OF THE BEAUTIFUL. ]21 



upon the latter. It cannot exist without expression, 

 but expression can exist without logical or conceptual 

 thought. " The relation between intuitive knowledge 

 (or expression) and intellectual knowledge (or concep- 

 tion), between art and science, between poetry and 

 prose, cannot be otherwise defined than by saying : it is 

 a relation of a twofold degree. The first degree is ex- 

 pression, the second is conception : the first can exist 

 without the second, the second cannot exist without 

 the first. There may be poetry without prose, but 

 there is no prose without poetry. Expression is in fact 

 the first affirmation of human activity. Poetry is the 

 mother tongue of the human race : the first men were 

 naturally sublime poets. This is recognised in a different 

 way by those who have noticed that the passage from 

 the Psyche to the Spirit, from the sensibility of the 

 animal to the activity of man, is effected by means of 

 language, we might say by intuition, or expression in 

 general. . . . Man who expresses himself rises, no 

 doubt suddenly, from the natural state, but he rises 

 out of it : he does not remain half in it and half outside 

 of it." ^ Beauty is defined, under this view, as " success- 

 ful expression, or rather expression pure and simple and 

 nothing more, for expression which is not successful is 

 not expression at all." '^ The ugly, on the other side, is 

 defective expression. 



It is not necessary for my present purpose to pass an 

 opinion on the value of this theory ; but we must be 

 grateful to Signer Croce for having, from his point 

 of view, recognised the value of the contributions to 



1 B. Croce, 'Esthdtique,' p. 27. " Ibid., p. 77. 



