158 BIRDS AND POETS 
commanding. His gods are not philosophers, but 
delight in deeds, justice, rulership. 
Among the differences between the modern and 
the classical esthetic mind is the greater precision 
and definiteness of the latter. The modern genius 
is Gothic, and demands in art a certain vagueness 
and spirituality like that of music, refusing to be 
grasped and formulated. Hence for us (and this is 
undoubtedly an improvement) there must always be 
something about a poem, or any work of art, besides 
the evident intellect or plot of it, or what is on its 
surface, or what it tells. This something is the 
Invisible, the Undefined, almost Unexpressed, and 
is perhaps the best part of any work of art, as it is 
of a noble personality. To amuse, to exhibit cul- 
ture, to formulate the esthetic, or even to excite the 
emotions, is by no means all,— is not even the deep- 
est part. Beside these, and inclosing all, is the gen- 
eral impalpable effect, like a good air, or the subtle 
presence of good spirits, wordless but more potent far 
than words. As, in the superbest person, it is not 
merely what he says or knows or shows, or even 
how he behaves, but in the silent qualities, like 
gravitation, that insensibly but resistlessly hold us; 
so in a good poem, or in any other expression of art. 
