THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS OF AESTHETICS 445 



which aims at least at objectivity - - are but crude means to the end in 

 view. At the present day, as earlier, there is no lack of very refined, 

 penetrating, - - nay, brilliant analyses. They have a very superior 

 value; but this has no special significance for the present status of 

 the science of aesthetics, and for this reason our survey may omit 

 much which yet has an interest for individuals. 



The influence of heredity and environment on the artist's talent 

 offers rich material for research. It is conceded, though, that how 

 the most material and the most spiritual of influences, inherited 

 disposition and fortune, the chances of descent and of intercourse 

 with one's fellows, how all this is fused into a unified personality, 

 can be established only in individual cases by the biographer. A 

 second very productive source of material in this field has appeared 

 in Lombroso's teaching. The days of the most violent controversies 

 lie behind us. It is the general view that genius and madness are near 

 allied in their expression, that greatness often breaks forth in ques- 

 tionable forms; yet the majority perceive an essential difference ; the 

 genius points onward, the mind diseased harks back; the one has 

 purposive significance, the other not. After these more introductory 

 inquiries, the real work begins. It has to show in what points every 

 gift for art coincides with generally disseminated abilities, and just 

 where the specific power sets in, which the inartistic person lacks. 

 Take, for example, the memory. We retain this or that fact without, 

 in principle, any selection; the remembrance of the artist, on the 

 contrary, is dissociative it favors what is needful for its own ends. 

 The memory of the painter battens on forms and colors, the conscious- 

 ness of the musician is filled with melodies, the fancy of the poet lives 

 in verbal images. Also there is, especially with the poet, a peculiar 

 understanding for human experience. In truth, the fanciful products 

 of the imagination are but the starting-point for the soul-know- 

 ledge of the poet. Without going into details we may say that by 

 such penetrating and delimiting analyses the superficial theory of 

 inspiration is refuted. Out of date, too, is the notion that the artist 

 creates by putting things together; on the contraiy his fancy has 

 the whole before the parts, it gives to the world an organism, within 

 which the members gradually emerge. Finally, the old theory is no 

 longer held, according to which the work of art is already complete 

 in the inner man, and afterwards merely brought to light. More 

 definite explanation is given by the doctrine of the way in which the 

 artistic creation runs its course, which Eduard v. Hartmann has 

 skillfully portrayed. 



The distinction, differentiation, and comparison of the special 

 arts offers opportunity and material for numberless special studies. 

 Music is here the least fully represented, since it is only exceptionally 

 that art-philosophers feel a drawing to it. So much the more, how- 



