THE BEAUTIFUL IN ART. 



of one infinite brightness : may we not go further, and observe that art is one in its real 

 nature and object? In the infinity of beauty and of truth, pervading this mighty universe 

 of matter and of mind, lie the inspirations of art; and it is from his fresher, deeper in- 

 sight into this inexhaustible life, that genius derives his power, and his productions their 

 value. No matter what his tools, whether colours, or marble, or stone, or sounding pipes 

 and strings, or cadenced words, his work is the same; his eye has looked through and 

 beyond the horizon of his time; his ear has listened, through the discords of the present, 

 to the harmonies of the future; his thought has pierced through the crust of the surfiice, 

 to the deep beneath; and now the time is come; he has seen, — he must show; he has 

 heard, — he must tell; he has received, — he must give; in picture, or statue, or structure, 

 or symphony, or poem, he inibodies his results; and in all these various forms of produc- 

 tion, whatever be the character of their design, the aim of the earnest-souled receiver, 

 is one; — that the thing produced shall be beautiful and true. 



As the artist's work is similar, so is its purpose. Like the mountain stream, which, 

 descending from the clouds of heaven, seeks, with a widening current, the boundless ocean 

 whence its waters first exhaled, the true artist ever strives after that whole infinity of 

 beauty and of truth, from a detached ray, as it were, of which his course of inspired ac- 

 tion began. In the beginning of his career there was an extension of the infinite to him, 

 — a revelation to his spirit of a beauty and a truth, newer in kind or higher in degree, than 

 was before known or felt: from this his labors sprang; and the true tendency and end of 

 them is to make what he thus knows and feels, known and felt; to open to his own and 

 all others' ej^es a wider and more perfect view of that glory which has glanced upon him; 

 and in proportion as he has fulfilled this, shall his work endure. But this is not all: — 



The ruling principles also of the several arts are identical : in the expression of the same 

 quality or feeling, the same law of means obtains in all the arts, i. «., the elements must 

 be used after the same principles, and therefore the laws of the fine arts are deducible from 

 the principles of art, and may be considered as a polyglot version of art-law. If, there- 

 fore, we obtain a comprehensive knowledge of the principles and laws of art, we possess 

 the key to the intelligence and application of the laws of the arts, which are its different 

 branches. The aim of art, in all its branches, throughout its works, is, from variety of 

 element, by harmony of combination and arrangement, to produce unity of effect; in 

 fewer words, variety in unity. 



It would free an artist from the pedantry — from the trammels of the technical, to ac- 

 quire some knowledge of the arts which thus claim kindred with his own ; and where there 

 is original power, the mind, instead of being oppressed by its increase of attainments, will 

 discover, or discern, more clearly, the common bearings and hidden analogies of the diffe- 

 rent branches of art, which will thus shed light upon each other. An architect for in- 

 stance, would be a better architect from knowing someting of painting and sculpture, — 

 while the painter and sculptor would find their advantage in an acquaintance with archi- 

 tecture — the principles of the three arts being the same, only differently applied. The ar- 

 chitect need not be able to paint a picture or model a bust, — nor the sculptor or painter to 

 design a mansion: but each should understand the great principles of the sister arts, and 

 know how, or in what way, they are identical with those of his own, and be able to trace 

 the analogy and relations of the various productions of genius. He does not thoroughly 

 understand the principles of his own art, unless he sees their universal application. A 

 study of the laws of art, generally, would not enable the same man to write an epic, com- 

 pose an overture, and design a palace, but it would be attended with advantages suflicient 

 ly important in reference to the art to which he was devoted. It would lead him to see at 



