36 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



24. 

 The "Char- 

 acteristic." 



significance and the beauty of a work of art, between 

 the idea and the form, became more and more clarified. 

 The discussion was further enriched by the introduction 

 of a new term, the " Characteristic." It was maintained 

 that Art has to represent the characteristic, not the 

 Ideal. 



I have frequently had occasion to point out how 

 various lines of thought which strove indefinitely to 

 give expression to a hidden conception were brought 

 together throusii the introduction of some novel word or 



celebrated. Schiller allowed that 

 ' ' Kant's ethics were necessary, 

 considering the lax morality of the 

 age : he became the Drako of his 

 age because he did not consider it 

 worthy and ready to receive a 

 Solon," but added further on, "How 

 have the children of the household 

 deserved it that he [Kant] should 

 only look after the servants." The 

 philosophical question was, How was 

 freedom, the autonomous nature of 

 the moral law, compatible with the 

 radical propensity to evil ? moral 

 beauty and grace would become 

 impossible. To this Kant replied 

 by a celebrated simile, " Only after 

 vanquishing the monsters was 

 Hercules introduced to the Muses, 

 who, on their part, shrunk from 

 that severe task." This symbol of 

 Kant's has, so Kuno Fischer says, 

 suggested to Schiller one of the 

 finest verses in his latest philo- 

 sophical poem, "Das Ideal und 

 das Leben. " Goethe, on the other 

 hand, missed in Schiller's treat- 

 ment a real appreciation of natural 

 beauty, and felt even personally 

 offended by some passages which 

 he supposed were directed against 

 his own position ; but an approxi- 

 mation of the poets was soon to 

 follow, and after it we have in 

 ' The Hours ' that last and most 



important of Schiller's ajsthetical 

 essays named in the text ; it had 

 the full appreciation of Goethe 

 himself. In contrasting Realism and 

 Idealism in poetry, in art, and in 

 the whole of human endeavour, 

 Schiller has opened out illuminat- 

 ing aspects of great importance : 

 "His ideas and reflections have 

 borne fruit everywhere, and liave 

 exerted a distinct influence on many 

 regions of thought. They have 

 flowed, as Gervinus remarks, into 

 the minutest arteries of our [Ger- 

 man] national culture. We carry 

 them about in our minds not know- 

 ing whence they come. Especially 

 in criticism and literary history, 

 the philosophy of art and culture 

 are immensely indebted to Schiller. 

 Those distinctions have, under 

 different names, made the run of 

 the whole world, and they laid 

 (according to an expression of 

 Goethe) the first foundation of all 

 modern aesthetic ; for all synony- 

 mous conceptions which have been 

 put forward, antique and modern, 

 Hellenic and Romantic, popular 

 and artistic, are only sports and 

 variations of those fundamental dis- 

 tinctions brought out by Schiller" 

 (Berger's ' Schiller,' vol. ii. p. 234 ; 

 see also Goethe, Werke, section ii., 

 vol. ii. p. 53). 



