OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 79 



of everything, from the lowest to the highest. Accord- 

 ingly the realm of art divides itself into three separate 

 regions : the fine arts, poetry, and music." l 



It will be seen from this passage that the philosophv 43 - 



J Hisgroup- 



of Schopenhauer lends itself further to a natural arrange- in gfthe 

 ment of the different arts, a problem which was hesitat- 

 ingly solved by Schelling and, according to other 

 principles, by Hegel. The fundamental conception of 

 Schopenhauer indicates clearly the ascending scale of 

 the arts and their exhibition of the beautiful. The 

 more material arts, those which have to do with actual 

 matter, form the beginning; these are architecture and 

 the plastic arts. Painting stands a step higher, as it 

 works not only with the material given by nature but 

 also with the passions of man and the scenes of life, and 

 exhibits what is characteristic in the affairs of the 

 human world : it includes the landscape, the portrait, 

 and the historical picture. The next stage is occupied 

 by poetry, which is still more ethereal, less material. 

 Painting already had worked with an ethereal element, 

 that of light and shade ; poetry works with words and 

 notions, her task is to represent through them the ideas. 

 Poetry is rich in symbolical expressions, in allegories, 

 parables, and metaphors. But the highest of all arts, 

 that which works with the most ethereal element, the 

 element of sound, is Music. 



Schopenhauer had a deeper understanding of con- 44. 

 temporary music, especially of Beethoven, than any of of MtuSe! 7 

 the thinkers and poets of his age, with the exception 

 perhaps of the romantic writer and composer E. T. A. 



1 Kuno Fischer, loc cit., p. 316. Freely translated. 



