of actual and near interest, and to leave results in
+God's hands; the scorn of all that does not seem immediately apt for our
+purposes, or open to our understanding, and perhaps something of pride,
+which desires rather to investigate than to feel. I believe that the
+root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian church
+has ever suffered, has been the effort of men to earn, rather than to
+receive, their salvation; and that the reason that preaching is so
+commonly ineffectual is, that it calls on men oftener to work for God,
+than to behold God working for them. If, for every rebuke that we utter
+of men's vices, we put forth a claim upon their hearts; if for every
+assertion of God's demands from them, we could substitute a display of
+his kindness to them; if side by side with every warning of death, we
+could exhibit proofs and promises of immortality; if, in fine, instead
+of assuming the being of an awful Deity, which men, though they cannot
+and dare not deny, are always unwilling, sometimes unable, to conceive,
+we were to show them a near, visible, inevitable, but all beneficent
+Deity, whose presence makes the earth itself a heaven, I think there
+would be fewer deaf children sitting in the market-place. At all events,
+whatever may be the inability in this present life to mingle the full
+enjoyment of the Divine works with the full discharge of every practical
+duty, and confessedly in many cases this must be, let us not attribute
+the inconsistency to any indignity of the faculty of contemplation, but
+to the sin and the suffering of the fallen state, and the change of
+order from the keeping of the garden to the tilling of the ground. We
+cannot say how far it is right or agreeable with God's will, while men
+are perishing round about us, while grief, and pain, and wrath, and
+impiety, and death, and all the powers of the air, are working wildly
+and evermore, and the cry of blood going up to heaven, that any of us
+should take hand from the plough; but this we know, that there will come
+a time when the service of God shall be the beholding of him; and
+though in these stormy seas, where we are now driven up and down, his
+Spirit is dimly seen on the face of the waters, and we are left to cast
+anchors out of the stern, and wish for the day, that day will come,
+when, with the evangelists on the crystal and stable sea, all the
+creatures of God shall be full of eyes within, and there shall be "no
+more curse, but his servants shall serve him, and shall see his face."
+
+
+
+
+ SECTION II.
+
+ OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ OF THE THREE FORMS OF IMAGINATION.
+
+
+Sec. 1. A partial examination only of the imagination is to be attempted.
+
+We have hitherto been exclusively occupied with those sources of
+pleasure which exist in the external creation, and which in any faithful
+copy of it must to a certain extent exist also.
+
+These sources of beauty, however, are not presented by any very great
+work of art in a form of pure transcript. They invariably receive the
+reflection of the mind under whose shadow they have passed, and are
+modified or colored by its image.
+
+This modification is the Work of Imagination.
+
+As, in the course of our succeeding investigation, we shall be called
+upon constantly to compare sources of beauty existing in nature with the
+images of them presented by the human mind, it is very necessary for us
+shortly to review the conditions and limits of the imaginative faculty,
+and to ascertain by what tests we may distinguish its sane, healthy, and
+profitable operation, from that which is erratic, diseased, and
+dangerous.
+
+It is neither desirable nor possible here to examine or illustrate in
+full the essence of this mighty faculty. Such an examination would
+require a review of the whole field of literature, and would alone
+demand a volume. Our present task is not to explain or exhibit full
+portraiture of this function of the mind in all its relations, but only
+to obtain some certain tests by which we may determine whether it be
+very imagination or no, and unmask all impersonations of it, and this
+chiefly with respect to art, for in literature the faculty takes a
+thousand forms, according to the matter it has to treat, and becomes
+like the princess of the Arabian tale, sword, eagle, or fire, according
+to the war it wages, sometimes piercing, sometimes soaring, sometimes
+illumining, retaining no image of itself, except its supernatural power,
+so that I shall content myself with tracing that particular form of it,
+and unveiling those imitations of it only, which are to be found, or
+feared, in painting, referring to other creations of mind only for
+illustration.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The works of the metaphysicians how nugatory with respect to this
+ faculty.
+
+Unfortunately, the works of metaphysicians will afford us in this most
+interesting inquiry no aid whatsoever. They who are constantly
+endeavoring to fathom and explain the essence of the faculties of mind,
+are sure in the end to lose sight of all that cannot be explained,
+(though it may be defined and felt,) and because, as I shall presently
+show, the essence of the imaginative faculty is utterly mysterious and
+inexplicable, and to be recognized in its results only, or in the
+negative results of its absence, the metaphysicians, as far as I am
+acquainted with their works, miss it altogether, and never reach higher
+than a definition of fancy by a false name.
+
+What I understand by fancy will presently appear, not that I contend for
+nomenclature, but only for distinction between two mental faculties, by
+whatever name they be called, one the source of all that is great in the
+poetic arts; the other merely decorative and entertaining, but which are
+often confounded together, and which have so much in common as to render
+strict definition of either difficult.
+
+
+Sec. 3. The definition of D. Stewart, how inadequate.
+
+Dugald Stewart's meagre definition may serve us for a starting point.
+"Imagination," he says, "includes conception or simple apprehension,
+which enables us to form a notion of those former objects of perception
+or of knowledge, out of which we are to make a selection; abstraction,
+which separates the selected materials from the qualities and
+circumstances which are connected with them in nature; and judgment or
+taste, which selects the materials and directs their combination. To
+these powers we may add that particular habit of association to which I
+formerly gave the name of fancy, as it is this which presents to our
+choice all the different materials which are subservient to the efforts
+of imagination, and which may therefore be considered as forming the
+ground-work of poetical genius."
+
+(By fancy in this passage, we find on referring to the chapter treating
+of it, that nothing more is meant than the rapid occurrence of ideas of
+sense to the mind.)
+
+Now, in this definition, the very point and purpose of all the inquiry
+is missed. We are told that judgment or taste "directs the combination."
+In order that anything may be directed, an end must be previously
+determined: What is the faculty that determines this end? and of what
+frame and make, how boned and fleshed, how conceived or seen, is the end
+itself? Bare judgment, or taste, cannot approve of what has no
+existence; and yet by Dugald Stewart's definition we are left to their
+catering among a host of conceptions, to produce a combination which, as
+they work for, they must see and approve before it exists. This power of
+prophecy is the very essence of the whole matter, and it is just that
+inexplicable part which the metaphysician misses.
+
+
+Sec. 4. This instance nugatory.
+
+As might be expected from his misunderstanding of the faculty, he has
+given an instance entirely nugatory.[49] It would be difficult to find
+in Milton a passage in which less power of imagination was shown, than
+the description of Eden, if, as I suppose, this be the passage meant, at
+the beginning of the fourth book, in which I can find three expressions
+only in which this power is shown, the "_burnished_ with golden rind,
+hung amiable" of the Hesperian fruit, the "_lays forth_ her purple
+grape" of the vine and the "_fringed_ bank with myrtle crowned," of the
+lake, and these are not what Stewart meant, but only that accumulation
+of bowers, groves, lawns, and hillocks, which is not imagination at all,
+but composition, and that of the commonest kind. Hence, if we take any
+passage in which there is real imagination, we shall find Stewart's
+hypothesis not only inefficient and obscure, but utterly inapplicable.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Various instances.
+
+Take one or two at random.
+
+ "On the other side,
+ Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
+ Unterrified, and like a comet burned
+ That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
+ In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
+ Shakes pestilence and war."
+
+(Note that the word incensed is to be taken in its literal and material
+sense, set on fire.) What taste or judgment was it that directed this
+combination? or is there nothing more than taste or judgment here?
+
+ "Ten paces huge
+ He back recoiled; the tenth on bended knee
+ His massy spear upstaid, as if on earth
+ Winds under ground, or waters forcing way
+ _Sidelong had pushed a mountain from his seat
+ Half-sunk with all his pines._
+
+ "Together both ere the high lawns appeared
+ _Under the opening eyelids_ of the morn,
+ We drove a field, and both together heard
+ What time the gray-fly winds her _sultry_ horn.
+
+ "Missing thee, I walk unseen
+ On the dry smooth shaven green.
+ To behold the wandering moon
+ Riding near her highest noon,
+ _Like one that had been led astray_,
+ Through the heavens' wide pathless way,
+ And oft _as if her head she bowed_
+ Stooping through a fleecy cloud."
+
+It is evident that Stewart's explanation utterly fails in all these
+instances, for there is in them no "combination" whatsoever, but a
+particular mode of regarding the qualities or appearances of a single
+thing, illustrated and conveyed to us by the image of another; and the
+act of imagination, observe, is not the selection of this image, but the
+mode of regarding the object.
+
+But the metaphysician's definition fails yet more utterly, when we look
+at the imagination neither as regarding, nor combining, but as
+penetrating.
+
+ "My gracious Silence, Hail:
+ Wouldst thou have laughed, had I come coffin'd home
+ That weep'st to see me triumph. Ah! my dear,
+ Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear,
+ And mothers that lack sons."
+
+How did Shakspeare _know_ that Virgilia could not speak?
+
+This knowledge, this intuitive and penetrative perception, is still one
+of the forms, the highest, of imagination, but there is no combination
+of images here.
+
+
+Sec. 6. The three operations of the imagination. Penetrative, associative,
+ contemplative.
+
+We find, then, that the imagination has three totally distinct
+functions. It combines, and by combination creates new forms; but the
+secret principle of this combination has not been shown by the analysts.
+Again, it treats or regards both the simple images and its own
+combinations in peculiar ways; and, thirdly, it penetrates, analyzes,
+and reaches truths by no other faculty discoverable. These its three
+functions, I shall endeavor to illustrate, but not in this order: the
+most logical mode of treatment would be to follow the order in which
+commonly the mind works; that is, penetrating first, combining next, and
+treating or regarding, finally; but this arrangement would be
+inconvenient, because the acts of penetration and of regard are so
+closely connected, and so like in their relations to other mental acts,
+that I wish to examine them consecutively, and the rather, because they
+have to do with higher subject matter than the mere act of combination,
+whose distinctive nature, that property which makes it imagination and
+not composition, it will I think be best to explain at setting out, as
+we easily may, in subjects familiar and material. I shall therefore
+examine the imaginative faculty in these three forms; first, as
+combining or associative; secondly, as analytic or penetrative; thirdly,
+as regardant or contemplative.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [49] He continues thus, "To illustrate these observations, let us
+ consider the steps by which Milton must have proceeded, in creating
+ his imaginary garden of Eden. When he first proposed to himself that
+ subject of description, it is reasonable to suppose that a variety
+ of the most striking scenes which he had seen, crowded into his
+ mind. The association of ideas suggested them and the power of
+ conception placed each of them before him with all its beauties and
+ imperfections. In every natural scene, if we destine it for any
+ particular purpose, there are defects and redundancies, which art
+ may sometimes, but cannot always correct. But the power of
+ imagination is unlimited. She can create and annihilate, and dispose
+ at pleasure her woods, her rocks, and her rivers. Milton,
+ accordingly, would not copy his Eden from any one scene, but would
+ select from each the features which were most eminently beautiful.
+ The power of abstraction enabled him to make the separation, and
+ taste directed him in the selection."
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ OF IMAGINATION ASSOCIATIVE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Of simple conception.
+
+In order to render our inquiry as easy as possible, we shall consider
+the dealing of the associative imagination with the simplest possible
+matter, that is,--with conceptions of material things. First, therefore,
+we must define the nature of these conceptions themselves.
+
+After beholding and examining any material object, our knowledge
+respecting it exists in two different forms. Some facts exist in the
+brain in a verbal form, as known, but not conceived, as, for instance,
+that it was heavy or light, that it was eight inches and a quarter long,
+etc., of which length we cannot have accurate conception, but only such
+a conception as might attach to a length of seven inches or nine; and
+which fact we may recollect without any conception of the object at all.
+Other facts respecting it exist in the brain in a visible form, not
+always visible, but voluntarily visible, as its being white, or having
+such and such a complicated shape, as the form of a rose-bud, for
+instance, which it would be difficult to express verbally, neither is it
+retained by the brain in a verbal form, but a visible one, that is, when
+we wish for knowledge of its form for immediate use, we summon up a
+vision or image of the thing; we do not remember it in words, as we
+remember the fact that it took so many days to blow, or that it was
+gathered at such and such a time.
+
+The knowledge of things retained in this visible form is called
+conception by the metaphysicians, which term I shall retain; it is
+inaccurately called imagination by Taylor, in the passage quoted by
+Wordsworth in the preface to his poems, not but that the term
+imagination is etymologically and rightly expressive of it, but we want
+that term for a higher faculty.
+
+
+Sec. 2. How connected with verbal knowledge.
+
+There are many questions respecting this faculty of conception of very
+great interest, such as the exact amount of aid that verbal knowledge
+renders so visible, (as, for instance, the verbal knowledge that a
+flower has five, or seven, or ten petals, or that a muscle is inserted
+at such and such a point of the bone, aids the conception of the flower
+or the limb;) and again, what amount of aid the visible knowledge
+renders to the verbal, as for instance, whether any one, being asked a
+question about some animal or thing, which instantly and from verbal
+knowledge he cannot answer, may have such power of summoning up the
+image of the animal or thing as to ascertain the fact, by actual
+beholding, (which I do not assert, but can conceive to be possible;) and
+again, what is that indefinite and subtile character of the conception
+itself in most men, which admits not of being by themselves traced or
+realized, and yet is a sure test of likeness in any representation of
+the thing; like an intaglio, with a front light on it, whose lines
+cannot be seen, and yet they will fit one definite form only, and that
+accurately; these and many other questions it is irrelevant at present
+to determine,[50] since to forward our present purpose, it will be well
+to suppose the conception, aided by verbal knowledge, to be absolutely
+perfect, and we will suppose a man to retain such clear image of a large
+number of the material things he has seen, as to be able to set down any
+of them on paper with perfect fidelity and absolute memory[51] of their
+most minute features.
+
+In thus setting them down on paper, he works, I suppose, exactly as he
+would work from nature, only copying the remembered image in his mind,
+instead of the real thing. He is, therefore, still nothing more than a
+copyist. There is no exercise of imagination in this whatsoever.
+
+
+Sec. 3. How used in composition.
+
+But over these images, vivid and distinct as nature herself, he has a
+command which over nature he has not. He can summon any that he chooses,
+and if, therefore, any group of them which he received from nature be
+not altogether to his mind, he is at liberty to remove some of the
+component images, add others foreign, and re-arrange the whole.
+
+Let us suppose, for instance, that he has perfect knowledge of the forms
+of the Aiguilles Verte and Argentiere, and of the great glacier between
+them at the upper extremity of the valley of Chamonix. The forms of the
+mountains please him, but the presence of the glacier suits not his
+purpose. He removes the glacier, sets the mountains farther apart, and
+introduces between them part of the valley of the Rhone.
+
+This is composition, and is what Dugald Stewart mistook for imagination,
+in the kingdom of which noble faculty it has no part nor lot.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Characteristics of composition.
+
+The essential characters of composition, properly so called, are these.
+The mind which desires the new feature summons up before it those images
+which it supposes to be of the kind wanted, of these it takes the one
+which it supposes to be fittest, and tries it: if it will not answer, it
+tries another, until it has obtained such an association as pleases it.
+
+In this operation, if it be of little sensibility, it regards only the
+absolute beauty or value of the images brought before it; and takes that
+or those which it thinks fairest or most interesting, without any regard
+to their sympathy with those for whose company they are destined. Of
+this kind is all vulgar composition; the "Mulino" of Claude, described
+in the preface to the first part, being a characteristic example.
+
+If the mind be of higher feeling, it will look to the sympathy or
+contrast of the features, to their likeness or dissimilarity; it will
+take, as it thinks best, features resembling or discordant, and if when
+it has put them together, it be not satisfied, it will repeat the
+process on the features themselves, cutting away one part and putting in
+another, so working more and more delicately down to the lowest details,
+until by dint of experiment, of repeated trials and shiftings, and
+constant reference to principles, (as that two lines must not mimic one
+another, that one mass must not be equal to another,) etc., it has
+morticed together a satisfactory result.
+
+
+Sec. 5. What powers are implied by it. The first of the three functions of
+ fancy.
+
+This process will be more and more rapid and effective, in proportion to
+the artist's powers of conception and association, these in their turn
+depending on his knowledge and experience. The distinctness of his
+powers of conception will give value, point, and truth to every fragment
+that he draws from memory. His powers of association, and his knowledge
+of nature will pour out before him in greater or less number and
+appositeness the images from which to choose. His experience guides him
+to quick discernment in the combination, when made, of the parts that
+are offensive and require change.
+
+The most elevated power of mind of all these, is that of association, by
+which images apposite or resemblant, or of whatever kind wanted, are
+called up quickly and in multitudes. When this power is very brilliant,
+it is called fancy, not that this is the only meaning of the word fancy,
+but it is the meaning of it in relation to that function of the
+imagination which we are here considering; for fancy has three
+functions; one subordinate to each of the three functions of the
+imagination.
+
+Great differences of power are manifested among artists in this respect,
+some having hosts of distinct images always at their command, and
+rapidly discerning resemblance or contrast; others having few images,
+and obscure, at their disposal, nor readily governing those they have.
+
+Where the powers of fancy are very brilliant, the picture becomes highly
+interesting; if her images are systematically and rightly combined, and
+truthfully rendered, it will become even impressive and instructive; if
+wittily and curiously combined, it will be captivating and entertaining.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Imagination not yet manifested.
+
+But all this time the imagination has not once shown itself. All this
+(except the gift of fancy) may be taught, all this is easily
+comprehended and analyzed; but imagination is neither to be taught, nor
+by any efforts to be attained, nor by any acuteness of discernment
+dissected or analyzed.
+
+We have seen that in composition the mind can only take cognizance of
+likeness or dissimilarity, or of abstract beauty among the ideas it
+brings together. But neither likeness nor dissimilarity secures harmony.
+We saw in the chapter on unity that likeness destroyed harmony or unity
+of membership, and that difference did not necessarily secure it, but
+only that particular imperfection in each of the harmonizing parts which
+can only be supplied by its fellow part. If, therefore, the combination
+made is to be harmonious, the artist must induce in each of its
+component parts (suppose two only, for simplicity's sake,) such
+imperfection as that the other shall put it right. If one of them be
+perfect by itself, the other will be an excrescence. Both must be faulty
+when separate, and each corrected by the presence of the other. If he
+can accomplish this, the result will be beautiful; it will be a whole,
+an organized body with dependent members;--he is an inventor. If not,
+let his separate features be as beautiful, as apposite, or as resemblant
+as they may, they form no whole. They are two members glued together. He
+is only a carpenter and joiner.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Imagination is the correlative conception of imperfect component
+ parts.
+
+Now, the conceivable imperfections of any single feature are infinite.
+It is impossible, therefore, to fix upon a form of imperfection in the
+one, and try with this all the forms of imperfection of the other until
+one fits; but the two imperfections must be corelatively and
+simultaneously conceived.
+
+This is imagination, properly so called, imagination associative, the
+grandest mechanical power that the human intelligence possesses, and one
+which will appear more and more marvellous the longer we consider it. By
+its operation, two ideas are chosen out of an infinite mass, (for it
+evidently matters not whether the imperfections be conceived out of the
+infinite number conceivable, or selected out of a number recollected,)
+two ideas which are separately wrong, which together shall be right, and
+of whose unity, therefore, the idea must be formed at the instant they
+are seized, as it is only in that unity that either are good, and
+therefore only the _conception of that unity can prompt the preference_.
+Now, what is that prophetic action of mind, which, out of an infinite
+mass of things that cannot be tried together, seizes, at the same
+instant two that are fit for each other, together right; yet each
+disagreeable alone.
+
+
+Sec. 8. Material analogy with imagination.
+
+This operation of mind, so far as I can see, is absolutely
+inexplicable, but there is something like it in chemistry.
+
+"The action of sulphuric acid on metallic zinc affords an instance of
+what was once called disposing affinity. Zinc decomposes pure water at
+common temperatures with extreme slowness; but as soon as sulphuric acid
+is added, decomposition of the water takes place rapidly, though the
+acid merely unites with oxide of zinc. The former explanation was, that
+the affinity of the acid for oxide of zinc disposed the metal to unite
+with oxygen, and thus enabled it to decompose water; that is, the oxide
+of zinc was supposed to produce an effect previous to its existence. The
+obscurity of this explanation arises from regarding changes as
+consecutive, which are in reality simultaneous. There is no succession
+in the process, the oxide of zinc is not formed previously to its
+combination with the acid, but at the same instant. There is, as it
+were, but one chemical change, which consists in the combination at one
+and the same moment of zinc with oxygen, and of oxide of zinc with the
+acid; and this change occurs because these two affinities, acting
+together, overcome the attraction of oxygen and hydrogen for one
+another."[52]
+
+Now, if the imaginative artist will permit us, with all deference, to
+represent his combining intelligence under the figure of sulphuric acid;
+and if we suppose the fragment of zinc to be embarrassed among
+infinitely numerous fragments of diverse metals, and the oxygen
+dispersed and mingled among gases countless and indistinguishable, we
+shall have an excellent type in material things of the action of the
+imagination on the immaterial. Both actions are, I think, inexplicable,
+for however simultaneous the chemical changes may be, yet the causing
+power is the affinity of the acid for what has no existence. It is
+neither to be explained how that affinity operates on atoms uncombined,
+nor how the artist's desire for an unconceived whole prompts him to the
+selection of necessary divisions.
+
+
+Sec. 9. The grasp and dignity of imagination.
+
+Now, this operation would be wonderful enough, if it were concerned with
+two ideas only. But a powerfully imaginative mind seizes and combines
+at the same instant, not only two, but all the important ideas of its
+poem or picture, and while it works with any one of them, it is at the
+same instant working with and modifying all in their relations to it,
+never losing sight of their bearings on each other; as the motion of a
+snake's body goes through all parts at once, and its volition acts at
+the same instant in coils that go contrary ways.
+
+This faculty is indeed something that looks as if man were made after
+the image of God. It is inconceivable, admirable, altogether divine; and
+yet wonderful as it may seem, it is palpably evident that no less an
+operation is necessary for the production of any great work, for, by the
+definition of unity of membership, (the essential characteristic of
+greatness,) not only certain couples or groups of parts, but _all_ the
+parts of a noble work must be separately imperfect; each must imply, and
+ask for all the rest, and the glory of every one of them must consist in
+its relation to the rest, neither while so much as one is wanting can
+any be right. And it is evidently impossible to conceive in each
+separate feature, a certain want or wrongness which can only be
+corrected by the other features of the picture, (not by one or two
+merely, but by all,) unless together with the want, we conceive also of
+what is wanted, that is of all the rest of the work or picture. Hence
+Fuseli:--
+
+"Second thoughts are admissible in painting and poetry only as dressers
+of the first conception; no great idea was ever formed in fragments."
+
+"He alone can conceive and compose who sees the whole at once before
+him."
+
+
+Sec. 10. Its limits.
+
+There is, however, a limit to the power of all human imagination. When
+the relations to be observed are absolutely necessary, and highly
+complicated, the mind cannot grasp them, and the result is a total
+deprivation of all power of imagination associative in such matter. For
+this reason, no human mind has ever conceived a new animal. For as it is
+evident that in an animal, every part implies all the rest; that is, the
+form of the eye involves the form of the brow and nose, these the form
+of the forehead and lip, these of the head and chin, and so on, so that
+it is physically impossible to conceive of any one of these members,
+unless we conceive the relation it bears to the whole animal; and as
+this relation is necessary, certain, and complicated, allowing of no
+license or inaccuracy, the intellect utterly fails under the load, and
+is reduced to mere composition, putting the bird's wing on men's
+shoulders, or half the human body to half the horse's, in doing which
+there is no action of imagination, but only of fancy; though in the
+treatment and contemplation of the compound form there may be much
+imagination, as we shall presently see. (Chap. III. Sec. 30.)
+
+
+Sec. 11. How manifested in treatment of uncertain relations. Its deficiency
+ illustrated.
+
+The matter, therefore, in which associative imagination can be shown is
+that which admits of great license and variety of arrangements, and in
+which a certain amount of relation only is required; as especially in
+the elements of landscape painting, in which best it may be illustrated.
+
+When an unimaginative painter is about to draw a tree, (and we will
+suppose him, for better illustration of the point in question, to have
+good feeling and correct knowledge of the nature of trees,) he probably
+lays on his paper such a general form as he knows to be characteristic
+of the tree to be drawn, and such as he believes will fall in agreeably
+with the other masses of his picture, which we will suppose partly
+prepared. When this form is set down, he assuredly finds it has done
+something he did not intend it to do. It has mimicked some prominent
+line, or overpowered some necessary mass. He begins pruning and
+changing, and after several experiments, succeeds in obtaining a form
+which does no material mischief to any other. To this form he proceeds
+to attach a trunk, and having probably a received notion or rule (for
+the unimaginative painter never works without a principle) that tree
+trunks ought to lean first one way and then the other as they go up, and
+ought not to stand under the middle of the tree, he sketches a
+serpentine form of requisite propriety; when it has gone up far enough,
+that is till it begins to look disagreeably long, he will begin to
+ramify it, and if there be another tree in the picture with two large
+branches, he knows that this, by all laws of composition, ought to have
+three or four, or some different number; one because he knows that if
+three or four branches start from the same point they will look formal,
+therefore he makes them start from points one above another, and because
+equal distances are improper, therefore they shall start at unequal
+distances. When they are fairly started, he knows they must undulate or
+go backwards and forwards, which accordingly he makes them do at random;
+and because he knows that all forms ought to be contrasted, therefore he
+makes one bend down while the other three go up. The three that go up he
+knows must not go up without interfering with each other, and so he
+makes two of them cross. He thinks it also proper that there should be
+variety of character in them, so he makes the one that bends down
+graceful and flexible, and of the two that cross, he splinters one and
+makes a stump of it. He repeats the process among the more complicated
+minor boughs, until coming to the smallest, he thinks farther care
+unnecessary, but draws them freely, and by chance. Having to put on the
+foliage, he will make it flow properly in the direction of the tree's
+growth, he will make all the extremities graceful, but will be
+grievously plagued by finding them come all alike, and at last will be
+obliged to spoil a number of them altogether, in order to obtain
+opposition. They will not, however, be united in this their spoliation,
+but will remain uncomfortably separate and individually ill-tempered. He
+consoles himself by the reflection that it is unnatural for all of them
+to be equally perfect.
+
+
+Sec. 12. Laws of art, the safeguard of the unimaginative.
+
+Now I suppose that through the whole of this process he has been able to
+refer to his definite memory or conception of nature for every one of
+the fragments he has successively added, that the details, color,
+fractures, insertions, etc., of his boughs, are all either actual
+recollections or based on secure knowledge of the tree, (and herein I
+allow far more than is commonly the case with unimaginative painters.)
+But as far as the process of combination is concerned, it is evident
+that from beginning to end his laws have been his safety, and his plague
+has been his liberty. He has been compelled to work at random, or under
+the guidance of feeling only, whenever there was anything left to his
+own decision. He has never been decided in anything except in what he
+_must_ or _must not_ do. He has walked as a drunken man on a broad road,
+his guides are the hedges; and between these limits, the broader the
+way, the worse he gets on.
+
+
+Sec. 13. Are by the imaginative painter despised. Tests of imagination.
+
+The advance of the imaginative artist is precisely the reverse of this.
+He has no laws. He defies all restraint, and cuts down all hedges. There
+is nothing within the limits of natural possibility that he dares not
+do, or that he allows the necessity of doing. The laws of nature he
+knows, are to him no restraint. They are his own nature. All other laws
+or limits he sets at utter defiance, his journey is over an untrodden
+and pathless plain. But he sees his end over the waste from the first,
+and goes straight at it, never losing sight of it, nor throwing away a
+step. Nothing can stop him, nothing turn him aside; falcons and lynxes
+are of slow and uncertain sight compared with his. He saw his tree,
+trunk, boughs, foliage and all, from the first moment; not only the tree
+but the sky behind it; not only that tree or sky, but all the other
+great features of his picture: by what intense power of instantaneous
+selection and amalgamation cannot be explained, but by this it may be
+proved and tested, that if we examine the tree of the unimaginative
+painter, we shall find that on removing any part or parts of it, the
+rest will indeed suffer, as being deprived of the proper development of
+a tree, and as involving a blank space that wants occupation; but the
+portions left are not made discordant or disagreeable. They are
+absolutely and in themselves as valuable as they can be, every stem is a
+perfect stem, and every twig a graceful twig, or at least as perfect and
+as graceful as they were before the removal of the rest. But if we try
+the same experiment on the imaginative painter's work, and break off the
+merest stem or twig of it, it all goes to pieces like a Prince Rupert's
+drop. There is not so much as a seed of it but it lies on the tree's
+life, like the grain upon the tongue of Chaucer's sainted child. Take it
+away, and the boughs will sing to us no longer. All is dead and cold.
+
+
+Sec. 14. The monotony of unimaginative treatment.
+
+This then is the first sign of the presence of real imagination as
+opposed to composition. But here is another not less important.
+
+
+Sec. 15. Imagination never repeats itself.
+
+We have seen that as each part is selected and fitted by the
+unimaginative painter, he renders it, in itself, as beautiful as he is
+able. If it be ugly, it remains so, he is incapable of correcting it by
+the addition of another ugliness, and therefore he chooses all his
+features as fair as they may be (at least if his object be beauty.) But
+a small proportion only of the ideas he has at his disposal will reach
+his standard of absolute beauty. The others will be of no use to him,
+and among those which he permits himself to use, there will be so marked
+a family likeness, that he will be more and more cramped, as his picture
+advances, for want of material, and tormented by multiplying
+resemblances, unless disguised by some artifice of light and shade or
+other forced difference, and with all the differences he can imagine,
+his tree will yet show a sameness and sickening repetition in all its
+parts, and all his trees will be like one another, except so far as one
+leans east and another west, one is broadest at the top and another at
+the bottom, while through all this insipid repetition, the means by
+which he forces contrast, dark boughs opposed to light, rugged to
+smooth, etc., will be painfully evident, to the utter destruction of all
+dignity and repose. The imaginative work is necessarily the absolute
+opposite of all this. As all its parts are imperfect, and as there is an
+unlimited supply of imperfection, (for the ways in which things may be
+wrong are infinite,) the imagination is never at a loss, nor ever likely
+to repeat itself; nothing comes amiss to it, but whatever rude matter it
+receives, it instantly so arranges that it comes right; all things fall
+into their place and appear in that place perfect, useful, and evidently
+not to be spared, so that of its combinations there is endless variety,
+and every intractable and seemingly unavailable fragment that we give to
+it, is instantly turned to some brilliant use, and made the nucleus of a
+new group of glory; however poor or common the gift, it will be thankful
+for it, treasure it up, and pay in gold, and it has that life in it and
+fire, that wherever it passes, among the dead bones and dust of things,
+behold a shaking, and the bones come together, bone to his bone.
+
+
+Sec. 16. Relation of the imaginative faculty to the theoretic.
+
+And now we find what noble sympathy and unity there is between the
+imaginative and theoretic faculties. Both agree in this, that they
+reject nothing, and are thankful for all; but the theoretic faculty
+takes out of everything that which is beautiful, while the imaginative
+faculty takes hold of the very imperfections which the theoretic
+rejects, and by means of these angles and roughnesses, it joints and
+bolts the separate stones into a mighty temple, wherein the theoretic
+faculty in its turn, does deepest homage. Thus sympathetic in their
+desires, harmoniously diverse in their operation, each working for the
+other with what the other needs not, all things external to man are by
+one or other turned to good.
+
+
+Sec. 17. Modification of its manifestation.
+
+Now we have hitherto, for the sake of clearness, opposed the total
+absence of imagination to the perfect presence of it, in order to make
+the difference between composition and imagination thoroughly
+understood. But if we are to give examples of either the want or the
+presence of the power, it is necessary to note the circumstances by
+which both are modified. In the first place, few artists of any standing
+are totally devoid of this faculty, some small measure of it most of
+them possess, though of all the forms of intellect, this, and its
+sister, penetrative imagination, are the rarest and most precious; but
+few painters have reached eminence without some leaven of it, whether it
+can be increased by practice I doubt. On the other hand, fewer still are
+possessed of it in very high degree, and even with the men of most
+gigantic power in this respect, of whom, I think, Tintoret stands far
+the head, there are evident limits to its exercise, and portions to be
+found in their works that have not been included in the original grasp
+of them, but have been suggested and incorporated during their progress,
+or added in decoration; and with the great mass of painters there are
+frequent flaws and failures in the conception, so that, when they intend
+to produce a perfect work they throw their thought into different
+experimental forms, and decorate it and discipline it long before
+realizing it, so that there is a certain amount of mere composition in
+the most imaginative works; and a grain or two of imagination commonly
+in the most artificial. And again, whatever portions of a picture are
+taken honestly and without alteration from nature, have, so far as they
+go, the look of imagination, because all that nature does is
+imaginative, that is, perfect as a whole, and made up of imperfect
+features; so that the painter of the meanest imaginative power may yet
+do grand things, if he will keep to strict portraiture, and it would be
+well if all artists were to endeavor to do so, for if they have
+imagination, it will force its way in spite of them, and show itself in
+their every stroke, and if not, they will not get it by leaving nature,
+but only sink into nothingness.
+
+
+Sec. 18. Instances of absence of imagination.--Claude, Gaspar Poussin.
+
+Keeping these points in view, it is interesting to observe the different
+degrees and relations of the imagination, as accompanied with more or
+less feeling or desire of harmony, vigor of conception, or constancy of
+reference to truth. Of men of name, perhaps Claude is the best instance
+of a want of imagination, nearly total, borne out by painful but
+untaught study of nature, and much feeling for abstract beauty of form,
+with none whatever for harmony of expression. In Gaspar Poussin, we have
+the same want of imagination disguised by more masculine qualities of
+mind, and grander reachings after sympathy. Thus in the sacrifice of
+Isaac in our own gallery, the spirit of the composition is solemn and
+unbroken; it would have been a grand picture if the forms of the mass of
+foliage on the right, and of the clouds in the centre, had not been
+hopelessly unimaginative. The stormy wind of the picture of Dido and
+Eneas blows loudly through its leaves, but the total want of invention
+in the cloud forms bears it down beyond redemption. The foreground tree
+of the La Riccia (compare Part II. Sec. VI. Chap. I., Sec. 6.) is another
+characteristic instance of absolute nullity of imagination.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. From a painting by Ruskin,
+after Tintoret.]
+
+
+Sec. 19. Its presence.--Salvator, Nicolo Poussin, Titian, Tintoret.
+
+In Salvator, the imagination is vigorous, the composition dextrous and
+clever, as in the St. Jerome of the Brera Gallery, the Diogenes of the
+Pitti, and the pictures of the Guadagni palace. All are rendered
+valueless by coarseness of feeling and habitual non-reference to nature.
+
+All the landscape of Nicolo Poussin is imaginative, but the development
+of the power in Tintoret and Titian is so unapproachably intense that
+the mind unwillingly rests elsewhere. The four landscapes which occur to
+me as the most magnificently characteristic are, first, the Flight into
+Egypt, of the Scuola di San Rocco (Tintoret;) secondly, the Titian of
+the Camuccini collection at Rome, with the figures by John Bellini;
+thirdly, Titian's St. Jerome, in the Brera Gallery at Milan; and
+fourthly, the St. Pietro Martire, which I name last, in spite of its
+importance, because there is something unmeaning and unworthy of Titian
+about the undulation of the trunks, and the upper part of it is
+destroyed by the intrusion of some dramatic clouds of that species which
+I have enough described in our former examination of the central cloud
+region, Sec. 13.
+
+I do not mean to set these four works above the rest of the landscape of
+these masters; I name them only because the landscape is in them
+prominent and characteristic. It would be well to compare with them the
+other backgrounds of Tintoret in the Scuola, especially that of the
+Temptation and the Agony in the Garden, and the landscape of the two
+large pictures in the church of La Madonna dell' Orto.
+
+
+Sec. 20. And Turner.
+
+But for immediate and close illustration, it is perhaps best to refer to
+a work more accessible, the Cephalus and Procris of Turner, in Liber
+Studiorum.
+
+I know of no landscape more purely or magnificently imaginative or
+bearing more distinct evidence of the relative and simultaneous
+conception of the parts. Let the reader first cover with his hand the
+two trunks that rise against the sky on the right, and ask himself how
+any termination of the central mass so _ugly_ as the straight trunk
+which he will then painfully see, could have been conceived or admitted
+without simultaneous conception of the trunks he has taken away on the
+right? Let him again conceal the whole central mass, and leave these two
+only, and again ask himself whether anything so ugly as that bare trunk
+in the shape of a Y, could have been admitted without reference to the
+central mass? Then let him remove from this trunk its two arms, and try
+the effect; let him again remove the single trunk on the extreme right;
+then let him try the third trunk without the excrescence at the bottom
+of it; finally, let him conceal the fourth trunk from the right, with
+the slender boughs at the top; he will find in each case that he has
+destroyed a feature on which everything else depends, and if proof be
+required of the vital power of still smaller features, let him remove
+the sunbeam that comes through beneath the faint mass of trees on the
+hill in the distance.[53]
+
+It is useless to enter into farther particulars; the reader may be left
+to his own close examination of this and of the other works of Turner,
+in which he will always find the associative imagination developed in
+the most profuse and marvellous modes, especially in the drawing of
+foliage and skies, in both of which the presence or absence of the
+associative power may best be tested in all artists. I have, however,
+confined my present illustrations chiefly to foliage, because other
+operations of the imagination besides the associative, interfere
+extensively in the treatment of sky.
+
+
+Sec. 21. The due function of Associative Imagination with respect to
+ nature.
+
+There remains but one question to be determined relating to this
+faculty, what operation, namely, supposing it possessed in high degree,
+it has or ought to have in the artist's treatment of natural scenery.
+
+I have just said that nature is always imaginative, but it does not
+follow that her imagination is always of high subject, or that the
+imagination of all the parts is of a like and sympathetic kind; the
+boughs of every bramble bush are imaginatively arranged, so are those of
+every oak and cedar; but it does not follow that there is imaginative
+sympathy between bramble and cedar. There are few natural scenes whose
+harmonies are not conceivably improvable either by banishment of some
+discordant point, or by addition of some sympathetic one; it constantly
+happens that there is a profuseness too great to be comprehended, or an
+inequality in the pitch, meaning, and intensity of different parts. The
+imagination will banish all that is extraneous, it will seize out of the
+many threads of different feeling which nature has suffered to become
+entangled, one only, and where that seems thin and likely to break, it
+will spin it stouter, and in doing this, it never knots, but weaves in
+the new thread, so that all its work looks as pure and true as nature
+itself, and cannot be guessed from it but by its exceeding simplicity,
+(_known_ from it, it cannot be,) so that herein we find another test of
+the imaginative work, that it looks always as if it had been gathered
+straight from nature, whereas the unimaginative shows its joints and
+knots, and is visibly composition.
+
+
+Sec. 22. The sign of imaginative work is its appearance of absolute truth.
+
+And here then we arrive at an important conclusion (though one somewhat
+contrary to the positions commonly held on the subject,) namely, that if
+anything looks unnatural, there can be no imagination in it (at least
+not associative.) We frequently hear works that have no truth in them,
+justified or elevated on the score of being imaginative. Let it be
+understood once for all, that imagination never designs to touch
+anything but truth, and though it does not follow that where there is
+the appearance of truth, there has been imaginative operation, of this
+we may be assured, that where there is appearance of falsehood, the
+imagination has had no hand.[54]
+
+For instance, the landscape above mentioned of Titian's St. Jerome may,
+for aught I know, be a pure transcript of a rocky slope covered with
+chestnuts among his native mountains. It has all the look of a sketch
+from nature; if it be not, the imagination developed in it is of the
+highest order; if it be, the imagination has only acted in the
+suggestion of the dark sky, of the shape of the flakes of solemn cloud,
+and of the gleam of russet light along the distant ground.[55]
+
+Again, it is impossible to tell whether the two nearest trunks of the
+Aesacus and Hesperie of the Liber Studiorum, especially the large one on
+the right with the ivy, have been invented, or taken straight from
+nature, they have all the look of accurate portraiture. I can hardly
+imagine anything so perfect to have been obtained except from the real
+thing; but we know that the imagination must have begun to operate
+somewhere, we cannot tell where, since the multitudinous harmonies of
+the rest of the picture could hardly in any real scene have continued so
+inviolately sweet.
+
+The final tests, therefore, of the work of associative imagination are
+its intense simplicity, its perfect harmony, and its absolute truth. It
+may be a harmony, majestic, or humble, abrupt, or prolonged, but it is
+always a governed and perfect whole, evidencing in all its relations the
+weight, prevalence, and universal dominion of an awful, inexplicable
+Power; a chastising, animating, and disposing Mind.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [50] Compare Chapter IV. of this Section.
+
+ [51] On the distinction rightly made by the metaphysicians between
+ conception absolute and conception accompanied by reference to past
+ time, (or memory,) it is of no necessity here to insist.
+
+ [52] Elements of Chemistry, by the late Edward Turner, M.D. Part II.
+ Sec. IV.
+
+ [53] This ray of light, however, has an imaginative power of another
+ kind presently to be spoken of. Compare Chap. IV. Sec. 18.
+
+ [54] Compare Chap. III. Sec.30.
+
+ [55] It is said at Venice that Titian took the trees of the St.
+ Pietro Martiere out of his garden opposite Murano. I think this
+ unlikely; there is something about the lower trunks that has a taint
+ of composition: the thought of the whole, however, is thoroughly
+ fine. The backgrounds of the frescoes at Padua are also very
+ characteristic, and the well-known woodcut of St. Francis receiving
+ the stigmata, one of the mightiest of existing landscape thoughts;
+ and yet it is pure portraiture of pine and Spanish chestnut.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ OF IMAGINATION PENETRATIVE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Imagination penetrative is concerned not with the combining but
+ apprehending of things.
+
+Thus far we have been defining that combining operation of the
+imagination, which appears to be in a sort mechanical, yet takes place
+in the same inexplicable modes, whatever be the order of conception
+submitted to it, though I chose to illustrate it by its dealings with
+mere matter before taking cognizance of any nobler subjects of imagery.
+We must now examine the dealing of the imagination with its separate
+conceptions, and endeavor to understand not only its principles of
+selection, but its modes of apprehension with respect to what it
+selects.
+
+
+Sec. 2. Milton's and Dante's description of flame.
+
+When Milton's Satan first "rears from off the pool, his mighty stature,"
+the image of Leviathan before suggested not being yet abandoned, the
+effect on the fire-wave is described as of the upheaved monster on the
+ocean stream.
+
+ "On each hand the flames,
+ Driven backwards, slope their pointing spires,
+ and rolled
+ In billows, leave in the midst a horrid vale."
+
+And then follows a fiercely restless piece of volcanic imagery.
+
+ "As when the force
+ Of subterranean wind transports a hill
+ Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side
+ Of thundering Aetna, whose combustible
+ And fuell'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
+ Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
+ And leave a singed bottom, all involved
+ With stench and smoke; such resting found the sole
+ Of unblest feet."
+
+Yet I think all this is too far detailed, and deals too much with
+externals; we feel rather the form of the fire-waves than their fury, we
+walk upon them too securely, and the fuel, sublimation, smoke, and
+singeing, seem to me images only of partial combustion; they vary and
+extend the conception, but they lower the thermometer. Look back, if you
+will, and add to the description the glimmering of the livid flames; the
+sulphurous hail and red lightning; yet altogether, however they
+overwhelm us with horror, fail of making us thoroughly, unendurably hot.
+The intense essence of flame has not been given. Now hear Dante:--
+
+ "Feriami 'l Sole in su l'omero destro
+ Che gia raggiando tutto l'Occidente
+ _Mutava in bianco aspetto di eilestro.
+ Ed io_ facea _con l'ombra piu rovente
+ Parer la flamma_."
+
+That is a slight touch; he has not gone to Aetna nor Pelorus for fuel;
+but we shall not soon recover from it--he has taken our breath away and
+leaves us gasping. No smoke nor cinders there. Pure, white, hurtling,
+formless flame; very fire crystal, we cannot make spires nor waves of
+it, nor divide it, nor walk on it, there is no question about singeing
+soles of feet. It is lambent annihilation.
+
+
+Sec. 3. The imagination seizes always by the innermost point.
+
+Such is always the mode in which the highest imaginative faculty seizes
+its materials. It never stops at crusts or ashes, or outward images of
+any kind, it ploughs them all aside, and plunges into the very central
+fiery heart, nothing else will content its spirituality, whatever
+semblances and various outward shows and phases its subject may possess,
+go for nothing, it gets within all fence, cuts down to the root, and
+drinks the very vital sap of that it deals with: once there it is at
+liberty to throw up what new shoots it will, so always that the true
+juice and sap be in them, and to prune and twist them at its pleasure,
+and bring them to fairer fruit than grew on the old tree; but all this
+pruning and twisting is work that it likes not, and often does ill; its
+function and gift are the getting at the root, its nature and dignity
+depend on its holding things always by the heart. Take its hand from off
+the beating of that, and it will prophesy no longer; it looks not in the
+eyes, it judges not by the voice, it describes not by outward features,
+all that it affirms, judges, or describes, it affirms from within.
+
+
+Sec. 4. It acts intuitively and without reasoning.
+
+It may seem to the reader that I am incorrect in calling this
+penetrating, possession-taking faculty, imagination. Be it so, the name
+is of little consequence; the faculty itself, called by what name we
+will, I insist upon as the highest intellectual power of man. There is
+no reasoning in it, it works not by algebra, nor by integral calculus,
+it is a piercing, Pholas-like mind's tongue that works and tastes into
+the very rock heart, no matter what be the subject submitted to it,
+substance or spirit, all is alike, divided asunder, joint and marrow,
+whatever utmost truth, life, principle, it has, laid bare, and that
+which has no truth, life, nor principle, dissipated into its original
+smoke at a touch. The whispers at men's ears it lifts into visible
+angels. Vials that have lain sealed in the deep sea a thousand years it
+unseals, and brings out of them Genii.
+
+Every great conception of poet or painter is held and treated by this
+faculty. Every character that is so much as touched by men like
+Aeschylus, Homer, Dante, or Shakspeare, is by them held by the heart; and
+every circumstance or sentence of their being, speaking, or seeming, is
+seized by process from within, and is referred to that inner secret
+spring of which the hold is never lost for an instant; so that every
+sentence, as it has been thought out from the heart, opens for us a way
+down to the heart, leads us to the centre, and then leaves us to gather
+what more we may; it is the open sesame of a huge, obscure, endless
+cave, with inexhaustible treasure of pure gold scattered in it: the
+wandering about and gathering the pieces may be left to any of us, all
+can accomplish that; but the first opening of that invisible door in the
+rock is of the imagination only.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Signs of it in language.
+
+Hence there is in every word set down by the imaginative mind an awful
+under-current of meaning, and evidence and shadow upon it of the deep
+places out of which it has come. It is often obscure, often half told,
+for he who wrote it, in his clear seeing of the things beneath, may have
+been impatient of detailed interpretation, but if we choose to dwell
+upon it and trace it, it will lead us always securely back to that
+metropolis of the soul's dominion from which we may follow out all the
+ways and tracks to its farthest coasts.
+
+I think the "Quel giorno piu non vi leggemmo avante" of Francesca di
+Rimini, and the "He has no children" of Macduff are as fine instances as
+can be given, but the sign and mark of it are visible on every line of
+the four great men above instanced.
+
+
+Sec. 6. Absence of imagination, how shown.
+
+The imaginative writer, on the other hand, as he has never pierced to
+the heart, so he can never touch it: if he has to paint a passion, he
+remembers the external signs of it, he collects expressions of it from
+other writers, he searches for similes, he composes, exaggerates, heaps
+term on term, figure on figure, till we groan beneath the cold,
+disjointed heap; but it is all faggot and no fire, the life breath is
+not in it, his passion has the form of the Leviathan, but it never makes
+the deep boil, he fastens us all at anchor in the scaly rind of it, our
+sympathies remain as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.
+
+And that virtue of originality that men so strain after, is not newness,
+as they vainly think, (there is nothing new,) it is only genuineness; it
+all depends on this single glorious faculty of getting to the spring of
+things and working out from that; it is the coolness, and clearness, and
+deliciousness of the water fresh from the fountain head, opposed to the
+thick, hot, unrefreshing drainage from other men's meadows.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Distinction between imagination and fancy.
+
+This freshness, however, is not to be taken for an infallible sign of
+imagination, inasmuch as it results also from a vivid operation of
+fancy, whose parallel function to this division of the imaginative
+faculty it is here necessary to distinguish.
+
+I believe it will be found that the entirely unimaginative mind _sees_
+nothing of the object it has to dwell upon or describe, and is therefore
+utterly unable, as it is blind itself, to set anything before the eyes
+of the reader.[56]
+
+The fancy sees the outside, and is able to give a portrait of the
+outside, clear, brilliant, and full of detail.[57]
+
+The imagination sees the heart and inner nature, and makes them felt,
+but is often obscure, mysterious, and interrupted, in its giving of
+outer detail.
+
+Take an instance. A writer with neither imagination nor fancy,
+describing a fair lip, does not see it, but thinks about it, and about
+what is said of it, and calls it well-turned, or rosy, or delicate, or
+lovely, or afflicts us with some other quenching and chilling epithet.
+Now hear fancy speak,--
+
+ "Her lips were red, and one was thin,
+ Compared with that was next her chin,
+ Some bee had stung it newly."[58]
+
+The real, red, bright being of the lip is there in a moment But it is
+all outside; no expression yet, no mind. Let us go a step farther with
+Warner, of fair Rosamond struck by Eleanor.
+
+ "With that she dashed her on the lips
+ So dyed double red;
+ Hard was the heart that gave the blow,
+ Soft were those lips that bled."
+
+The tenderness of mind begins to mingle with the outside color, the
+imagination is seen in its awakening. Next Shelley,--
+
+ "Lamp of life, thy lips are burning
+ Through the veil that seems to hide them,
+ As the radiant lines of morning
+ Through thin clouds, ere they divide them."
+
+There dawns the entire soul in that morning; yet we may stop if we
+choose at the image still external, at the crimson clouds. The
+imagination is contemplative rather than penetrative. Last, hear
+Hamlet,--
+
+"Here hung those lips that I have kissed, I know not how oft. Where be
+your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that
+were wont to set the table on a roar?"
+
+There is the essence of lip, and the full power of the imagination.
+
+Again, compare Milton's flowers in Lycidas with Perdita's. In Milton it
+happens, I think, generally, and in the case before us most certainly,
+that the imagination is mixed and broken with fancy, and so the strength
+of the imagery is part of iron and part of clay.
+
+ "Bring the rathe primrose, that forsaken dies (Imagination)
+ The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, (Nugatory)
+ The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet,-- (Fancy)
+ The glowing violet, (Imagination)
+ The musk rose, and the well-attired woodbine, (Fancy, vulgar)
+ With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head, (Imagination)
+ And every flower that sad embroidery wears." (Mixed)
+
+Then hear Perdita:--
+
+ "O, Proserpina,
+ For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall
+ From Dis's wagon. Daffodils
+ That come before the swallow dares, and take
+ The winds of March with beauty. Violets, dim,
+ But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes
+ Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses
+ That die unmarried, ere they can behold
+ Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady
+ Most incident to maids."
+
+Observe how the imagination in these last lines goes into the very
+inmost soul of every flower, after having touched them all at first with
+that heavenly timidness, the shadow of Proserpine's; and gilded them
+with celestial gathering, and never stops on their spots, or their
+bodily shape, while Milton sticks in the stains upon them, and puts us
+off with that unhappy freak of jet in the very flower that without this
+bit of paper-staining would have been the most precious to us of all.
+"There is pansies, that's for thoughts."
+
+
+Sec. 8. Fancy how involved with imagination.
+
+So I believe it will be found throughout the operation of the fancy,
+that it has to do with the outsides of things, and is content therewith:
+of this there can be no doubt in such passage as that description of
+Mab, so often given as an illustration of it, and many other instances
+will be found in Leigh Hunt's work already referred to. Only some
+embarrassment is caused by passages in which fancy is seizing the
+outward signs of emotion, understanding them as such, and yet, in
+pursuance of her proper function, taking for her share, and for that
+which she chooses to dwell upon, the outside sign rather than the
+emotion. Note in Macbeth that brilliant instance.
+
+ "Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
+ And fan our people cold."
+
+The outward shiver and coldness of fear is seized on, and irregularly
+but admirably attributed by the fancy to the drift of the banners.
+Compare Solomon's Song where the imagination stays not at the outside,
+but dwells on the fearful emotion itself?
+
+ "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning; fair as the moon, clear
+ as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?"
+
+
+Sec. 9. Fancy is never serious
+
+Now, if this be the prevailing characteristic of the two faculties, it
+is evident that certain other collateral differences will result from
+it. Fancy, as she stays at the externals, can never feel. She is one of
+the hardest hearted of the intellectual faculties, or rather one of the
+most purely and simply intellectual. She cannot be made serious,[59] no
+edge-tools but she will play with; whereas the imagination is in all
+things the reverse. She cannot be but serious; she sees too far, too
+darkly, too solemnly, too earnestly, ever to smile. There is something
+in the heart of everything, if we can reach it, that we shall not be
+inclined to laugh at. The [Greek: anerithmon gelasma] of the sea is on
+its surface, not in the deep.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Want of seriousness the bar to high art at the present time.
+
+And thus there is reciprocal action between the intensity of moral
+feeling and the power of imagination; for, on the one hand, those who
+have keenest sympathy are those who look closest and pierce deepest, and
+hold securest; and, on the other, those who have so pierced and seen the
+melancholy deeps of things, are filled with the most intense passion and
+gentleness of sympathy. Hence, I suppose that the powers of the
+imagination may always be tested by accompanying tenderness of emotion,
+and thus, (as Byron said,) there is no tenderness like Dante's, neither
+any intensity nor seriousness like his, such seriousness that it is
+incapable of perceiving that which is commonplace or ridiculous, but
+fuses all down into its white-hot fire; and, on the other hand, I
+suppose the chief bar to the action of imagination, and stop to all
+greatness in this present age of ours, is its mean and shallow love of
+jest and jeer, so that if there be in any good and lofty work a flaw or
+failing, or undipped vulnerable part where sarcasm may stick or stay, it
+is caught at, and pointed at, and buzzed about, and fixed upon, and
+stung into, as a recent wound is by flies, and nothing is ever taken
+seriously nor as it was meant, but always, if it may be, turned the
+wrong way, and misunderstood; and while this is so, there is not, nor
+cannot be any hope of achievement of high things; men dare not open
+their hearts to us, if we are to broil them on a thorn-fire.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Imagination is quiet; fancy, restless.
+
+This, then, is one essential difference between imagination and fancy,
+and another is like it and resultant from it, that the imagination being
+at the heart of things, poises herself there, and is still, quiet, and
+brooding; comprehending all around her with her fixed look, but the
+fancy staying at the outside of things, cannot see them all at once, but
+runs hither and thither, and round and about to see more and more,
+bounding merrily from point to point, and glittering here and there, but
+necessarily always settling, if she settle at all, on a point only,
+never embracing the whole. And from these single points she can strike
+out analogies and catch resemblances, which, so far as the point she
+looks at is concerned, are true, but would be false, if she could see
+through to the other side. This, however, she cares not to do, the point
+of contact is enough for her, and even if there be a gap left between
+the two things and they do not quite touch, she will spring from one to
+the other like an electric spark, and be seen brightest in her leaping.
+
+
+Sec. 12. The detailing operation of fancy.
+
+Now these differences between the imagination and the fancy hold, not
+only in the way they lay hold of separate conceptions, but even in the
+points they occupy of time, for the fancy loves to run hither and
+thither in time, and to follow long chains of circumstances from link to
+link; but the imagination, if it may, gets holds of a moment or link in
+the middle that implies all the rest, and fastens there. Hence Fuseli's
+aphorism, "Invention never suffers the action to expire, nor the
+spectator's fancy to consume itself in preparation, or stagnate into
+repose. It neither begins from the egg, nor coldly gathers the remains."
+
+In Retsch's illustrations to Schiller's Kampf mit dem Drachen, we have
+an instance, miserably feeble indeed, but characteristic, and suited to
+our present purpose, of the detailing, finishing action of the fancy.
+The dragon is drawn from head to tail, vulture eyes, serpent teeth,
+forked tongue, fiery crest, armor, claws and coils as grisly as may be;
+his den is drawn, and all the dead bones in it, and all the savage
+forest-country about it far and wide; we have him from the beginning of
+his career to the end, devouring, rampant, victorious over whole armies,
+gorged with death; we are present at all the preparations for his
+attack, see him receive his death-wound, and our anxieties are finally
+becalmed by seeing him lie peaceably dead on his back.
+
+
+Sec. 13. And suggestive, of the imagination.
+
+All the time we have never got into the dragon heart, we have never once
+felt real pervading horror, nor sense of the creature's being; it is
+throughout nothing but an ugly composition of claw and scale. Now take
+up Turner's Jason, Liber Studiorum, and observe how the imagination can
+concentrate all this, and infinitely more, into one moment. No far
+forest country, no secret paths, nor cloven hills, nothing but a gleam
+of pale horizontal sky, that broods over pleasant places far away, and
+sends in, through the wild overgrowth of the thicket, a ray of broken
+daylight into the hopeless pit. No flaunting plumes nor brandished
+lances, but stern purpose in the turn of the crestless helmet, visible
+victory in the drawing back of the prepared right arm behind the steady
+point. No more claws, nor teeth, nor manes, nor stinging tails. We have
+the dragon, like everything else, by the middle. We need see no more of
+him. All his horror is in that fearful, slow, grinding upheaval of the
+single coil. Spark after spark of it, ring after ring, is sliding into
+the light, the slow glitter steals along him step by step, broader and
+broader, a lighting of funeral lamps one by one, quicker and quicker; a
+moment more, and he is out upon us, all crash and blaze among those
+broken trunks;--but he will be nothing then to what he is now.
+
+
+Sec. 14. This suggestiveness how opposed to vacancy.
+
+Now, it is necessary here very carefully to distinguish between that
+character of the work which depends on the imagination of the beholder,
+and that which results from the imagination of the artist, for a work is
+often called imaginative when it merely leaves room for the action of
+the imagination; whereas though nearly all imaginative works do this,
+yet it may be done also by works that have in them no imagination at
+all. A few shapeless scratches or accidental stains on a wall; or the
+forms of clouds, or any other complicated accidents, will set the
+imagination to work to coin something out of them, and all paintings in
+which there is much gloom or mystery, possess therein a certain
+sublimity owing to the play given to the beholder's imagination,
+without, necessarily, being in the slightest degree imaginative
+themselves. The vacancy of a truly imaginative work results not from
+absence of ideas, or incapability of grasping and detailing them, but
+from the painter having told the whole pith and power of his subject and
+disdaining to tell more, and the sign of this being the case is, that
+the imagination of the beholder is forced to act in a certain mode, and
+feels itself overpowered and borne away by that of the painter, and not
+able to defend itself, nor go which way it will, and the value of the
+work depends on the truth, authority, and inevitability of this
+suggestiveness, and on the absolute right choice of the critical moment.
+Now observe in this work of Turner's, that the whole value of it
+depends on the character of curve assumed by the serpent's body; for had
+it been a mere semicircle, or gone down in a series of smaller coils, it
+would have been in the first case, ridiculous, as false and unlike a
+serpent, and in the second, disgusting, nothing more than an exaggerated
+viper, but it is that _coming straight_ at the right hand which suggests
+the drawing forth of an enormous weight, and gives the bent part its
+springing look, that frightens us. Again, remove the light trunk[60] on
+the left, and observe how useless all the gloom of the picture would
+have been, if this trunk had not given it depth and _hollowness_.
+Finally and chiefly, observe that the painter is not satisfied even with
+all the suggestiveness thus obtained, but to make sure of us, and force
+us, whether we will or no, to walk his way, and not ours, the trunks of
+the trees on the right are all cloven into yawning and writhing heads
+and bodies, and alive with dragon energy all about us, note especially
+the nearest with its gaping jaws and claw-like branch at the seeming
+shoulder; a kind of suggestion which in itself is not imaginative, but
+merely fanciful, (using the term fancy in that third sense not yet
+explained, corresponding to the third office of imagination;) but it is
+imaginative in its present use and application, for the painter
+addresses thereby that morbid and fearful condition of mind which he has
+endeavored to excite in the spectator, and which in reality would have
+seen in every trunk and bough, as it penetrated into the deeper thicket,
+the object of its terror.
+
+
+Sec. 15. Imagination addresses itself to imagination.
+
+Instances from the works of Tintoret.
+
+It is nevertheless evident, that however suggestive the work or picture
+may be, it cannot have effect unless we are ourselves both watchful of
+its very hint, and capable of understanding and carrying it out, and
+although I think that this power of continuing or accepting the
+direction of feeling given is less a peculiar gift, like that of the
+original seizing, than a faculty dependent on attention, and improvable
+by cultivation; yet, to a certain extent, the imaginative work will not,
+I think, be rightly esteemed except by a mind of some corresponding
+power; not but that there is an intense enjoyment in minds of feeble yet
+light conception in the help and food they get from those of stronger
+thought; but a certain imaginative susceptibility is at any rate
+necessary, and above all things, earnestness and feeling, so that
+assuredly a work of high conceptive dignity will be always
+incomprehensible and valueless except in those who go to it in earnest
+and give it time; and this is peculiarly the case when the imagination
+acts not merely on the immediate subject, nor in giving a fanciful and
+peculiar character to prominent objects, as we have just seen, but
+busies itself throughout in expressing occult and far-sought sympathies
+in every minor detail, of which action the most sublime instances are
+found in the works of Tintoret, whose intensity of imagination is such
+that there is not the commonest subject to which he will not attach a
+range of suggestiveness almost limitless, nor a stone, leaf, or shadow,
+nor anything so small, but he will give it meaning and oracular voice.
+
+
+Sec. 16. The Entombment.
+
+In the centre of the gallery at Parma, there is a canvas of Tintoret's,
+whose sublimity of conception and grandeur of color are seen in the
+highest perfection, by their opposition to the morbid and vulgar
+sentimentalism of Correggio. It is an Entombment of Christ, with a
+landscape distance, of whose technical composition and details I shall
+have much to say hereafter, at present I speak only of the thought it is
+intended to convey. An ordinary or unimaginative painter would have made
+prominent, among his objects of landscape, such as might naturally be
+supposed to have been visible from the sepulchre, and shown with the
+crosses of Calvary, some portion of Jerusalem, or of the Valley of
+Jehoshaphat. But Tintoret has a far higher aim. Dwelling on the peculiar
+force of the event before him, as the fulfilment of the final prophecy
+respecting the passion, "He made his grave with the wicked and with the
+_rich_ in his death," he desires to direct the mind of the spectator to
+this receiving of the body of Christ, in its contrast with the houseless
+birth and the desert life. And, therefore, behind the ghastly tomb-grass
+that shakes its black and withered blades above the rocks of the
+sepulchre, there is seen, not the actual material distance of the spot
+itself, (though the crosses are shown faintly,) but that to which the
+thoughtful spirit would return in vision, a desert place, where the
+foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, and against the
+barred twilight of the melancholy sky are seen the mouldering beams and
+shattered roofing of a ruined cattle-shed, the canopy of the nativity.
+
+
+Sec. 17. The Annunciation.
+
+Let us take another instance. No subject has been more frequently or
+exquisitely treated by the religious painters than that of the
+Annunciation, though as usual, the most perfect type of its pure ideal
+has been given by Angelico, and by him with the most radiant
+consummation (so far as I know) in a small reliquary in the sacristy of
+St^a. Maria Novella. The background there, however, is altogether
+decorative; but in the fresco of the corridor of St. Mark's, the
+concomitant circumstances are of exceeding loveliness. The Virgin sits
+in an open loggia, resembling that of the Florentine church of
+L'Annunziata. Before her is a meadow of rich herbage, covered with
+daisies. Behind her is seen through the door at the end of the loggia,
+her chamber with its single grated window, through which a star-like
+beam of light falls into the silence. All is exquisite in feeling, but
+not inventive nor imaginative. Severe would be the shock and painful the
+contrast, if we could pass in an instant from that pure vision to the
+wild thought of Tintoret. For not in meek reception of the adoring
+messenger, but startled by the rush of his horizontal and rattling
+wings, the virgin sits, not in the quiet loggia, not by the green
+pasture of the restored soul, but houseless, under the shelter of a
+palace vestibule ruined and abandoned, with the noise of the axe and the
+hammer in her ears, and the tumult of a city round about her desolation.
+The spectator turns away at first, revolted, from the central object of
+the picture, forced painfully and coarsely forward, a mass of shattered
+brickwork, with the plaster mildewed away from it, and the mortar
+mouldering from its seams; and if he look again, either at this or at
+the carpenter's tools beneath it, will perhaps see in the one and the
+other, nothing more than such a study of scene as Tintoret could but too
+easily obtain among the ruins of his own Venice, chosen to give a coarse
+explanation of the calling and the condition of the husband of Mary. But
+there is more meant than this. When he looks at the composition of the
+picture, he will find the whole symmetry of it depending on a narrow
+line of light, the edge of a carpenter's square, which connects these
+unused tools with an object at the top of the brickwork, a white stone,
+four square, the corner-stone of the old edifice, the base of its
+supporting column. This, I think, sufficiently explains the typical
+character of the whole. The ruined house is the Jewish dispensation,
+that obscurely arising in the dawning of the sky is the Christian; but
+the corner-stone of the old building remains, though the builder's tools
+lie idle beside it, and the stone which the builders refused is become
+the Headstone of the corner.
+
+
+Sec. 18. The Baptism of Christ. Its treatment by various painters.
+
+In this picture, however, the force of the thought hardly atones for the
+painfulness of the scene and the turbulence of its feeling. The power of
+the master is more strikingly shown in his treatment of a subject which,
+however important, and however deep in its meaning, supplies not to the
+ordinary painter material enough ever to form a picture of high
+interest; the Baptism of Christ. From the purity of Giotto to the
+intolerable, inconceivable brutality of Salvator,[61] every order of
+feeling has been displayed in its treatment; but I am aware of no single
+case, except this of which I am about to speak, in which it has formed
+an impressive picture.
+
+Giotto's, in the Academy of Florence, engraved in the series just
+published, (Galleria delle belle Arti,) is one of the most touching I
+know, especially in the reverent action of the attendant angels, and
+Leonardo's angel in that of Andrea del Verrocchio is very beautiful, but
+the event is one whose character and importance are ineffable upon the
+features: the descending dove hardly affects us, because its constant
+symbolical occurrence hardens us, and makes us look on it as a mere type
+or letter, instead of the actual presence of the Spirit; and by all the
+sacred painters the power that might be put into the landscape is lost,
+for though their use of foliage and distant sky or mountain is usually
+very admirable, as we shall see in the fifth chapter, yet they cannot
+deal with near water or rock, and the hexagonal and basaltic
+protuberances of their river shore are I think too painful to be endured
+even by the most acceptant mind, as eminently in that of Angelico, in
+the Vita di Christo, which, as far as I can judge, is a total failure in
+action, expression, and all else; and in general it is in this subject
+especially, that the greatest painters show their weakness. For this
+reason, I suppose, and feeling the difficulty of it, Tintoret has thrown
+into it his utmost strength, and it becomes noble in his hands by his
+most singularly imaginative expression, not only of the immediate fact,
+but of the whole train of thought of which it is suggestive; and by his
+considering the baptism not only as the submission of Christ to the
+fulfilment of all righteousness, but as the opening of the earthly
+struggle with the prince of the powers of the air, which instantly
+beginning in the temptation, ended only on the cross.
+
+
+Sec. 19. By Tintoret.
+
+The river flows fiercely under the shadow of a great rock. From its
+opposite shore, thickets of close, gloomy foliage rise against the
+rolling chasm of heaven, through which breaks the brightness of the
+descending Spirit. Across these, dividing them asunder, is stretched a
+horizontal floor of flaky cloud, on which stand the hosts of heaven.
+Christ kneels upon the water, and does not sink; the figure of St. John
+is indistinct, but close beside his raised right arm there is a spectre
+in the black shade; the fiend, harpy-shaped, hardly seen, glares down
+upon Christ with eyes of fire, waiting his time. Beneath this figure
+there comes out of the mist a dark hand, the arm unseen, extended to a
+net in the river, the spars of which are in the shape of a cross.
+Behinds this the roots and under stems of the trees are cut away by the
+cloud, and beneath it, and through them, is seen a vision of wild,
+melancholy, boundless light, the sweep of the desert, and the figure of
+Christ is seen therein alone, with his arms lifted as in supplication or
+ecstacy, borne of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
+devil.
+
+There are many circumstances which combine to give to this noble work a
+more than usually imaginative character. The symbolical use of the net,
+which is the cross net still used constantly in the canals of Venice,
+and common throughout Italy, is of the same character as that of the
+carpenter's tools in the Annunciation; but the introduction of the
+spectral figure is of bolder reach, and yet more, that vision of the
+after temptation which is expressly indicated as a subject of thought
+rather than of sight, because it is in a part of the scene, which in
+_fact_ must have been occupied by the trunks of the trees whose tops are
+seen above; and another circumstance completes the mystic character of
+the whole, that the flaky clouds which support the angelic hosts take on
+the right, where the light first falls upon them, the shape of the head
+of a fish, the well-known type both of the baptismal sacrament, and of
+Christ.
+
+
+Sec. 20. The Crucifixion.
+
+But the most exquisite instance of this imaginative power occurs in an
+incident in the background of the Crucifixion. I will not insult this
+marvellous picture by an effort at a verbal account of it. I would not
+whitewash it with praise, and I refer to it only for the sake of two
+thoughts peculiarly illustrative of the intellectual faculty immediately
+under discussion. In the common and most catholic treatment of the
+subject, the mind is either painfully directed to the bodily agony,
+coarsely expressed by outward anatomical signs, or else it is permitted
+to rest on that countenance inconceivable by man at any time, but
+chiefly so in this its consummated humiliation. In the first case, the
+representation is revolting; in the second, inefficient, false, and
+sometimes blasphemous. None even of the greatest religious painters have
+ever, so far as I know, succeeded here; Giotto and Angelico were cramped
+by the traditional treatment, and the latter especially, as before
+observed, is but too apt to indulge in those points of vitiated feeling
+which attained their worst development among the Byzantines: Perugino
+fails in his Christ in almost every instance (of other men than these
+after them we need not speak.) But Tintoret here, as in all other cases,
+penetrating into the root and deep places of his subject, despising all
+outward and bodily appearances of pain, and seeking for some means of
+expressing, not the rack of nerve or sinew, but the fainting of the
+deserted Son of God before his Eloi cry, and yet feeling himself utterly
+unequal to the expression of this by the countenance, has on the one
+hand filled his picture with such various and impetuous muscular
+exertion that the body of the Crucified is, by comparison, in perfect
+repose, and on the other has cast the countenance altogether into shade.
+But the agony is told by this, and by this only, that though there yet
+remains a chasm of light on the mountain horizon where the earthquake
+darkness closes upon the day, the broad and sunlike glory about the head
+of the Redeemer has become wan, and of the color of ashes.[62]
+
+But the great painter felt he had something more to do yet. Not only
+that agony of the Crucified, but the tumult of the people, that rage
+which invoked his blood upon them and their children. Not only the
+brutality of the soldier, the apathy of the centurion, nor any other
+merely instrumental cause of the Divine suffering, but the fury of his
+own people, the noise against him of those for whom he died, were to be
+set before the eye of the understanding, if the power of the picture was
+to be complete. This rage, be it remembered, was one of disappointed
+pride; and the disappointment dated essentially from the time, when but
+five days before, the King of Zion came, and was received with
+hosannahs, riding upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. To this
+time, then, it was necessary to direct the thoughts, for therein are
+found both the cause and the character, the excitement of, and the
+witness against, this madness of the people. In the shadow behind the
+cross, a man, riding on an ass colt, looks back to the multitude, while
+he points with a rod to the Christ crucified. The ass is feeding on the
+_remnants_ of _withered palm-leaves_.
+
+With this master-stroke I believe I may terminate all illustration of
+the peculiar power of the imagination over the feelings of the
+spectator, by the elevation into dignity and meaning of the smallest
+accessory circumstances. But I have not yet sufficiently dwelt on the
+fact from which this power arises, the absolute truth of statement of
+the central fact as it was, or must have been. Without this truth, this
+awful first moving principle, all direction of the feelings is useless.
+That which we cannot excite, it is of no use to know how to govern.
+
+
+Sec. 21. The Massacre of innocents.
+
+I have before alluded, Sect. I. Chap. XIV., to the painfulness of
+Raffaelle's treatment of the massacre of the innocents. Fuseli affirms
+of it that, "in dramatic gradation he disclosed all the mother through
+every image of pity and of terror." If this be so, I think the
+philosophical spirit has prevailed over the imaginative. The imagination
+never errs, it sees all that is, and all the relations and bearings of
+it, but it would not have confused the mortal frenzy of maternal terror
+with various development of maternal character. Fear, rage, and agony,
+at their utmost pitch, sweep away all character: humanity itself would
+be lost in maternity, the woman would become the mere personification of
+animal fury or fear. For this reason all the ordinary representations of
+this subject are, I think, false and cold: the artist has not heard the
+shrieks, nor mingled with the fugitives, he has sat down in his study to
+twist features methodically, and philosophize over insanity. Not so
+Tintoret. Knowing or feeling, that the expression of the human face was
+in such circumstances not to be rendered, and that the effort could only
+end in an ugly falsehood, he denies himself all aid from the features,
+he feels that if he is to place himself or us in the midst of that
+maddened multitude, there can be no time allowed for watching
+expression. Still less does he depend on details of murder or
+ghastliness of death; there is no blood, no stabbing or cutting, but
+there is an awful substitute for these in the chiaroscuro. The scene is
+the outer vestibule of a palace, the slippery marble floor is fearfully
+barred across by sanguine shadows, so that our eyes seem to become
+bloodshot and strained with strange horror and deadly vision; a lake of
+life before them, like the burning seen of the doomed Moabite on the
+water that came by the way of Edom; a huge flight of stairs, without
+parapet, descends on the left; down this rush a crowd of women mixed
+with the murderers; the child in the arms of one has been seized by the
+limbs, she hurls herself over the edge, and falls head downmost,
+dragging the child out of the grasp by her weight;--she will be dashed
+dead in a second: two others are farther in flight, they reach the edge
+of a deep river,--the water is beat into a hollow by the force of their
+plunge;--close to us is the great struggle, a heap of the mothers
+entangled in one mortal writhe with each other and the swords, one of
+the murderers dashed down and crushed beneath them, the sword of another
+caught by the blade and dragged at by a woman's naked hand; the
+youngest and fairest of the women, her child just torn away from a death
+grasp and clasped to her breast with the grip of a steel vice, falls
+backwards helplessly over the heap, right on the sword points; all knit
+together and hurled down in one hopeless, frenzied, furious abandonment
+of body and soul in the effort to save. Their shrieks ring in our ears
+till the marble seems rending around us, but far back, at the bottom of
+the stairs, there is something in the shadow like a heap of clothes. It
+is a woman, sitting quiet,--quite quiet--still as any stone, she looks
+down steadfastly on her dead child, laid along on the floor before her,
+and her hand is pressed softly upon her brow.
+
+
+Sec. 22. Various works in the Scuola di San Rocco.
+
+Sec. 23. The Last Judgment. How treated by various painters.
+
+This, to my mind, is the only imaginative; that is, the only true, real,
+heartfelt representation of the being and actuality of the subject in
+existence.[63] I should exhaust the patience of the reader if I were to
+dwell at length on the various stupendous developments of the
+imagination of Tintoret in the Scuola di San Rocco alone. I would fain
+join a while in that solemn pause of the journey into Egypt, where the
+silver boughs of the shadowy trees lace with their tremulous lines the
+alternate folds of fair clouds, flushed by faint crimson light, and lie
+across the streams of blue between those rosy islands, like the white
+wakes of wandering ships; or watch beside the sleep of the disciples
+among those massy leaves that lie so heavily on the dead of the night
+beneath the descent of the angel of the agony, and toss fearfully above
+the motion of the torches as the troop of the betrayer emerges out of
+the hollows of the olives; or wait through the hour of accusing beside
+the judgment seat of Pilate, where all is unseen, unfelt, except the one
+figure that stands with its head bowed down, pale like a pillar of
+moonlight, half bathed in the glory of the Godhead, half wrapt in the
+whiteness of the shroud. Of these and all the other thoughts of
+indescribable power that are now fading from the walls of those
+neglected chambers, I may perhaps endeavor at some future time to
+preserve some image and shadow more faithfully than by words; but I
+shall at present terminate our series of illustrations by reference to a
+work of less touching, but more tremendous appeal, the Last Judgment in
+the Church of Santa Maria dell' Orto. In this subject, almost all
+realizing or local statement had been carefully avoided by the most
+powerful painters, they judging it better to represent its chief
+circumstances as generic thoughts, and present them to the mind in a
+typical or abstract form. In the judgment of Angelico the treatment is
+purely typical, a long Campo santo, composed of two lines of graves,
+stretches away into the distance; on the left side of it rise the
+condemned; on the right the just. With Giotto and Orcagna, the
+conception, though less rigid, is equally typical, no effort being made
+at the suggestion of space, and only so much ground represented as is
+absolutely necessary to support the near figures and allow space for a
+few graves. Michael Angelo in no respect differs in his treatment,
+except that his figures are less symmetrically grouped, and a greater
+conception of space is given by their various perspective. No interest
+is attached to his background in itself. Fra Bartolomeo, never able to
+grapple with any species of sublimity except that of simple religious
+feeling, fails most signally in this mighty theme.[64] His group of the
+dead, including not more than ten or twelve figures, occupies the
+foreground only, behind them a vacant plain extends to the foot of a
+cindery volcano, about whose mouth several little black devils like
+spiders are skipping and crawling. The judgment of quick and dead is
+thus expressed as taking place in about a rood square, and on a dozen of
+people at a time; the whole of the space and horizon of the sky and land
+being left vacant, and the presence of the Judge of all the earth made
+more finite than the sweep of a whirlwind or a thunder-storm.
+
+
+Sec. 24. By Tintoret.
+
+By Tintoret only has this unimaginable event been grappled with in its
+verity; not typically nor symbolically, but as they may see it who shall
+not sleep, but be changed. Only one traditional circumstance he has
+received with Dante and Michael Angelo, the boat of the condemned; but
+the impetuosity of his mind bursts out even in the adoption of this
+image, he has not stopped at the scowling ferryman of the one, nor at
+the sweeping blow and demon dragging of the other, but, seized
+Hylas-like by the limbs, and tearing up the earth in his agony, the
+victim is dashed into his destruction; nor is it the sluggish Lethe, nor
+the fiery lake that bears the cursed vessel, but the oceans of the earth
+and the waters of the firmament gathered into one white, ghastly
+cataract, the river of the wrath of God, roaring down into the gulf
+where the world has melted with its fervent heat, choked with the ruin
+of nations, and the limbs of its corpses tossed out of its whirling,
+like water-wheels. Bat like, out of the holes and caverns and shadows of
+the earth, the bones gather, and the clay-heaps heave, rattling and
+adhering into half-kneaded anatomies, that crawl, and startle, and
+struggle up among the putrid weeds, with the clay clinging to their
+clotted hair, and their heavy eyes sealed by the earth darkness yet,
+like his of old who went his way unseeing to Siloam Pool; shaking off
+one by one the dreams of the prison-house, hardly hearing the clangor of
+the trumpets of the armies of God, blinded yet more, as they awake, by
+the white light of the new Heaven, until the great vortex of the four
+winds bears up their bodies to the judgment seat: the firmament is all
+full of them, a very dust of human souls, that drifts, and floats, and
+falls in the interminable, inevitable light; the bright clouds are
+darkened with them as with thick snow, currents of atom life in the
+arteries of heaven, now soaring up slowly, farther, and higher, and
+higher still, till the eye and the thought can follow no farther, borne
+up, wingless, by their inward faith and by the angel powers invisible,
+now hurled in countless drifts of horror before the breath of their
+condemnation.
+
+
+Sec. 25. The imaginative verity, how distinguished from realism.
+
+Now, I wish the reader particularly to observe throughout all these
+works of Tintoret, the distinction of the imaginative verity from
+falsehood on the one hand, and from realism on the other. The power of
+every picture depends on the penetration of the imagination into the
+TRUE nature of the thing represented, and on the utter scorn of the
+imagination for all shackles and fetters of mere external fact that
+stand in the way of its suggestiveness. In the Baptism it cuts away the
+trunks of trees as if they were so much cloud or vapor, that it may
+exhibit to the thought the completed sequency of the scene;[65] in the
+Massacre, it covers the marble floor with visionary light, that it may
+strike terror into the spectator without condescending to butchery; it
+defies the bare fact, but creates in him the fearful feeling; in the
+Crucifixion it annihilates locality, and brings the palm-leaves to
+Calvary, so only that it may bear the mind to the mount of Olives, as in
+the entombment it brings the manger to Jerusalem, that it may take the
+heart to Bethlehem; and all this it does in the daring consciousness of
+its higher and spiritual verity, and in the entire knowledge of the fact
+and substance of all that it touches. The imaginary boat of the demon
+angel expands the rush of the visible river into the descent of
+irresistible condemnation; but to make that rush and roar felt by the
+eye and heard by the ear, the rending of the pine branches above the
+cataract is taken directly from nature; it is an abstract of Alpine
+storm. Hence while we are always placed face to face with whatever is to
+be told, there is in and beyond its reality a voice supernatural; and
+that which is doubtful in the vision has strength, sinew, and
+assuredness, built up in it by fact.
+
+
+Sec. 26. The imagination how manifested in sculpture.
+
+Let us, however, still advance one step farther, and observe the
+imaginative power deprived of all aid from chiaroscuro, color, or any
+other means of concealing the frame-work of its thoughts.
+
+It was said by Michael Angelo that "non ha l'ottimo scultore alcun
+concetto, Ch'un marmo solo in se non circoscriva," a sentence which,
+though in the immediate sense intended by the writer it may remind us a
+little of the indignation of Boileau's Pluto, "Il s'ensuit de la que
+tout ce qui se peut dire de beau, est dans les dictionnaires,--il n'y a
+que les paroles qui sont transposees," yet is valuable, because it shows
+us that Michael Angelo held the imagination to be entirely expressible
+in rock, and therefore altogether independent, in its own nature, of
+those aids of color and shade by which it is recommended in Tintoret,
+though the sphere of its operation is of course by these incalculably
+extended. But the presence of the imagination may be rendered in marble
+as deep, thrilling, and awful as in painting, so that the sculptor seek
+for the soul and govern the body thereby.
+
+
+Sec. 27. Bandinelli, Canova, Mino da Fiesole.
+
+Sec. 28. Michael Angelo.
+
+Of unimaginative work, Bandinelli and Canova supply us with
+characteristic instances of every kind, the Hercules and Cacus of the
+former, and its criticism by Cellini, will occur at once to every one;
+the disgusting statue now placed so as to conceal Giotto's important
+tempera picture in Santa Croce is a better instance, but a still more
+impressive lesson might be received by comparing the inanity of Canova's
+garland grace, and ball-room sentiment with the intense truth,
+tenderness, and power of men like Mino da Fiesole, whose chisel leaves
+many a hard edge, and despises down and dimple, but it seems to cut
+light and carve breath, the marble burns beneath it, and becomes
+transparent with very spirit. Yet Mino stopped at the human nature; he
+saw the soul, but not the ghostly presences about it; it was reserved
+for Michael Angelo to pierce deeper yet, and to see the indwelling
+angels. No man's soul is alone: Laocoon or Tobit, the serpent has it by
+the heart or the angel by the hand, the light or the fear of the
+spiritual things that move beside it may be seen on the body; and that
+bodily form with Buonaroti, white, solid, distinct material, though it
+be, is invariably felt as the instrument or the habitation of some
+infinite, invisible power. The earth of the Sistine Adam that begins to
+burn; the woman embodied burst of adoration from his sleep; the twelve
+great torrents of the Spirit of God that pause above us there, urned in
+their vessels of clay; the waiting in the shadow of futurity of those
+through whom the promise and presence of God went down from the Eve to
+the Mary, each still and fixed, fixed in his expectation, silent,
+foreseeing, faithful, seated each on his stony throne, the building
+stones of the word of God, building on and on, tier by tier, to the
+Refused one, the head of the corner; not only these, not only the troops
+of terror torn up from the earth by the four quartered winds of the
+Judgment, but every fragment and atom of stone that he ever touched
+became instantly inhabited by what makes the hair stand up and the words
+be few; the St. Matthew, not yet disengaged from his sepulchre, bound
+hand and foot by his grave clothes, it is left for us to loose him; the
+strange spectral wreath of the Florence Pieta, casting its pyramidal,
+distorted shadow, full of pain and death, among the faint purple lights
+that cross and perish under the obscure dome of St^a. Maria del Fiore,
+the white lassitude of joyous limbs, panther like, yet passive, fainting
+with their own delight, that gleam among the Pagan formalisms of the
+Uffizii, far away, showing themselves in their lustrous lightness as the
+waves of an Alpine torrent do by their dancing among the dead stones,
+though the stones be as white as they:[66] and finally, and perhaps more
+than all, those four ineffable types, not of darkness nor of day--not of
+morning nor evening, but of the departure and the resurrection, the
+twilight and the dawn of the souls of men--together with the spectre
+sitting in the shadow of the niche above them;[67] all these, and all
+else that I could name of his forming, have borne, and in themselves
+retain and exercise the same inexplicable power--inexplicable because
+proceeding from an imaginative perception almost superhuman, which goes
+whither we cannot follow, and is where we cannot come; throwing naked
+the final, deepest root of the being of man, whereby he grows out of the
+invisible, and holds on his God home.[68]
+
+
+Sec. 29. Recapitulation. The perfect function of the imagination is the
+ intuitive perception of ultimate truth.
+
+Now, in all these instances, let it be observed, for it is to that end
+alone that I have been arguing all along, that the virtue of the
+imagination is its reaching, by intuition and intensity of gaze, (not by
+reasoning, but by its authoritative opening and revealing power,) a
+more essential truth than is seen at the surface of things. I repeat
+that it matters not whether the reader is willing call this faculty
+imagination or no, I do not care about the name; but I would be
+understood when I speak of imagination hereafter, to mean this, the true
+foundation of all art which exercises eternal authority over men's
+minds; (all other imagination than this is either secondary and
+contemplative, or utterly spurious;) the base of whose authority and
+being is its perpetual thirst of truth and purpose to be true. It has no
+food, no delight, no care, no perception, except of truth; it is forever
+looking under masks, and burning up mists; no fairness of form, no
+majesty of seeming will satisfy it; the first condition of its
+existence is incapability of being deceived; and though it sometimes
+dwells upon and substantiates the fictions of fancy, yet its own
+operation is to trace to their farthest limit the true laws and
+likelihoods even of the fictitious creation. This has been well
+explained by Fuseli, in his allusion to the Centaur of Zeuxis; and there
+is not perhaps a greater exertion of imaginative power than may be
+manifested in following out to their farthest limits the necessary
+consequences of such arbitrary combination; but let not the jests of the
+fancy be confounded with that after serious work of the imagination
+which gives them all the nervous verity and substance of which they are
+capable. Let not the monsters of Chinese earthenware be confounded with
+the Faun, Satyr, or Centaur.
+
+
+Sec. 30. Imagination now vulgarly understood.
+
+How different this definition of the imagination may be from the idea of
+it commonly entertained among us, I can hardly say, because I have a
+very indistinct idea of what is usually meant by the term. I hear modern
+works constantly praised as being imaginative, in which I can trace no
+virtue of any kind; but simple, slavish, unpalliated falsehood and
+exaggeration; I see not what merit there can be in pure, ugly, resolute
+fiction; it is surely easy enough to be wrong; there are many ways of
+being unlike nature. I understand not what virtue that is which entitles
+one of these ways to be called imaginative, rather than another; and I
+am still farther embarrassed by hearing the portions of those works
+called especially imaginative in which there is the most effort at
+minute and mechanical statement of contemptible details, and in which
+the artist would have been as actual and absolute in imitation as an
+echo, if he had known how. Against convictions which I do not
+understand, I cannot argue; but I may warn the artist that imagination
+of this strange kind, is not capable of bearing the time test; nothing
+of its doing ever has continued its influence over men; and if he
+desires to take place among the great men of older time, there is but
+one way for it; and one kind of imagination that will stand the immortal
+light: I know not how far it is by effort cultivable; but we have
+evidence enough before us to show in what direction that effort must be
+made.
+
+
+Sec. 31. How its cultivation is dependent on the moral feelings.
+
+We have seen (Sec. 10) that the imagination is in no small degree
+dependent on acuteness of moral emotion; in fact, all moral truth can
+only thus be apprehended--and it is observable, generally, that all true
+and deep emotion is imaginative, both in conception and expression; and
+that the mental sight becomes sharper with every full beat of the heart;
+and, therefore, all egotism, and selfish care, or regard, are in
+proportion to their constancy, destructive of imagination; whose play
+and power depend altogether on our being able to forget ourselves and
+enter like possessing spirits into the bodies of things about us.
+
+
+Sec. 32. On independence of mind.
+
+Again, as the life of imagination is in the discovering of truth, it is
+clear it can have no respect for sayings or opinions: knowing in itself
+when it has invented truly--restless and tormented except when it has
+this knowledge, its sense of success or failure is too acute to be
+affected by praise or blame. Sympathy it desires--but can do without; of
+opinions it is regardless, not in pride, but because it has no vanity,
+and is conscious of a rule of action and object of aim in which it
+cannot be mistaken; partly, also, in pure energy of desire and longing
+to do and to invent more and more, which suffer it not to suck the
+sweetness of praise--unless a little, with the end of the rod in its
+hand, and without pausing in its march. It goes straight forward up the
+hill; no voices nor mutterings can turn it back, nor petrify it from its
+purpose.[69]
+
+
+Sec. 33. And on habitual reference to nature.
+
+Finally, it is evident, that like the theoretic faculty, the imagination
+must be fed constantly by external nature--after the illustrations we
+have given, this may seem mere truism, for it is clear that to the
+exercise of the penetrative faculty a subject of penetration is
+necessary; but I note it because many painters of powerful mind have
+been lost to the world by their suffering the restless writhing of their
+imagination in its cage to take place of its healthy and exulting
+activity in the fields of nature. The most imaginative men always study
+the hardest, and are the most thirsty for new knowledge. Fancy plays
+like a squirrel in its circular prison, and is happy; but imagination is
+a pilgrim on the earth--and her home is in heaven. Shut her from the
+fields of the celestial mountains--bar her from breathing their lofty,
+sun-warmed air; and we may as well turn upon her the last bolt of the
+tower of famine, and give the keys to the keeping of the wildest surge
+that washes Capraja and Gorgona.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [56] Compare Arist. Rhet. III. 11.
+
+ [57] For the distinction between fancy and simple conception; see
+ Chap. IV. Sec. 3.
+
+ [58] I take this and the next instance from Leigh Hunt's admirable
+ piece of criticism, "Imagination and Fancy," which ought to be read
+ with care, and to which, though somewhat loosely arranged, I may
+ refer for all the filling up and illustration that the subject
+ requires. With respect to what has just been said respecting want of
+ imagination, compare his criticism of Addison's Cato, p. 28. I
+ cannot, however, confirm his judgment, nor admit his selection of
+ instances, among painters: he has looked to their manner only and
+ habitual choice of subject, without feeling their power; and has
+ given work to the coarseness, mindlessness, and eclecticism of Guido
+ and the Carracci, which in its poetical demand of tenderness might
+ have foiled Pinturicchio; of dignity, Leonardo; and of color,
+ Giorgione.
+
+ [59] Fancy, in her third function may, however, become serious, and
+ gradually rise into imagination in doing so. Compare Chap. IV. Sec. 5.
+
+ [60] I am describing from a proof: in bad impressions this trunk is
+ darkened.
+
+ [61] The picture is in the Guadagni palace. It is one of the most
+ important landscapes Salvator ever painted. The figures are studied
+ from street beggars. On the one side of the river, exactly opposite
+ the point where the Baptism of Christ takes place, the painter, with
+ a refinement of feeling peculiarly his own, has introduced some
+ ruffians stripping off their shirts to bathe. He is fond of this
+ incident. It occurs again in one of the marines of the Pitti palace,
+ with the additional interest of a foreshortened figure, swimming on
+ its back, feet foremost, exactly in the stream of light to which the
+ eye is principally directed.
+
+ [62] This circumstance, like most that lie not at the surface, has
+ escaped Fuseli, though his remarks on the general tone of the
+ picture are very good, as well as his opposition of it to the
+ treatment of Rubens. (Lecture IX.)
+
+ [63] Note the shallow and uncomprehending notice of this picture by
+ Fuseli. His description of the treatment of it by other painters is
+ however true, terse, and valuable.
+
+ [64] Fresco in an out-house of the Ospedale St^a. Maria Nuova at
+ Florence.
+
+ [65] The same thing is done yet more boldly in the large composition
+ of the ceiling; the plague of fiery serpents; a part of the host,
+ and another sky horizon are seen through an opening in the ground.
+
+ [66] The Bacchus. There is a small statue opposite it
+ also--unfinished, but "a spirit still."
+
+ [67] I would have insisted more on the ghostly vitality of this
+ dreadful statue; but the passage referring to it in Rogers's Italy
+ supersedes all further description. I suppose most lovers of art
+ know it by heart.
+
+ "Nor then forget that chamber of the dead,
+ Where the gigantic shapes of Night and Day,
+ Turned into stone, rest everlastingly;
+ Yet still are breathing, and shed round at noon
+ A twofold influence,--only to be felt--
+ A light, a darkness, mingling each with each;
+ Both, and yet neither. There, from age to age,
+ Two ghosts are sitting on their sepulchres.
+ That is the Duke Lorenzo. Mark him well.
+ He meditates, his head upon his hand.
+ What from beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls?
+ Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull?
+ 'Tis lost in shade; yet, like the basilisk,
+ It fascinates, and is intolerable.
+ His mien is noble, most majestical!
+ Then most so, when the distant choir is heard
+ At morn or eve--nor fail thou to attend
+ On that thrice-hallowed day, when all are there;
+ When all, propitiating with solemn songs,
+ Visit the Dead. Then wilt thou feel his power!"
+
+ It is strange that this should be the only written instance (as far
+ as I recollect) of just and entire appreciation of Michael Angelo's
+ spiritual power. It is perhaps owing to the very intensity of his
+ imagination that he has been so little understood--for, as I before
+ said, imagination can never be met by vanity, nor without
+ earnestness. His Florentine followers saw in him an anatomist and
+ posture-master--and art was finally destroyed by the influence over
+ admiring idiocy of the greatest mind that art ever inspired.
+
+ [68] I have not chosen to interrupt the argument respecting the
+ essence of the imaginative faculty by any remarks on the execution
+ of the imaginative hand; but we can hardly leave Tintoret and
+ Michael Angelo without some notice of the pre-eminent power of
+ execution exhibited by both of them, in consequence of their vigor
+ and clearness of conception; nor without again warning the lower
+ artist from confounding this velocity of decision and impatience
+ with the velocity of affectation or indolence. Every result of real
+ imagination we have seen to be a truth of some sort; and it is the
+ characteristic of truth to be in some way tangible, seizable,
+ distinguishable, and clear, as it is of falsehood to be obscure,
+ confused, and confusing. Not but that many, if not most truths have
+ a dark side, a side by which they are connected with mysteries too
+ high for us,--nay, I think it is commonly but a poor and miserable
+ truth which the human mind can walk all round, but at all events
+ they have one side by which we can lay hold of them, and feel that
+ they are downright adamant, and that their form, though lost in
+ cloud here and there, is unalterable and real, and not less real and
+ rocky because infinite, and joined on, St. Michael's mount-like to a
+ far mainland. So then, whatever the real imagination lays hold of,
+ as it is a truth, does not alter into anything else as the
+ imaginative part works at it and feels over it and finds out more of
+ it, but comes out more and more continually, all that is found out
+ pointing to and indicating still more behind, and giving additional
+ stability and reality to that which is discovered already. But if it
+ be fancy or any other form of pseudo-imagination which is at work,
+ then that which it gets hold of may not be a truth, but only an
+ idea, which will keep giving way as soon as we try to take hold of
+ it and turning into something else, so that as we go on copying it,
+ every part will be inconsistent with all that has gone before, and
+ at intervals it will vanish altogether, and leave blanks which must
+ be filled up by any means at hand. And in these circumstances, the
+ painter, unable to seize his thought, because it has not substance
+ nor bone enough to bear grasping, is liable to catch at every line
+ that he lays down, for help and suggestion, and to be led away by it
+ to something else, which the first effort to realize dissipates in
+ like manner, placing another phantom in its stead, until out of the
+ fragments of these successive phantoms he has glued together a
+ vague, mindless, involuntary whole, a mixture of all that was trite
+ or common in each of the successive conceptions, for that is
+ necessarily what is first caught a heap of things with the bloom off
+ and the chill on, laborious, unnatural, inane, with its emptiness
+ disguised by affectation, and its tastelessness salted by
+ extravagance.
+
+ Necessarily, from these modes of conception, three vices of
+ execution must result; and these are necessarily found in all those
+ parts of the work where any trust has been put in conception, and
+ only to be avoided in portions of actual portraiture (for a
+ thoroughly unimaginative painter can make no use of a study--all his
+ studies are guesses and experiments, all are equally wrong, and so
+ far felt to be wrong by himself, that he will not work by any of
+ them, but will always endeavor to improve upon them in the picture,
+ and so lose the use of them). These three vices of execution are
+ then--first, feebleness of handling, owing to uncertainty of
+ intention; secondly, intentional carelessness of handling, in the
+ hope of getting by accident something more than was meant; and
+ lastly, violence and haste of handling, in the effort to secure as
+ much as possible of the obscure image of which the mind feels itself
+ losing hold. (I am throughout, it will be observed, attributing
+ right feeling to the unimaginative painter; if he lack this, his
+ execution may be cool and determined, as he will set down falsehood
+ without blushing, and ugliness without suffering.) Added to these
+ various evidences of weakness, will be the various vices assumed for
+ the sake of concealment; morbid refinements disguising
+ feebleness--or insolence and coarseness to cover desperation. When
+ the imagination is powerful, the resulting execution is of course
+ the contrary of all this: its first steps will commonly be
+ impetuous, in clearing its ground and getting at its first
+ conception--as we know of Michael Angelo in his smiting his blocks
+ into shape, (see the passage quoted by Sir Charles Clarke in the
+ Essay on Expression, from Blaise de Vigenere,) and as it is visible
+ in the handling of Tintoret always: as the work approaches
+ completion, the stroke, while it remains certain and firm, because
+ its end is always known, may frequently become slow and careful,
+ both on account of the difficulty of following the pure lines of the
+ conception, and because there is no fear felt of the conception's
+ vanishing before it can be realized; but generally there is a
+ certain degree of impetuosity visible in the works of all the men of
+ high imagination, when they are not working from a study, showing
+ itself in Michael Angelo by the number of blocks he left unfinished,
+ and by some slight evidences in those he completed of his having
+ worked painfully towards the close; so that, except the Duke
+ Lorenzo, the Bacchus of the Florentine gallery, and the Pieta of
+ Genoa, I know not any of his finished works in which his mind is as
+ mightily expressed as in his marble sketches; only, it is always to
+ be observed that impetuosity or rudeness of hand is not
+ necessarily--and, if imaginative, is never--carelessness. In the two
+ landscapes at the end of the Scuola di San Rocco, Tintoret has drawn
+ several large tree trunks with two strokes of his brush--one for the
+ dark, and another for the light side; and the large rock at the foot
+ of the picture of the Temptation is painted with a few detached
+ touches of gray over a flat brown ground; but the touches of the
+ tree-trunks have been followed by the mind as they went down with
+ the most painful intensity through their every undulation; and the
+ few gray strokes on the stone are so considered that a better stone
+ cone could not be painted if we took a month to it: and I suppose,
+ generally, it would be utterly impossible to give an example of
+ execution in which less was left to accident, or in which more care
+ was concentrated in every stroke, than the seemingly regardless and
+ impetuous handling of this painter.
+
+ On the habit of both Tintoret and Michael Angelo to work straight
+ forward from the block and on the canvas, without study or model, it
+ is needless to insist; for though this is one of the most amazing
+ proofs of their imaginative power, it is a dangerous precedent. No
+ mode of execution ought ever to be taught to a young artist as
+ better than another; he ought to understand the truth of what he has
+ to do, felicitous execution will follow as a matter of course; and
+ if he feels himself capable of getting at the right at once, he will
+ naturally do so without reference to precedent. He ought to hold
+ always that his duty is to attain the highest result he can,--but
+ that no one has any business with the means or time he has taken. If
+ it can be done quickly, let it be so done; if not, let it be done at
+ any rate. For knowing his way he is answerable, and therefore must
+ not walk _doubtingly_; but no one can blame him for walking
+ _cautiously_, if the way be a narrow one, with a slip on each side.
+ He may pause, but he must not hesitate,--and tremble, but must not
+ vacillate.
+
+ [69] That which we know of the lives of M. Angelo and Tintoret is
+ eminently illustrative of this temper.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ OF IMAGINATION CONTEMPLATIVE.
+
+
+Sec. 1. Imagination contemplative is not part of the essence, but only a
+ habit or mode of the faculty.
+
+We have, in the two preceding chapters, arrived at definite conclusions
+respecting the power and essence of the imaginative faculty. In these
+two acts of penetration and combination, its separating and
+characteristic attributes are entirely developed; it remains for us only
+to observe a certain habit or mode of operation in which it frequently
+delights, and by which it addresses itself to our perceptions more
+forcibly, and asserts its presence more distinctly than in those mighty
+but more secret workings wherein its life consists.
+
+In our examination of the combining imagination, we chose to assume the
+first or simple conception to be as clear in the absence as in the
+presence of the object of it. This, I suppose, is in point of fact never
+the case, nor is an approximation to such distinctness of conception
+always a characteristic of the imaginative mind. Many persons have
+thorough and felicitous power of drawing from memory, yet never
+originate a thought, nor excite an emotion.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The ambiguity of conception.
+
+Sec. 3. Is not in itself capable of adding to the charm of fair things.
+
+The form in which conception actually occurs to ordinary minds appears
+to derive value and preciousness from that indefiniteness which we
+alluded to in the second chapter, (Sec. 2,) for there is an unfailing charm
+in the memory and anticipation of things beautiful, more sunny and
+spiritual than attaches to their presence; for with their presence it
+is possible to be sated, and even wearied, but with the imagination of
+them never; in so far that it needs some self-discipline to prevent the
+mind from falling into a morbid condition of dissatisfaction with all
+that it immediately possesses, and continual longing for things absent;
+and yet I think this charm is not justly to be attributed to the mere
+vagueness and uncertainty of the conception, except thus far, that of
+objects whose substantial presence was ugly or painful the sublimity and
+impressiveness, if there were any, is retained in the conception, while
+the sensual offensiveness is withdrawn; thus circumstances of horror may
+be safely touched in verbal description, and for a time dwelt upon by
+the mind, as often by Homer and Spenser, (by the latter frequently with
+too much grossness, as in the description of the combat of the Red-Cross
+Knight with Errour,) which could not for a moment be regarded or
+tolerated in their reality, or on canvas; and besides this mellowing and
+softening operation on those it retains, the conceptive faculty has the
+power of letting go many of them altogether out of its groups of ideas,
+and retaining only those where the meminisse juvabit will apply; and in
+this way the entire group of memories becomes altogether delightful; but
+of those parts of anything which are in themselves beautiful, I think
+the indistinctness no benefit, but that the brighter they are the
+better; and that the peculiar charm we feel in conception results from
+its grasp and blending of ideas rather than from their obscurity, for we
+do not usually recall, as we have seen, one part at a time only of a
+pleasant scene, one moment only of a happy day; but together with each
+single object we summon up a kind of crowded and involved shadowing
+forth of all the other glories with which it was associated, and into
+every moment we concentrate an epitome of the day; and it will happen
+frequently that even when the visible objects or actual circumstances
+are not in numbers remembered; yet the feeling and joy of them is
+obtained we know not how or whence, and so with a kind of conceptive
+burning glass we bend the sunshine of all the day, and the fulness of
+all the scene upon every point that we successively seize; and this
+together with more vivid action of fancy, for I think that the wilful
+and playful seizure of the points that suit her purpose and help her
+springing, whereby she is distinguished from simple conception, takes
+place more easily and actively with the memory of things than in
+presence of them. But, however this be, and I confess that there is much
+that I cannot satisfactorily to myself unravel with respect to the
+nature of simple conception; it is evident that this agreeableness,
+whatever it be, is not by art attainable, for all art is in some sort
+realization; it may be the realization of obscurity or indefiniteness,
+but still it must differ from the mere conception of obscurity and
+indefiniteness; so that whatever emotions depend absolutely on
+imperfectness of conception, as the horror of Milton's Death, cannot be
+rendered by art, for art can only lay hold of things which have shape,
+and destroys by its touch the fearfulness or pleasurableness of those
+which shape have none.
+
+
+Sec. 4. But gives to the imagination its regardant power over them.
+
+But on this indistinctness of conception, itself comparatively valueless
+and unaffecting, is based the operation of the imaginative faculty with
+which we are at present concerned, and in which its glory is
+consummated: whereby, depriving the subject of material and bodily
+shape, and regarding such of its qualities only as it chooses for
+particular purpose, it forges these qualities together in such groups
+and forms as it desires, and gives to their abstract being consistency
+and reality, by striking them as it were with the die of an image
+belonging to other matter, which stroke having once received, they pass
+current at once in the peculiar conjunction and for the peculiar value
+desired.
+
+Thus, in the description of Satan quoted in the first chapter, "And like
+a comet burned," the bodily shape of the angel is destroyed, the
+inflaming of the formless spirit is alone regarded; and this, and his
+power of evil associated in one fearful and abstract conception are
+stamped to give them distinctness and permanence with the image of the
+comet, "that fires the length of Ophiuchus huge." Yet this could not be
+done, but that the image of the comet itself is in a measure indistinct,
+capable of awful expansion, and full of threatening and fear. Again, in
+his fall, the imagination binds up the thunder, the resistance, the
+massy prostration, separates them from the external form, and binds them
+together by the help of that image of the mountain half sunk; which
+again would be unfit but for its own indistinctness, and for that
+glorious addition "with all his pines," whereby a vitality and
+spear-like hostility are communicated to its falling form, and the fall
+is marked as not utter subversion, but sinking only, the pines remaining
+in their uprightness, and unity, and threatening of darkness upon the
+descended precipice: and again in that yet more noble passage at the
+close of the fourth book, where almost every operation of the
+contemplative imagination is concentrated; the angelic squadron first
+gathered into one burning mass by the single expression "sharpening in
+mooned horns," then told out in their unity and multitude and stooped
+hostility, by the image of the wind upon the corn; Satan endowed with
+godlike strength and endurance in that mighty line, "like Teneriffe or
+Atlas, unremoved," with infinitude of size the next instant, and with
+all the vagueness and terribleness of spiritual power, by the "horror
+plumed," and the "_what seemed_ both spear and shield."
+
+
+Sec. 5. The third office of fancy distinguished from imagination
+ contemplative.
+
+The third function of fancy, already spoken of as subordinate to this of
+the imagination, is the highest of which she is capable; like the
+imagination, she beholds in the things submitted to her treatment things
+different from the actual; but the suggestions she follows are not in
+their nature essential in the object contemplated; and the images
+resulting, instead of illustrating, may lead the mind away from it, and
+change the current of contemplative feeling; for as in her operation
+parallel to imagination penetrative, we saw her dwelling upon external
+features, while the nobler sister, faculty, entered within, so now, when
+both, from what they see and know in their immediate object, are
+conjuring up images illustrative or elevatory of it, the fancy
+necessarily summons those of mere external relationship, and therefore
+of unaffecting influence; while the imagination, by every ghost she
+raises, tells tales about the prison-house, and therefore never loses
+her power over the heart, nor her unity of emotion. On the other hand,
+the regardant or contemplative action of fancy is in this different
+from, and in this nobler, than that mere seizing and likeness-catching
+operation we saw in her before; that when contemplative, she verily
+believes in the truth of the vision she has summoned, loses sight of
+actuality, and beholds the new and spiritual image faithfully and even
+seriously; whereas before, she summoned no spiritual image, but merely
+caught the vivid actuality, or the curious resemblance of the real
+object; not that these two operations are separate, for the fancy passes
+gradually from mere vivid right of reality, and witty suggestion of
+likeness, to a ghostly sight of what is unreal; and through this, in
+proportion as she begins to feel, she rises towards and partakes of
+imagination itself, for imagination and fancy are continually united,
+and it is necessary, when they are so, carefully to distinguish the
+feelingless part which is fancy's, from the sentient part, which is
+imagination's. Let us take a few instances. Here is fancy, first, very
+beautiful, in her simple capacity of likeness-catching:--
+
+ "To-day we purpose--aye, this hour we mount
+ To spur three leagues towards the Apennine.
+ Come down, we pray thee, ere the _hot sun count
+ His dewy rosary_ on the eglantine."
+
+Seizing on the outside resemblances of bead form, and on the slipping
+from their threading bough one by one, the fancy is content to lose the
+heart of the thing, the solemnity of prayer: or perhaps I do the
+glorious poet wrong in saying this, for the sense of a sun worship and
+orison in beginning its race, may have been in his mind; and so far as
+it was so, the passage is imaginative and not fanciful. But that which
+most readers would accept from it, is the mere flash of the external
+image, in whose truth the fancy herself does not yet believe and
+therefore is not yet contemplative. Here, however, is fancy believing in
+the images she creates:--
+
+ "It feeds the quick growth of the serpent-vine,
+ And the dark linked ivy tangling wild
+ And budding, blown, or odor faded blooms,
+ Which _star the winds with points of colored light_
+ As they rain through them; and _bright golden globes
+ Of fruit suspended in their own green heaven_."
+
+It is not, observe, a mere likeness that is caught here; but the flowers
+and fruit are entirely deprived by the fancy of their material
+existence, and contemplated by her seriously and faithfully as stars and
+worlds; yet it is only external likeness that she catches; she forces
+the resemblance, and lowers the dignity of the adopted image.
+
+Next take two delicious stanzas of fancy regardant, (believing in her
+creations,) followed by one of heavenly imagination, from Wordsworth's
+address to the daisy:--
+
+ "A Nun demure--of lowly port;
+ Or sprightly maiden--of Love's court,
+ In thy simplicity the sport
+ Of all temptations.
+ A Queen in crown of rubies drest,
+ A starveling in a scanty vest,
+ Are all as seems to suit thee best,--
+ Thy appellations.
+
+ I see thee glittering from afar,
+ And then thou art a pretty star,--
+ Not quite so fair as many are
+ In heaven above thee.
+ Yet like a star, with glittering crest,
+ Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest;--
+ May peace come never to his nest
+ Who shall reprove thee.
+
+ Sweet flower--for by that name at last,
+ When all my reveries are past,
+ I call thee, and to that cleave fast.
+ Sweet silent creature,
+ That breath'st with me, in sun and air,
+ Do thou, as thou art wont, repair
+ My heart with gladness, and a share
+ Of thy meek nature."
+
+
+Sec. 6. Various instances.
+
+Observe how spiritual, yet how wandering and playful the fancy is in the
+first two stanzas, and how far she flies from the matter in hand, never
+stopping to brood on the character of any one of the images she summons,
+and yet for a moment truly seeing and believing in them all; while in
+the last stanza the imagination returns with its deep feeling to the
+heart of the flower, and "_cleaves fast_" to that. Compare the operation
+of the imagination in Coleridge, on one of the most trifling objects
+that could possibly have been submitted to its action.
+
+ "The thin blue flame
+ Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not:
+ Only that film which fluttered on the grate
+ Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
+ Methinks its motion in this hush of nature
+ Gives it dim sympathies with me, who live,
+ Making it a companionable form,
+ Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling spirit
+ By its own moods interprets; everywhere,
+ Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
+ And makes a toy of thought."
+
+Lastly, observe the sweet operation of fancy regardant, in the following
+well-known passage from Scott, where both her beholding and transforming
+powers are seen in their simplicity.
+
+ "The rocky summits--split and rent,
+ Formed turret, dome, or battlement.--
+ Or seemed fantastically set
+ With cupola or minaret.
+ Nor were these earth-born castles bare,
+ Nor lacked they many a banner fair,
+ For from their shivered brows displayed,
+ Far o'er th' unfathomable glade,
+ All twinkling with the dew-drop sheen,
+ The brier-rose fell, in streamers green,--
+ And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes
+ Waved in the west wind's summer sighs."
+
+Let the reader refer to this passage, with its pretty tremulous
+conclusion above the pine tree, "where glistening streamers waved and
+danced," and then compare with it the following, where the imagination
+operates on a scene nearly similar.
+
+ "Gray rocks did peep from the spare moss, and stemm'd
+ The struggling brook; tall spires of windle strae
+ Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope,
+ And nought but knarled roots of ancient pines,
+ Branchless and blasted, clench'd with grasping roots
+ Th' unwilling soil. . . .
+ . . . . . . A gradual change was here,
+ Yet ghastly. For, _as fast years flow away,
+ The smooth brow gathers, and the hair grows thin
+ And white; and where irradiate dewy eyes
+ Had shone, gleam stony orbs; so from his steps
+ Bright flowers departed, and the beautiful shade
+ Of the green groves, with all their odorous winds
+ And musical motions._ . . . .
+ . . . . . . . . . . .
+ . . . . . Where the pass extends
+ Its stony jaws, the abrupt mountain breaks.
+ And seems with its accumulated crags
+ To overhang the world; for wide expand
+ Beneath the wan stars, and descending moon,
+ Islanded seas, blue mountains, mighty streams,
+ _Dim tracts and vast, robed in the lustrous gloom
+ Of leaden-colored even_, and _fiery hills
+ Mingling their flames with twilight_ on the verge
+ Of the remote horizon. The near scene
+ In naked, and severe simplicity
+ Made contrast with the universe. A pine
+ Rock-rooted, stretch'd athwart the vacancy
+ Its swinging boughs, to each _inconstant blast
+ Yielding one only response at each pause_,
+ In most familiar cadence, with the howl,
+ The thunder, and the hiss of _homeless_ streams,
+ Mingling its solemn song."
+
+[Illustration: STUDY OF STONE PINE, AT SESTRI. From a drawing by
+Ruskin.]
+
+In this last passage, the mind never departs from its solemn possession
+of the solitary scene, the imagination only giving weight, meaning, and
+strange human sympathies to all its sights and sounds.
+
+In that from Scott,[70]--the fancy, led away by the outside resemblance
+of floating form and hue to the banners, loses the feeling and
+possession of the scene, and places herself in circumstances of
+character completely opposite to the quietness and grandeur of the
+natural objects; this would have been unjustifiable, but that the
+resemblance occurs to the mind of the monarch, rather than to that of
+the poet; and it is that, which of all others, would have been the most
+likely to occur at the time; in this point of view it has high
+imaginative propriety. Of the same fanciful character is that
+transformation of the tree trunks into dragons noticed before in
+Turner's Jason; and in the same way this becomes imaginative as it
+exhibits the effect of fear in disposing to morbid perception. Compare
+with it the real and high action of the imagination on the same matter
+in Wordsworth's Yew trees (which I consider the most vigorous and solemn
+bit of forest landscape ever painted):--
+
+ "Each particular trunk a growth
+ Of intertwisted fibres serpentine,
+ Up coiling and inveterately convolved,
+ _Nor uninformed with Phantasy, and looks
+ That threaten the profane_."
+
+It is too long to quote, but the reader should refer to it: let him note
+especially, if painter, that pure touch of color, "by sheddings from the
+pining umbrage tinged."
+
+In the same way, the blasted trunk on the left, in Turner's drawing of
+the spot where Harold fell at the battle of Hastings, takes, where its
+boughs first separate, the shape of the head of an arrow; this, which is
+mere fancy in itself, is imagination as it supposes in the spectator an
+excited condition of feeling dependent on the history of the spot.
+
+
+Sec. 7. Morbid or nervous fancy.
+
+I have been led perhaps into too great detail in illustrating these
+points; but I think it is of no small importance to prove how in all
+cases the imagination is based upon, and appeals to, a deep heart
+feeling; and how faithful and earnest it is in contemplation of the
+subject matter, never losing sight of it, or disguising it, but
+depriving it of extraneous and material accidents, and regarding it in
+its disembodied essence. I have not, however, sufficiently noted in
+opposition to it, that diseased action of the fancy which depends more
+on nervous temperament than intellectual power; and which, as in
+dreaming, fever, insanity, and other morbid conditions of mind is
+frequently a source of daring and inventive conception; and so the
+visionary appearances resulting from various disturbances of the frame
+by passion, and from the rapid tendency of the mind to invest with shape
+and intelligence the active influences about it, as in the various
+demons, spirits, and fairies of all imaginative nations; which, however,
+I consider are no more to be ranked as right creations of fancy or
+imagination than things actually seen and heard; for the action of the
+nerves is I suppose the same, whether externally caused, or from within,
+although very grand imagination may be shown by the intellectual
+anticipation and realization of such impressions; as in that glorious
+vignette of Turner's to the voyage of Columbus. "Slowly along the
+evening sky they went." Note especially therein, how admirably true to
+the natural form, and yet how suggestive of the battlement he has
+rendered the level flake of evening cloud.
+
+
+Sec. 8. The action of contemplative imagination is not to be expressed by
+ art.
+
+I believe that it is unnecessary for me to enter into farther detail of
+illustration respecting these points; for fuller explanation of the
+operations of the contemplative faculty on things verbally expressible,
+the reader may be referred to Wordsworth's preface to his poems; it only
+remains for us, here, to examine how far this imaginative or abstract
+conception is to be conveyed by the material art of the sculptor or the
+painter.
+
+Now, it is evident that the bold action of either the fancy or the
+imagination, dependent on a bodiless and spiritual image of the object,
+is not to be by lines or colors represented. We cannot, in the painting
+of Satan fallen, suggest any image of pines or crags,--neither can we
+assimilate the brier and the banner, nor give human sympathy to the
+motion of the film, nor voice to the swinging of the pines.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Except under narrow limits.--1st. Abstract rendering of form
+ without color.
+
+Yet certain powers there are, within due limits, of marking the thing
+represented with an ideal character; and it was to these powers that I
+alluded in defining the meaning of the term ideal, in the thirteenth
+chapter of the preceding section. For it is by this operation that the
+productions of high art are separated from those of the realist.
+
+And, first, there is evidently capability of separating color and form,
+and considering either separately. Form we find abstractedly considered
+by the sculptor, how far it would be possible to advantage a statue by
+the addition of color, I venture not to affirm; the question is too
+extensive to be here discussed. High authorities and ancient practice,
+are in favor of color; so the sculpture of the middle ages: the two
+statues of Mino da Fiesole in the church of St^a. Caterina at Pisa
+have been colored, the irises of the eyes painted dark, and the hair
+gilded, as also I think the Madonna in St^a. Maria della Spina; the
+eyes have been painted in the sculptures of Orcagna in Or San Michele,
+but it looks like a remnant of barbarism, (compare the pulpit of Guida
+da Como, in the church of San Bartolomeo at Pistoja,) and I have never
+seen color on any solid forms, that did not, to my mind, neutralize all
+other power; the porcelains of Luca della Robbia are painful examples,
+and in lower art, Florentine mosaic in relief; gilding is more
+admissible, and tells sometimes sweetly upon figures of quaint design,
+as on the pulpit of St^a. Maria Novella, while it spoils the classical
+ornaments of the mouldings. But the truest grandeur of sculpture I
+believe to be in the white form; something of this feeling may be owing
+to the difficulty, or rather the immediately, of obtaining truly noble
+color upon it, but if we could color the Elgin marbles with the flesh
+tint of Giorgione, I had rather not have it done.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Of color without form.
+
+Color, without form, is less frequently obtainable, and it may be
+doubted whether it be desirable: yet I think that to the full enjoyment
+of it, a certain abandonment of form is necessary; sometimes by reducing
+it to the shapeless glitter of the gem, as often Tintoret and Bassano;
+sometimes by loss of outline and blending of parts, as Turner; sometimes
+by flatness of mass, as often Giorgione and Titian. How far it is
+possible for the painter to represent those mountains of Shelley as the
+poet sees them, "mingling _their flames_ with twilight," I cannot say;
+but my impression is, that there is no true abstract mode of
+considering color; and that all the loss of form in the works of Titian
+or Turner, is not ideal, but the representation of the natural
+conditions under which bright color is seen; for form is always in a
+measure lost by nature herself when color is very vivid.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Or of both without texture.
+
+Again, there is capability of representing the essential character,
+form, and color of an object, without external texture. On this point
+much has been said by Reynolds and others, and it is, indeed, perhaps
+the most unfailing characteristic of great manner in painting. Compare a
+dog of Edwin Landseer with a dog of Paul Veronese. In the first, the
+outward texture is wrought out with exquisite dexterity of handling, and
+minute attention to all the accidents of curl and gloss which can give
+appearance of reality, while the hue and power of the sunshine, and the
+truth of the shadow on all these forms is necessarily neglected, and the
+large relations of the animal as a mass of color to the sky or ground,
+or other parts of the picture, utterly lost. This is realism at the
+expense of ideality, it is treatment essentially unimaginative.[71] With
+Veronese, there is no curling nor crisping, no glossiness nor sparkle,
+hardly even hair, a mere type of hide, laid on with a few
+scene-painter's touches. But the essence of dog is there, the entire
+magnificent, generic animal type, muscular and living, and with broad,
+pure, sunny daylight upon him, and bearing his true and harmonious
+relation of color to all color about him. This is ideal treatment.
+
+The same treatment is found in the works of all the greatest men, they
+all paint the lion more than his mane, and the horse rather than his
+hide; and I think also they are more careful to obtain the right
+expression of large and universal light and color, than local tints; for
+the warmth of sunshine, and the force of sunlighted hue are always
+sublime on whatever subject they may be exhibited; and so also are light
+and shade, if grandly arranged, as may be well seen in an etching of
+Rembrandt's of a spotted shell, which he has made altogether sublime by
+broad truth and large ideality of light and shade; and so I have seen
+frequent instances of very grand ideality in treatment of the most
+commonplace still life, by our own Hunt, where the petty glosses and
+delicacies, and minor forms, are all merged in a broad glow of suffused
+color; so also in pieces of the same kind by Etty, where, however,
+though the richness and play of color are greater, and the arrangement
+grander, there is less expression of light, neither is there anything in
+modern art that can be set beside some choice passages of Hunt in this
+respect.
+
+
+Sec. 12. Abstraction or typical representation of animal form.
+
+Again, it is possible to represent objects capable of various accidents
+in generic or symbolical form.
+
+
+Sec. 13. Either when it is symbolically used.
+
+How far this may be done with things having necessary form, as animals,
+I am not prepared to say. The lions of the Egyptian room in the British
+Museum, and the fish beside Michael Angelo's Jonah, are instances; and
+there is imaginative power about both which we find not in the more
+perfectly realized Florentine boar, nor in Raffaelle's fish of the
+draught. And yet the propriety and nobility of these types depend on the
+architectural use and character of the one, and on the typical meaning
+of the other: we should be grieved to see the forms of the Egyptian lion
+substituted for those of Raffaelle's in its struggle with Samson, nor
+would the whale of Michael Angelo be tolerated in the nets of
+Gennesaret. So that I think it is only when the figure of the creature
+stands not for any representation of vitality, but merely for a letter
+or type of certain symbolical meaning, or else is adopted as a grand
+form of decoration or support in architecture, that such generalization
+is allowable, and in such circumstances I think it necessary, always
+provided it be based, as in the instances given I conceive it to be,
+upon thorough knowledge of the creature symbolized and wrought out by a
+master hand; and these conditions being observed, I believe it to be
+right and necessary in architecture to modify all animal forms by a
+severe architectural stamp, and in symbolical use of them, to adopt a
+typical form, to which practice the contrary, and its evil consequences
+are ludicrously exhibited in the St. Peter of Carlo Dolci in the Pitti
+palace, which owing to the prominent, glossy-plumed and crimson-combed
+cock, is liable to be taken for the portrait of a poulterer, only let it
+be observed that the treatment of the animal form here is offensive, not
+only from its realization, but from the pettiness and meanness of its
+realization; for it might, in other hands but Carlo Dolci's, have been a
+sublime cock, though a real one, but in his, it is fit for nothing but
+the spit. Compare as an example partly of symbolical treatment, partly
+of magnificent realization, that supernatural lion of Tintoret, in the
+picture of the Doge Loredano before the Madonna, with the plumes of his
+mighty wings clashed together in cloudlike repose, and the strength of
+the sea winds shut within their folding. And note farther the difference
+between the typical use of the animal, as in this case, and that of the
+fish of Jonah, (and again the fish before mentioned whose form is
+indicated in the clouds of the baptism), and the actual occurrence of
+the creature itself, with concealed meaning, as the ass colt of the
+crucifixion, which it was necessary to paint as such, and not as an
+ideal form.
+
+
+Sec. 14. Or in architectural decoration.
+
+Sec. 15. Exception in delicate and superimposed ornament.
+
+I cannot enter here into the question of the exact degree of severity
+and abstraction necessary in the forms of living things architecturally
+employed; my own feeling on the subject is, though I dare not lay it
+down as a principle, (with the Parthenon pediment standing against me
+like the shield of Ajax,) that no perfect representation of animal form
+is right in architectural decoration. For my own part, I had much rather
+see the metopes in the Elgin room of the British Museum, and the
+Parthenon without them, than have them together, and I would not
+surrender, in an architectural point of view, one mighty line of the
+colossal, quiet, life-in-death statue mountains in Egypt with their
+narrow fixed eyes and hands on their rocky limbs, nor one Romanesque
+facade with its porphyry mosaic of indefinable monsters, nor one Gothic
+moulding of rigid saints and grinning goblins, for ten Parthenons; and,
+I believe, I could show some rational ground for this seeming barbarity
+if this were the place to do so, but at present I can only ask the
+reader to compare the effect of the so-called barbarous ancient mosaics
+on the front of St. Mark's, as they have been recorded, happily, by the
+faithfulness of the good Gentile Bellini, in one of his pictures now in
+the Venice gallery, with the veritably barbarous pictorial substitutions
+of the fifteenth century, (one only of the old mosaics remains, or did
+remain till lately, over the northern door, but it is probably by this
+time torn down by some of the Venetian committees of taste,) and also I
+would have the old portions of the interior ceiling, or of the mosaics
+of Murano and Torcello, and the glorious Cimabue mosaic of Pisa, and the
+roof of the Baptistery at Parma, (that of the Florence Baptistery is a
+bad example, owing to its crude whites and complicated mosaic of small
+forms,) all of which are as barbarous as they can well be, in a certain
+sense, but mighty in their barbarism, with any architectural decorations
+whatsoever, consisting of professedly perfect animal forms, from the
+vile frescoes of Federigo Zuccaro at Florence to the ceiling of the
+Sistine, and again compare the professedly perfect sculpture of Milan
+Cathedral with the statues of the porches of Chartres; only be it always
+observed that it is not rudeness and ignorance of art, but
+intellectually awful abstraction that I uphold, and also be it noted
+that in all ornament, which takes place in the general effect merely as
+so much fretted stone, in capitals and other pieces of minute detail,
+the forms may be, and perhaps ought to be, elaborately imitative; and in
+this respect again the capitals of St. Mark's church, and of the Doge's
+palace at Venice may be an example to the architects of all the world,
+in their boundless inventiveness, unfailing elegance, and elaborate
+finish; there is more mind poured out in turning a single angle of that
+church than would serve to build a modern cathedral;[72] and of the
+careful finish of the work, this may serve for example, that one of the
+capitals of the Doge's palace is formed of eight heads of different
+animals, of which one is a bear's with a honeycomb in the mouth, whose
+carved _cells_ are _hexagonal_.
+
+
+Sec. 16. Abstraction necessary from imperfection of materials.
+
+Sec. 17. Abstractions of things capable of varied accident are not
+ imaginative.
+
+Sec. 18. Yet sometimes valuable.
+
+So far, then, of the abstraction proper to architecture, and to
+symbolical uses, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter at
+length, referring to it only at present as one of the operations of
+imagination contemplative; other abstractions there are which are
+necessarily consequent on the imperfection of materials, as of the hair
+in sculpture, which is necessarily treated in masses that are in no sort
+imitative, but only stand for hair, and have the grace, flow, and
+feeling of it without the texture or division, and other abstractions
+there are in which the form of one thing is fancifully indicated in the
+matter of another; as in phantoms and cloud shapes, the use of which, in
+mighty hands, is often most impressive, as in the cloudy charioted
+Apollo of Nicolo Poussin in our own gallery, which the reader may oppose
+to the substantial Apollo, in Wilson's Niobe, and again the phantom
+vignette of Turner already noticed; only such operations of the
+imagination are to be held of lower kind and dangerous consequence, if
+frequently trusted in, for those painters only have the right
+imaginative power who can set the supernatural form before us fleshed
+and boned like ourselves.[73] Other abstractions occur, frequently, of
+things which have much accidental variety of form, as of waves, on Greek
+sculptures in successive volutes, and of clouds often in supporting
+volumes in the sacred pictures; but these I do not look upon as results
+of imagination at all, but mere signs and letters; and whenever a very
+highly imaginative mind touches them, it always realizes as far as may
+be. Even Titian is content to use at the top of his St. Pietro Martiri,
+the conventional, round, opaque cloud, which cuts his trees open like a
+gouge; but Tintoret, in his picture of the Golden Calf, though compelled
+to represent the Sinai under conventional form, in order that the
+receiving of the tables might be seen at the top of it, yet so soon as
+it is possible to give more truth, he is ready with it; he takes a grand
+fold of horizontal cloud straight from the flanks of the Alps, and shows
+the forests of the mountains through its misty volume, like sea-weed
+through deep sea.[74] Nevertheless, when the realization is impossible,
+bold symbolism is of the highest value, and in religious art, as we
+shall presently see, even necessary, as of the rays of light in the
+Titian woodcut of St. Francis before noticed; and sometimes the
+attention is directed by some such strange form to the meaning of the
+image, which may be missed if it remains in its natural purity, (as, I
+suppose, few in looking at the Cephalus and Procris of Turner, note the
+sympathy of those faint rays that are just drawing back and dying
+between the trunks of the far-off forest, with the ebbing life of the
+nymph; unless, indeed, they happen to recollect the same sympathy marked
+by Shelley in the Alastor;) but the imagination is not shown in any such
+modifications; however, in some cases they may be valuable (in the
+Cephalus they would be utterly destructive,) and I note them merely in
+consequence of their peculiar use in religious art, presently to be
+examined.
+
+
+Sec. 19. Exaggeration. Its laws and limits. First, in scale of
+ representation.
+
+The last mode we have here to note in which the imagination regardant
+may be expressed in art is exaggeration, of which, as it is the vice of
+all bad artists, may be constantly resorted to without any warrant of
+imagination, it is necessary to note strictly the admissible limits.
+
+In the first place, a colossal statue is necessarily no more an
+exaggeration of what it represents than a miniature is a diminution, it
+need not be a representation of a giant, but a representation, on a
+large scale, of a man; only it is to be observed, that as any plane
+intersecting the cone of rays between us and the object, must receive an
+image smaller than the object; a small image is rationally and
+completely expressive of a larger one; but not a large of a small one.
+Hence I think that all statues above the Elgin standard, or that of
+Michael Angelo's Night and Morning, are, in a measure, taken by the eye
+for representations of giants, and I think them always disagreeable. The
+amount of exaggeration admitted by Michael Angelo is valuable because it
+separates the emblematic from the human form, and gives greater freedom
+to the grand lines of the frame; for notice of his scientific system of
+increase of size I may refer the reader to Sir Charles Bell's remarks on
+the statues of the Medici chapel; but there is one circumstance which
+Sir Charles has not noticed, and in the interpretation of which,
+therefore, it is likely I may be myself wrong; that the extremities are
+singularly small in proportion to the limbs, by which means there is an
+expression given of strength and activity greater than in the ordinary
+human type, which appears to me to be an allowance for that alteration
+in proportion necessitated by increase of size, of which we took note in
+Chap. VI. of the first section, Sec. 10, note; not but that Michael Angelo
+always makes the extremities comparatively small, but smallest,
+comparatively, in his largest works; so I think, from the size of the
+head, it may be conjectured respecting the Theseus of the Elgins. Such
+adaptations are not necessary when the exaggerated image is spectral;
+for as the laws of matter in that case can have no operation, we may
+expand the form as far as we choose, only let careful distinction be
+made between the size of the thing represented, and the scale of the
+representation. The canvas on which Fuseli has stretched his Satan in
+the schools of the Royal Academy is a mere concession to inability. He
+might have made him look more gigantic in one of a foot square.
+
+
+Sec. 20. Secondly. Of things capable of variety of scale.
+
+Another kind of exaggeration is of things whose size is variable to a
+size or degree greater than that usual with them, as in waves and
+mountains; and there are hardly any limits to this exaggeration so long
+as the laws which nature observes in her increase be observed. Thus, for
+instance: the form and polished surface of a breaking ripple three
+inches high, are not representation of either the form or the surface of
+the surf of a storm, nodding ten feet above the beach; neither would the
+cutting ripple of a breeze upon a lake if simply exaggerated, represent
+the forms of Atlantic surges; but as nature increases her bulk, she
+diminishes the angles of ascent, and increases her divisions; and if we
+would represent surges of size greater than ever existed, which it is
+lawful to do, we must carry out these operations to still greater
+extent. Thus, Turner, in his picture of the Slave Ship, divides the
+whole sea into two masses of enormous swell, and conceals the horizon by
+a gradual slope of only two or three degrees. This is intellectual
+exaggeration. In the Academy exhibition of 1843, there was, in one of
+the smaller rooms, a black picture of a storm, in which there appeared
+on the near sea, just about to be overwhelmed by an enormous breaker,
+curling right over it, an object at first sight liable to be taken for a
+walnut shell, but which, on close examination, proved to be a ship with
+mast and sail, with Christ and his twelve disciples in it. This is
+childish exaggeration, because it is impossible, by the laws of matter
+and motion, that such a breaker should ever exist. Again in mountains,
+we have repeatedly observed the necessary building up and multitudinous
+division of the higher peaks, and the smallness of the slopes by which
+they usually rise. We may, therefore, build up the mountain as high as
+we please, but we must do it in nature's way, and not in impossible
+peaks and precipices; not but that a daring feature is admissible here
+and there, as the Matterhorn is admitted by nature; but we must not
+compose a picture out of such exceptions; we may use them, but they must
+be as exceptions exhibited. I shall have much to say, when we come to
+treat of the sublime, of the various modes of treating mountain form, so
+that at present I shall only point to an unfortunate instance of
+inexcusable and effectless exaggeration in the distance of Turner's
+vignette to Milton, (the temptation on the mountain,) and desire the
+reader to compare it with legitimate exaggeration, in the vignette to
+the second part of Jacqueline, in Rogers's poems.
+
+
+Sec. 21. Thirdly, necessary in expression of characteristic features on
+ diminished scale.
+
+Another kind of exaggeration is necessary to retain the characteristic
+impressions of nature on reduced scale, it is not possible, for
+instance, to give the leafage of trees in its proper proportion, when
+the trees represented are large, without entirely losing their grace of
+form and curvature; of this the best proof is found in the Calotype or
+Daguerreotype, which fail in foliage, not only because the green rays
+are ineffective, but because, on the small scale of the image, the
+reduced leaves lose their organization, and look like moss attached to
+sticks. In order to retain, therefore, the character of flexibility and
+beauty of foliage, the painter is often compelled to increase the
+proportionate size of the leaves, and to arrange them in generic
+masses. Of this treatment compare the grand examples throughout the
+Liber Studiorum. It is by such means only that the ideal character of
+objects is to be preserved; as we before observed in the 13th chapter of
+the first section. In all these cases exaggeration is only lawful as the
+sole means of arriving at truth of impression when strict fidelity is
+out of the question.
+
+Other modes of exaggeration there are, on which I shall not at present
+farther insist, the proper place for their discussion being in treating
+of the sublime, and these which I have at present instanced are enough
+to establish the point at issue, respecting imaginative verity, inasmuch
+as we find that exaggeration itself, if imaginative, is referred to
+principles of truth, and of actual being.
+
+
+Sec. 22. Recapitulation.
+
+We have now, I think, reviewed the various modes in which imagination
+contemplative may be exhibited in art, and arrived at all necessary
+certainties respecting the essence of the faculty: which we have found
+in all its three functions, associative of truth, penetrative of truth,
+and contemplative of truth; and having no dealings nor relations with
+any kind of falsity. One task, however, remains to us, namely, to
+observe the operation of the theoretic and imaginative faculties
+together, in the attempt at realization to the bodily sense of beauty
+supernatural and divine.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [70] Let it not be supposed that I mean to compare the sickly
+ dreaming of Shelley over clouds and waves with the masculine and
+ magnificent grasp of men and things which we find in Scott; it only
+ happens that these two passages are more illustrative, by the
+ likeness of the scenery they treat, than any others I could have
+ opposed; and that Shelley is peculiarly distinguished by the faculty
+ of contemplative imagination. Scott's healthy and truthful feeling
+ would not allow him to represent the benighted hunter provoked by
+ loss of game, horse, and way at once, as indulging in any more
+ exalted flights of imagination than those naturally consequent on
+ the contrast between the night's lodging he expected, and that which
+ befitted him.
+
+ [71] I do not mean to withdraw the praise I have given, and shall
+ always be willing to give such pictures as the Old Shepherd's Chief
+ Mourner, and to all in which the character and inner life of animals
+ are developed. But all lovers of art must regret to find Mr.
+ Landseer wasting his energies on such inanities as the "Shoeing,"
+ and sacrificing color, expression, and action, to an imitation of
+ glossy hide.
+
+ [72] I have not brought forward any instances of the imaginative
+ power in architecture, as my object is not at present to exhibit its
+ operation in all matter, but only to define its essence; but it may
+ be well to note, in our own new houses of Parliament, how far a
+ building approved by a committee of Taste, may proceed without
+ manifestation either of imagination or composition; it remains to be
+ seen how far the towers may redeem it; and I allude to it at present
+ unwillingly, and only in the desire of influencing, so far as I may,
+ those who have the power to prevent the adoption of a design for a
+ bridge to take place of Westminster, which was exhibited in 1844 at
+ the Royal Academy, professing to be in harmony with the new
+ building, but which was fit only to carry a railroad over a canal.
+
+ [73] Comp. Ch. V. Sec. 5.
+
+ [74] All the clouds of Tintoret are sublime; the worst that I know
+ in art are Correggio's, especially in the Madonna della Scudella,
+ and Dome of Parma.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ OF THE SUPERHUMAN IDEAL.
+
+
+Sec. 1. The subject is not to be here treated in detail.
+
+In our investigation in the first section of the laws of beauty, we
+confined ourselves to the observation of lower nature, or of humanity.
+We were prevented from proceeding to deduce conclusions respecting
+divine ideality by our not having then established any principles
+respecting the imaginative faculty, by which, under the discipline of
+the theoretic, such ideality is conceived. I had purposed to conclude
+the present section by a careful examination of this subject; but as
+this is evidently foreign to the matter immediately under discussion,
+and involves questions of great intricacy respecting the development of
+mind among those pagan nations who are supposed to have produced high
+examples of spiritual ideality, I believe it will be better to delay
+such inquiries until we have concluded our detailed observation of the
+beauty of visible nature; and I shall therefore at present take notice
+only of one or two broad principles, which were referred to, or implied,
+in the chapter respecting the human ideal, and without the enunciation
+of which, that chapter might lead to false conclusions.
+
+
+Sec. 2. The conceivable modes of manifestation of Spiritual Beings are
+ four.
+
+There are four ways in which beings supernatural may be conceived as
+manifesting themselves to human sense. The first, by external types,
+signs, or influences; as God to Moses in the flames of the bush, and to
+Elijah in the voice of Horeb.
+
+The second, by the assuming of a form not properly belonging to them; as
+the Holy Spirit of that of a Dove, the second person of the Trinity of
+that of a Lamb; and so such manifestations, under angelic or other form,
+of the first person of the Trinity, as seem to have been made to
+Abraham, Moses, and Ezekiel.
+
+The third, by the manifestation of a form properly belonging to them,
+but not necessarily seen; as of the Risen Christ to his disciples when
+the doors were shut. And the fourth, by their operation on the human
+form, which they influence or inspire, as in the shining of the face of
+Moses.
+
+
+Sec. 3. And these are in or through creature forms familiar to us.
+
+It is evident that in all these cases, wherever there is form at all, it
+is the form of some creature to us known. It is no new form peculiar to
+spirit nor can it be. We can conceive of none. Our inquiry is simply,
+therefore, by what modifications those creature forms to us known, as of
+a lamb, a bird, or a human creature, may be explained as signs or
+habitations of Divinity, or of angelic essence, and not creatures such
+as they seem.
+
+
+Sec. 4. Supernatural character may be impressed on these either by
+ phenomena inconsistent with their common nature, (compare chap.
+ 4, Sec. 16).
+
+This may be done in two ways. First, by effecting some change in the
+appearance of the creature inconsistent with its actual nature, as by
+giving it colossal size, or unnatural color, or material, as of gold, or
+silver, or flame, instead of flesh, or by taking away its property of
+matter altogether, and forming it of light or shade, or in an
+intermediate step, of cloud, or vapor; or explaining it by terrible
+concomitant circumstances, as of wounds in the body, or strange lights
+and seemings round about it; or by joining of two bodies together as in
+angels' wings. Of all which means of attaining supernatural character
+(which though, in their nature ordinary and vulgar, are yet effective
+and very glorious in mighty hands) we have already seen the limits in
+speaking of the imagination.
+
+
+Sec. 5. Or by inherent Dignity.
+
+But the second means of obtaining supernatural character is that with
+which we are now concerned, namely, retaining the actual form in its
+full and material presence, and without aid from any external
+interpretation whatsoever, to raise that form by mere inherent dignity
+to such a pitch of power and impressiveness as cannot but assert and
+stamp it for superhuman.
+
+On the north side of the Campo Santo at Pisa, are a series of paintings
+from the Old Testament History by Benozzo Gozzoli. In the earlier of
+these, angelic presences, mingled with human, occur frequently,
+illustrated by no awfulness of light, nor incorporeal tracing. Clear
+revealed they move, in human forms, in the broad daylight and on the
+open earth, side by side, and hand in hand with men. But they never miss
+of the angel.
+
+He who can do this has reached the last pinnacle and utmost power of
+ideal, or any other art. He stands in no need thenceforward, of cloud,
+nor lightning, nor tempest, nor terror of mystery. His sublime is
+independent of the elements. It is of that which shall stand when they
+shall melt with fervent heat, and light the firmament when the sun is as
+sackcloth of hair.
+
+
+Sec. 6. 1st. Of the expression of Inspiration.
+
+Let us consider by what means this has been effected, so far as they are
+by analysis traceable; and that is not far, for here, as always, we find
+that the greater part of what has been rightly accomplished has been
+done by faith and intense feeling, and cannot, by aid of any rules or
+teaching, be either tried, estimated, or imitated.
+
+And first, of the expression of supernatural influence on forms actually
+human, as of sibyl or prophet. It is evident that not only here is it
+unnecessary, but we are not altogether at liberty to trust for
+expression to the utmost ennobling of the human form: for we cannot do
+more than this, when that form is to be the actual representation, and
+not the recipient of divine presence. Hence, in order to retain the
+actual humanity definitely, we must leave upon it such signs of the
+operation of sin and the liability to death as are consistent with
+human ideality, and often more than these, definite signs of immediate
+and active evil, when the prophetic spirit is to be expressed in men
+such as were Saul and Balaam; neither may we ever, with just
+discrimination, touch the utmost limits of beauty in human form when
+inspiration is to be expressed, and not angelic or divine being; of
+which reserve and subjection the most instructive instances are found in
+the works of Angelico, who invariably uses inferior types for the
+features of humanity, even glorified, (excepting always the Madonna,)
+nor ever exerts his full power of beauty either in feature or
+expression, except in angels or in the Madonna or in Christ. Now the
+expression of spiritual influence without supreme elevation of the
+bodily type we have seen to be a work of imagination penetrative, and we
+found it accomplished by Michael Angelo; but I think by him only. I am
+aware of no one else who, to my mind, has expressed the inspiration of
+prophet or sibyl; this, however, I affirm not, but shall leave to the
+determination of the reader, as the principles at present to be noted
+refer entirely to that elevation of the creature form necessary when it
+is actually representative of a spiritual being.
+
+Sec. 7. No representation of that which is more than creature is possible.
+
+
+I have affirmed in the conclusion of the first section that "of that
+which is more than creature, no creature ever conceived." I think this
+almost self-evident, for it is clear that the illimitableness of Divine
+attributes cannot be by matter represented, (though it may be typefied,)
+and I believe that all who are acquainted with the range of sacred art
+will admit, not only that no representation of Christ has ever been even
+partially successful, but that the greatest painters fall therein below
+their accustomed level; Perugino and Fra Angelico especially; Leonardi
+has I think done best, but perhaps the beauty of the fragment left at
+Milan, (for in spite of all that is said of repainting and destruction,
+that Cenacolo is still the finest in existence) is as much dependent on
+the very untraceableness resulting from injury as on its original
+perfection. Of more daring attempts at representation of Divinity we
+need not speak; only this is to be noted respecting them, that though by
+the ignorant Romanists many such efforts were made under the idea of
+actual representation, (note the way in which Cellini speaks of the seal
+made for the Pope,) by the nobler among them I suppose they were
+intended, and by us at any rate they may always be received, as mere
+symbols, the noblest that could be employed, but as much symbols still
+as a triangle, or the Alpha and Omega; nor do I think that the most
+scrupulous amongst Christians ought to desire to exchange the power
+obtained by the use of this symbol in Michael Angelo's creation of Adam
+and of Eve for the effect which would be produced by the substitution of
+a triangle or any other sign in place of it. Of these efforts then we
+need reason no farther, but may limit ourselves to considering the
+purest modes of giving a conception of superhuman but still creature
+form, as of angels; in equal rank with whom, perhaps, we may without
+offence place the mother of Christ: at least we must so regard the type
+of the Madonna in receiving it from Romanist painters.[75]
+
+
+Sec. 8. Supernatural character expressed by modification of accessories.
+
+And first, much is to be done by right modification of accessory
+circumstances, so as to express miraculous power exercised over them by
+the spiritual creature. There is a beautiful instance of this in John
+Bellini's picture of St. Jerome at Venice. The saint sits upon a rock,
+his grand form defined against clear green open sky; he is reading, a
+noble tree springs out of a cleft in the rock, bends itself suddenly
+back to form a rest for the volume, then shoots up into the sky. There
+is something very beautiful in this obedient ministry of the lower
+creature; but be it observed that the sweet feeling of the whole depends
+upon the service being such as is consistent with its nature. It is not
+animated, it does not _listen_ to the saint, nor bend itself towards him
+as if in affection, this would have been mere fancy, illegitimate and
+effectless. But the simple bend of the trunk to receive the book is
+miraculous subjection of the true nature of the tree; it is therefore
+imaginative, and very touching.
+
+
+Sec. 9. Landscape of the religious painters. Its character is eminently
+ symmetrical.
+
+It is not often however that the religious painters even go this length;
+they content themselves usually with impressing on the landscape perfect
+symmetry and order, such as may seem consistent with, or induced by the
+spiritual nature they would represent. All signs of decay, disturbance,
+and imperfection, are also banished; and in doing this it is evident
+that some unnaturalness and singularity must result, inasmuch as there
+are no veritable forms of landscape but express or imply a state of
+progression or of imperfection All mountain forms are seen to be
+produced by convulsion and modelled by decay; the finer forms of cloud
+have stories in them about storm; all forest grouping is wrought out
+with varieties of strength and growth among its several members, and
+bears evidences of struggle with unkind influences. All such appearances
+are banished in the supernatural landscape; the trees grow straight,
+equally branched on each side, and of such slight and feathery frame as
+shows them never to have encountered blight or frost or tempest. The
+mountains stand up in fantastic pinnacles; there is on them no trace of
+torrent, no scathe of lightning; no fallen fragments encumber their
+foundations, no worn ravines divide their flanks; the seas are always
+waveless, the skies always calm, crossed only by fair, horizontal,
+lightly wreathed, white clouds.
+
+
+Sec. 10. Landscape of Benozzo Gozzoli.
+
+In some cases these conditions result partly from feeling, partly from
+ignorance of the facts of nature, or incapability of representing them,
+as in the first type of the treatment found in Giotto and his school; in
+others they are observed on principle, as by Benozzo Gozzoli, Perugino,
+and Raffaelle. There is a beautiful instance by the former in the
+frescoes of the Ricardi palace, where behind the adoring angel groups
+the landscape is governed by the most absolute symmetry; roses and
+pomegranates, their leaves drawn to the last rib and vein, twine
+themselves in fair and perfect order about delicate trellises; broad
+stone pines and tall cypresses overshadow them, bright birds hover here
+and there in the serene sky, and groups of angels, hand joined with
+hand, and wing with wing, glide and float through the glades of the
+unentangled forest. But behind the human figures, behind the pomp and
+turbulence of the Kingly procession descending from the distant hills
+the spirit of the landscape is changed. Severer mountains rise in the
+distance, ruder prominences and less flowery vary the nearer ground, and
+gloomy shadows remain unbroken beneath the forest branches.
+
+
+Sec. 11. Landscape of Perugino and Raffaelle.
+
+The landscape of Perugino, for grace, purity and as much of nature as is
+consistent with the above-named conditions, is unrivalled; and the more
+interesting because in him certainly whatever limits are set to the
+rendering of nature proceed not from incapability. The sea is in the
+distance almost always, then some blue promontories and undulating dewy
+park ground, studded with glittering trees; in the landscape of the
+fresco in St^a. Maria Maddalena at Florence there is more variety than
+is usual with him; a gentle river winds round the bases of rocky hills,
+a river like our own Wye or Tees in their loveliest reaches; level
+meadows stretch away on its opposite side; mounds set with
+slender-stemmed foliage occupy the nearer ground, a small village with
+its simple spire peeps from the forest at the bend of the valley, and it
+is remarkable that in architecture thus employed neither Perugino nor
+any other of the ideal painters ever use Italian forms but always
+Transalpine, both of church and castle. The little landscape which forms
+the background of his own portrait in the Uffizii is another highly
+finished and characteristic example. The landscape of Raffaelle was
+learned from his father, and continued for some time little modified,
+though expressed with greater refinement. It became afterwards
+conventional and poor, and in some cases altogether meaningless. The
+haystacks and vulgar trees behind the St. Cecilia at Bologna form a
+painful contrast to the pure space of mountain country in the Perugino
+opposite.[76]
+
+
+Sec. 12. Such Landscape is not to be imitated.
+
+In all these cases, while I would uphold the landscape thus employed and
+treated, as worthy of all admiration, I should be sorry to advance it
+for imitation. What is right in its mannerism arose from keen feeling in
+the painter: imitated without the same feeling, it would be painful; the
+only safe mode of following in such steps is to attain perfect knowledge
+of nature herself, and then to suffer our own feelings to guide us in
+the selection of what is fitting for any particular purpose. Every
+painter ought to paint what he himself loves, not what others have
+loved; if his mind be pure and sweetly toned, what he loves will be
+lovely; if otherwise, no example can guide his selection, no precept
+govern his hand; and farther let it be distinctly observed, that all
+this mannered landscape is only right under the supposition of its being
+a background to some supernatural presence; behind mortal beings it
+would be wrong, and by itself, as landscape, ridiculous; and farther,
+the chief virtue of it results from the exquisite refinement of those
+natural details consistent with its character from the botanical drawing
+of the flowers and the clearness and brightness of the sky.
+
+
+Sec. 13. Color, and Decoration. Their use in representations of the
+ Supernatural.
+
+Another mode of attaining supernatural character is by purity of color
+almost shadowless, no more darkness being allowed than is absolutely
+necessary for the explanation of the forms, and the vividness of the
+effect enhanced as far as may be by use of gilding, enamel, and other
+jewellery. I think the smaller works of Angelico are perfect models in
+this respect; the glories about the heads being of beaten rays of gold,
+on which the light plays and changes as the spectator moves; (and which
+therefore throw the purest flesh color out in dark relief) and such
+color and light being obtained by the enamelling of the angel wings as
+of course is utterly unattainable by any other expedient of art; the
+colors of the draperies always pure and pale; blue, rose, or tender
+green, or brown, but never dark or gloomy; the faces of the most
+celestial fairness, brightly flushed: the height and glow of this flush
+are noticed by Constantin as reserved by the older painters for
+spiritual beings, as if expressive of light seen through the body.
+
+I cannot think it necessary while I insist on the value of all these
+seemingly childish means when in the hands of a noble painter, to assert
+also their futility and even absurdity if employed by no exalted power.
+I think the error has commonly been on the side of scorn, and that we
+reject much in our foolish vanity, which if wiser and more earnest we
+should delight in. But two points it is very necessary to note in the
+use of such accessories.
+
+
+Sec. 14. Decoration so used must be generic.
+
+The first that the ornaments used by Angelico, Giotto, and Perugino, but
+especially by Angelico, are always of a generic and abstract character.
+They are not diamonds, nor brocades, nor velvets, nor gold embroideries;
+they are mere spots of gold or of color, simple patterns upon
+_textureless_ draperies; the angel wings burn with transparent crimson
+and purple and amber, but they are not set forth with peacock's plumes;
+the golden circlets gleam with changeful light, but they are not beaded
+with elaborate pearls nor set with studied sapphires.
+
+In the works of Filippino Lippi, Mantegna, and many other painters
+following, interesting examples may be found of the opposite treatment;
+and as in Lippi the heads are usually very sweet, and the composition
+severe, the degrading effect of the realized decorations and imitated
+dress may be seen in him simply, and without any addition of painfulness
+from other deficiencies of feeling. The larger of the two pictures in
+the Tuscan room of the Uffizii, but for this defect, would have been a
+very noble ideal work.
+
+
+Sec. 15. And color pure.
+
+The second point to be observed is that brightness of color is
+altogether inadmissible without purity and harmony; and that the sacred
+painters must not be followed in their frankness of unshadowed color
+unless we can also follow them in its clearness. As far as I am
+acquainted with the modern schools of Germany, they seem to be entirely
+ignorant of the value of color as an assistant of feeling, and to think
+that hardness, dryness, and opacity are its virtues as employed in
+religious art; whereas I hesitate not to affirm that in such art more
+than in any other, clearness, luminousness and intensity of hue are
+essential to right impression; and from the walls of the Arena chapel in
+their rainbow play of brilliant harmonies, to the solemn purple tones of
+Perugino's fresco in the Albizzi palace, I know not any great work of
+sacred art which is not as precious in color as in all other qualities
+(unless indeed it be a Crucifixion of Fra Angelico in the Florence
+Academy, which has just been glazed and pumiced and painted and
+varnished by the picture-cleaners until it glares from one end of the
+picture gallery to the other;) only the pure white light and delicate
+hue of the idealists, whose colors are by preference such as we have
+seen to be the most beautiful in the chapter on Purity are carefully to
+be distinguished from the golden light and deep pitched hue of the
+school of Titian whose virtue is the grandeur of earthly solemnity, not
+the glory of heavenly rejoicing.
+
+
+Sec. 16. Ideal form of the body itself, of what variety susceptible.
+
+But leaving these accessory circumstances and touching the treatment of
+the bodily form, it is evident in the first place that whatever typical
+beauty the human body is capable of possessing must be bestowed upon it
+when it is understood as spiritual. And therefore those general
+proportions and types which are deducible from comparison of the nobler
+individuals of the race, must be adopted and adhered to; admitting among
+them not, as in the human ideal, such varieties as result from past
+suffering, or contest with sin, but such only as are consistent with
+sinless nature or are the signs of instantly or continually operative
+affections; for though it is conceivable that spirit should suffer, it
+is inconceivable that spiritual frame should retain like the stamped
+inelastic human clay, the brand of sorrow past, unless fallen.
+
+ "His face,
+ Deep scars of thunder had entrenched, and care
+ Sat on his faded cheek."
+
+Yet so far forth the angelic ideal is diminished, nor could this be
+suffered in pictorial representation.
+
+
+Sec. 17. Anatomical development how far admissible.
+
+Again, such muscular development as is necessary to the perfect beauty
+of the body, is to be rendered. But that which is necessary to strength,
+or which appears to have been the result of laborious exercise, is
+inadmissible. No herculean form is spiritual, for it is degrading the
+spiritual creature to suppose it operative through impulse of bone and
+sinew; its power is immaterial and constant, neither dependent on, nor
+developed by exertion. Generally, it is well to conceal anatomical
+development as far as may be; even Michael Angelo's anatomy interferes
+with his divinity; in the hands of lower men the angel becomes a
+preparation. How far it is possible to subdue or generalize the naked
+form I venture not to affirm, but I believe that it is best to conceal
+it as far as may be, not with draperies light and undulating, that fall
+in with, and exhibit its principal lines, but with draperies severe and
+linear, such as were constantly employed before the time of Raffaelle. I
+recollect no single instance of a naked angel that does not look boylike
+or child-like, and unspiritualized; even Fra Bartolomeo's might with
+advantage be spared from the pictures at Lucca, and, in the hands of
+inferior men, the sky is merely encumbered with sprawling infants; those
+of Domenichino in the Madonna del Rosario, and Martyrdom of St. Agnes,
+are peculiarly offensive, studies of bare-legged children howling and
+kicking in volumes of smoke. Confusion seems to exist in the minds of
+subsequent painters between Angels and Cupids.
+
+
+Sec. 18. Symmetry. How valuable.
+
+Farther, the qualities of symmetry and repose are of peculiar value in
+spiritual form. We find the former most earnestly sought by all the
+great painters in the arrangement of the hair, wherein no loosely
+flowing nor varied form is admitted, but all restrained in undisturbed
+and equal ringlets; often, as in the infant Christ of Fra Angelico,
+supported on the forehead in forms of sculpturesque severity. The Angel
+of Masaccio, in the Deliverance of Peter, grand both in countenance and
+motion, loses much of his spirituality because the painter has put a
+little too much of his own character into the hair, and left it
+disordered.
+
+
+Sec. 19. The influence of Greek art, how dangerous.
+
+Sec. 20. Its scope, how limited.
+
+Of repose, and its exalting power, I have already said enough for our
+present purpose, though I have not insisted on the peculiar
+manifestation of it in the Christian ideal as opposed to the pagan. But
+this, as well as other questions relating to the particular development
+of the Greek mind, is foreign to the immediate inquiry, which therefore
+I shall here conclude in the hope of resuming it in detail after
+examining the laws of beauty in the inanimate creation; always, however,
+holding this for certain, that of whatever kind or degree the short
+coming may be, it is not possible but that short coming should be
+visible in every pagan conception, when set beside Christian; and
+believing, for my own part, that there is not only deficiency, but such
+difference in kind as must make all Greek conception full of danger to
+the student in proportion to his admiration of it; as I think has been
+fatally seen in its effect on the Italian schools, when its pernicious
+element first mingled with their solemn purity, and recently in its
+influence on the French historical painters: neither can I from my
+present knowledge fix upon an ancient statue which expresses by the
+countenance any one elevated character of soul, or any single
+enthusiastic self-abandoning affection, much less any such majesty of
+feeling as might mark the features for supernatural. The Greek could not
+conceive a spirit; he could do nothing without limbs; his god is a
+finite god, talking, pursuing, and going journeys;[77] if at any time he
+was touched with a true feeling of the unseen powers around him, it was
+in the field of poised battle, for there is something in the near coming
+of the shadow of death, something in the devoted fulfilment of mortal
+duty, that reveals the real God, though darkly; that pause on the field
+of Plataea was not one of vain superstition; the two white figures that
+blazed along the Delphic plain, when the earthquake and the fire led the
+charge from Olympus, were more than sunbeams on the battle dust; the
+sacred cloud, with its lance light and triumph singing, that went down
+to brood over the masts of Salamis, was more than morning mist among the
+olives; and yet what were the Greek's thoughts of his god of battle? No
+spirit power was in the vision; it was a being of clay strength and
+human passion, foul, fierce, and changeful; of penetrable arms and
+vulnerable flesh. Gather what we may of great, from pagan chisel or
+pagan dream, and set it beside the orderer of Christian warfare, Michael
+the Archangel: not Milton's "with hostile brow and visage all inflamed,"
+not even Milton's in kingly treading of the hills of Paradise, not
+Raffaelle's with the expanded wings and brandished spear, but Perugino's
+with his triple crest of traceless plume unshaken in heaven, his hand
+fallen on his crossleted sword, the truth girdle binding his undinted
+armor; God has put his power upon him, resistless radiance is on his
+limbs, no lines are there of earthly strength, no trace on the divine
+features of earthly anger; trustful and thoughtful, fearless, but full
+of love, incapable except of the repose of eternal conquest, vessel and
+instrument of Omnipotence, filled like a cloud with the victor light,
+the dust of principalities and powers beneath his feet, the murmur of
+hell against him heard by his spiritual ear like the winding of a shell
+on the far-off sea-shore.
+
+
+Sec. 21. Conclusion.
+
+It is vain to attempt to pursue the comparison; the two orders of art
+have in them nothing common, and the field of sacred history, the intent
+and scope of Christian feeling, are too wide and exalted to admit of the
+juxtaposition of any other sphere or order of conception; they embrace
+all other fields like the dome of heaven. With what comparison shall we
+compare the types of the martyr saints, the St. Stephen of Fra
+Bartolomeo, with his calm forehead crowned by the stony diadem, or the
+St. Catherine of Raffaelle looking up to heaven in the dawn of the
+eternal day, with her lips parted in the resting from her pain? or with
+what the Madonnas of Francia and Pinturicchio, in whom the hues of the
+morning and the solemnity of the eve, the gladness in accomplished
+promise, and sorrow of the sword-pierced heart, are gathered into one
+human lamp of ineffable love? or with what the angel choirs of Angelico,
+with the flames on their white foreheads waving brighter as they move,
+and the sparkles streaming from their purple wings like the glitter of
+many suns upon a sounding sea, listening, in the pauses of alternate
+song, for the prolonging of the trumpet blast, and the answering of
+psaltery and cymbal, throughout the endless deep and from all the star
+shores of heaven?
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+ [75] I take no note of the representation of evil spirits, since
+ throughout we have been occupied in the pursuit of beauty; but it
+ may be observed generally that there is great difficulty to be
+ overcome in attempts of this kind, because the elevation of the form
+ necessary to give it spirituality destroys the appearance of evil;
+ hence even the greatest painters have been reduced to receive aid
+ from the fancy, and to eke out all they could conceive of malignity
+ by help of horns, hoofs, and claws. Giotto's Satan in the Campo
+ Santo, with the serpent gnawing the heart, is fine; so many of the
+ fiends of Orcagna, and always those of Michael Angelo. Tintoret in
+ the Temptation, with his usual truth of invention, has represented
+ the evil spirit under the form of a fair angel, the wings burning
+ with crimson and silver, the face sensual and treacherous. It is
+ instructive to compare the results of imagination associated with
+ powerful fancy in the demons of these great painters, or even in
+ such nightmares as that of Salvator already spoken of, Sect. I.
+ Chap. V. Sec. 12 (note,) with the simple ugliness of idiotic distortion
+ in the meaningless terrorless monsters of Bronzino in the large
+ picture of the Uffizii, where the painter, utterly uninventive,
+ having assembled all that is abominable of hanging flesh, bony
+ limbs, crane necks, staring eyes, and straggling hair, cannot yet by
+ the sum and substance of all obtain as much real fearfulness as an
+ imaginative painter could throw into the turn of a lip or the
+ knitting of a brow.
+
+ [76] I have not thought it necessary to give farther instances at
+ present, since I purpose hereafter to give numerous examples of this
+ kind of ideal landscape. Of true and noble landscape, as such, I am
+ aware of no instances except where least they might have been
+ expected, among the sea-bred Venetians. Ghirlandajo shows keen,
+ though prosaic, sense of nature in that view of Venice behind an
+ Adoration of Magi in the Uffizii, but he at last walled himself up
+ among gilded entablatures. Masaccio indeed has given one grand
+ example in the fresco of the Tribute Money, but its color is now
+ nearly lost.
+
+ [77] I know not anything in the range of art more unspiritual than
+ the Apollo Belvidere; the raising of the fingers of the right hand
+ in surprise at the truth of the arrow is altogether human, and would
+ be vulgar in a prince, much more in a deity. The sandals destroy the
+ divinity of the foot, and the lip is curled with mortal passion.
+
+
+
+
+ ADDENDA.
+
+
+Although the plan of the present portion of this work does not admit of
+particular criticism, it will neither be useless nor irrelevant to refer
+to one or two works, lately before the public, in the Exhibitions of the
+Royal Academy, which either illustrate, or present exceptions to, any of
+the preceding statements. I would first mention, with reference to what
+has been advanced respecting the functions of Associative Imagination,
+the very important work of Mr. Linnell, the "Eve of the Deluge;" a
+picture upheld by its admirers (and these were some of the most
+intelligent judges of the day) for a work of consummate imaginative
+power; while it was pronounced by the public journals to be "a chaos of
+unconcocted color." If the writers for the press had been aware of the
+kind of study pursued by Mr. Linnell through many laborious years,
+characterized by an observance of nature scrupulously and minutely
+patient, directed by the deepest sensibility, and aided by a power of
+drawing almost too refined for landscape subjects, and only to be
+understood by reference to his engravings after Michael Angelo, they
+would have felt it to be unlikely that the work of such a man should be
+entirely undeserving of respect. On the other hand, the grounds of its
+praise were unfortunately chosen; for, though possessing many merits, it
+had no claim whatever to be ranked among productions of Creative art. It
+would perhaps be difficult to point to a work so exalted in feeling, and
+so deficient in invention. The sky had been strictly taken from nature,
+this was evident at a glance; and as a study of sky it was every way
+noble. To the purpose of the picture it hardly contributed; its
+sublimity was that of splendor, not of terror; and its darkness that of
+retreating, not of gathering, storm. The features of the landscape were
+devoid alike of variety and probability; the division of the scene by
+the central valley and winding river at once theatrical and commonplace;
+and the foreground, on which the light was intense, alike devoid of
+dignity in arrangement, and of interest in detail.
+
+The falseness or deficiency of color in the works of Mr. Landseer has
+been remarked above. The writer has much pleasure in noticing a very
+beautiful exception in the picture of the "Random Shot," certainly the
+most successful rendering he has ever seen of the hue of snow under warm
+but subdued light. The subtlety of gradation from the portions of the
+wreath fully illumined, to those which, feebly tinged by the horizontal
+rays, swelled into a dome of dim purple, dark against the green evening
+sky; the truth of the blue shadows, with which this dome was barred, and
+the depth of delicate color out of which the lights upon the footprints
+were raised, deserved the most earnest and serious admiration; proving,
+at the same time, that the errors in color, so frequently to be
+regretted in the works of the painter, are the result rather of
+inattention than of feeble perception. A curious proof of this
+inattention occurs in the disposition of the shadows in the background
+of the "Old Cover Hack," No. 229. One of its points of light is on the
+rusty iron handle of a pump, in the shape of an S. The sun strikes the
+greater part of its length, illuminating the perpendicular portion of
+the curve; yet shadow is only cast on the wall behind by the returning
+portion of the lower extremity. A smile may be excited by the notice of
+so trivial a circumstance; but the simplicity of the error renders it
+the more remarkable, and the great masters of chiaroscuro are accurate
+in all such minor points; a vague sense of greater truth results from
+this correctness, even when it is not in particulars analyzed or noted
+by the observer. In the small but very valuable Paul Potter in Lord
+Westminster's collection, the body of one of the sheep under the hedge
+is for the most part in shadow, but the sunlight touches the extremity
+of the back. The sun is low, and the shadows feeble and distorted; yet
+that of the sunlighted fleece is cast exactly in its true place and
+proportion beyond that of the hedge. The spectator may not observe this;
+yet, unobserved, it is one of the circumstances which make him feel the
+picture to be full of sunshine.
+
+As an example of perfect color, and of the most refined handling ever
+perhaps exhibited in animal painting, the Butcher's Dog in the corner of
+Mr. Mulready's "Butt," No. 160, deserved a whole room of the Academy to
+himself. This, with the spaniel in the "Choosing the Wedding Gown," and
+the two dogs in the hayfield subject (Burchell and Sophia), displays
+perhaps the most wonderful, because the most dignified, finish in the
+expression of anatomy and covering--of muscle and hide at once, and
+assuredly the most perfect unity of drawing and color, which the entire
+range of ancient and modern art can exhibit. Albert Durer is indeed the
+only rival who might be suggested; and, though greater far in
+imagination, and equal in draughtsmanship, Albert Durer was less true
+and less delicate in hue. In sculpturesque arrangement both masters show
+the same degree of feeling: any of these dogs of Mulready might be taken
+out of the canvas and cut in alabaster, or, perhaps better, struck upon
+a coin. Every lock and line of the hair has been grouped as it is on a
+Greek die; and if this not always without some loss of ease and of
+action, yet this very loss is ennobling, in a period when all is
+generally sacrificed to the great coxcombry of art, the affectation of
+ease.
+
+Yet Mr. Mulready himself is not always free from affectation of some
+kind; mannerism, at least, there is in his treatment of tree trunks.
+There is a ghastliness about his labored anatomies of them, as well as a
+want of specific character. Why need they be always flayed? The hide of
+a beech tree, or of a birch or fir, is nearly as fair a thing as an
+animal's; glossy as a dove's neck barred with black like a zebra, or
+glowing in purple grey and velvet brown like furry cattle in sunset. Why
+not paint these as Mr. Mulready paints other things, as they are? That
+simplest, that deepest of all secrets, which gives such majesty to the
+ragged leaves about the edges of the pond in the "Gravel-pit." (No.
+125.), and imparts a strange interest to the grey ragged urchins
+disappearing behind the bank, that bank so low, so familiar, so sublime!
+What a contrast between the deep sentiment of that commonest of all
+common, homeliest of all homely, subjects, and the lost sentiment of Mr.
+Stanfield's "Amalfi" the chief landscape of the year, full of exalted
+material, and mighty crags, and massy seas, grottoes, precipices, and
+convents, fortress-towers and cloud-capped mountains, and all in vain,
+merely because that same simple secret has been despised; because
+nothing there is painted as it is! The picture was a most singular
+example of the scenic assemblage of contradictory theme which is
+characteristic of Picturesque, as opposed to Poetical, composition. The
+lines chosen from Rogers for a titular legend were full of summer,
+glowing with golden light, and toned with quiet melancholy:
+
+ "To him who sails
+ Under the shore, a few white villages,
+ Scattered above, below, some in the clouds,
+ Some on the margin of the dark blue sea,
+ And glittering thro' their lemon groves, announce
+ The region of Amalfi. Then, half-fallen,
+ A lonely watch-tower on the precipice,
+ Their ancient landmark, comes--long may it last!
+ And to the seaman, in a distant age,
+ Though now he little thinks how large his debt,
+ Serve for their monument."
+
+Prepared by these lines for a dream upon deep, calm waters, under the
+shadow and scent of the close lemon leaves, the spectator found himself
+placed by the painter, wet through, in a noisy fishing boat, on a
+splashing sea, with just as much on his hands as he could manage to keep
+her gunwale from being stove in against a black rock; and with a heavy
+grey squall to windward. (This squall, by the by, was the very same
+which appeared in the picture of the Magra of 1847, and so were the
+snowy mountains above; only the squall at Amalfi entered on the left,
+and at the Magra on the right.) Now the scenery of Amalfi is impressive
+alike in storm or calm, and the writer has seen the Mediterranean as
+majestic and as southern-looking in its rage as in its rest. But it is
+treating both the green water and woods unfairly to destroy their peace
+without expressing their power; and withdraw from them their sadness and
+their sun, without the substitution of any effect more terrific than
+that of a squall at the Nore. The snow on the distant mountains chilled
+what it could not elevate, and was untrue to the scene besides; there is
+no snow on the Monte St. Angelo in summer except what is kept for the
+Neapolitan confectioners. The great merit of the picture was its
+rock-painting; too good to have required the aid of the exaggeration of
+forms which satiated the eye throughout the composition.
+
+Mr. F. R. Pickersgill's "Contest of Beauty" (No. 515.), and Mr. Uwins's
+"Vineyard Scene in the South of France," were, after Mr. Mulready's
+works, among the most interesting pieces of color in the Exhibition. The
+former, very rich and sweet in its harmonies, and especially happy in
+its contrasts of light and dark armor; nor less in the fancy of the
+little Love who, losing his hold of the orange boughs, was falling
+ignominiously without having time to open his wings. The latter was a
+curious example of what I have described as abstraction of color.
+Strictly true or possible it was not; a vintage is usually a dusty and
+dim-looking procedure; but there were poetry and feeling in Mr. Uwins's
+idealization of the sombre black of the veritable grape into a luscious
+ultramarine purple, glowing among the green leaves like so much painted
+glass. The figures were bright and graceful in the extreme and most
+happily grouped. Little else that could be called color was to be seen
+upon the walls of the Exhibition, with the exception of the smaller
+works of Mr. Etty. Of these, the single head, "Morning Prayer," (No.
+25.), and the "Still Life" (No. 73.), deserved, allowing for their
+peculiar aim, the highest praise. The larger subjects, more especially
+the St. John, were wanting in the merits peculiar to the painter; and in
+other respects it is alike painful and useless to allude to them. A very
+important and valuable work of Mr. Harding was placed, as usual, where
+its merits could be but ill seen, and where its chief fault, a
+feebleness of color in the principal light on the distant hills, was
+apparent. It was one of the very few views of the year which were
+transcripts, nearly without exaggeration, of the features of the
+localities.
+
+Among the less conspicuous landscapes, Mr. W. E. Dighton's "Hay Meadow
+Corner" deserved especial notice; it was at once vigorous, fresh,
+faithful, and unpretending, the management of the distance most
+ingenious, and the painting of the foreground, with the single exception
+of Mr. Mulready's above noticed, unquestionably the best in the room. I
+have before had occasion to notice a picture by this artist, "A Hayfield
+in a Shower," exhibited in the British Institution in 1847, and this
+year (1848) in the Scottish Academy, whose sky, in qualities of rainy,
+shattered, transparent grey, I have seldom seen equalled; nor the mist
+of its distance, expressive alike of previous heat and present heat of
+rain. I look with much interest for other works by this painter.
+
+A hurried visit to Scotland in the spring of this year, while it
+enables the writer to acknowledge the ardor and genius manifested in
+very many of the works exhibited in the Scottish Academy, cannot be
+considered as furnishing him with sufficient grounds for specific
+criticism. He cannot, however, err in testifying his concurrence in the
+opinion expressed to him by several of the most distinguished members of
+that Academy, respecting the singular merit of the works of Mr. H.
+Drummond. A cabinet picture of "Banditti on the Watch," appeared to him
+one of the most masterly, unaffected, and sterling pieces of quiet
+painting he has ever seen from the hand of a living artist; and the
+other works of Mr. Drummond were alike remarkable for their manly and
+earnest finish, and their sweetness of feeling.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+ CORRECTIONS MADE TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT.
+
+Page 98: 'wherein the superioity' corrected to superiority.
+
+Page 129: 'Convent of St. Marks' corrected to mark's
+
+Page 159: 'had not been hoplessly' corrected to hopelessly.
+
+Page 218: 'in the landscape of the fresco in St^a.' originally S^ta.
+
+Page 226: 'alike devoid of dignity in arrangement' originally arrangemen
+
+Footnote 40: 'De la Poesie Chretienne', accented to be in accordance
+ with text.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Modern Painters Volume II (of V), by John Ruskin
+
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