120 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



tion to Signer Croce's work is of more importance. 

 Having for himself elaborated an independent conception 

 of the task of aesthetics, of the nature of art and the 

 essence of the Beautiful, he proceeds critically to review 

 sesthetical theories from their beginning down to the 

 end of the nineteenth century. Inasmuch, however, as 

 his point of view differs very widely from that taken up 

 by well-known thinkers in ancient and modern times, he 

 has been led to draw special attention to several writers 

 who have been commonly overlooked or misunder- 

 stood by other historians of aesthetics. These are the 

 writers who bring art into a closer connection with 

 Language. 



According to Signer Croce, human knowledge is 

 possessed of two distinct forms, or, as it were, mental 

 elements. These are images (things) and concepts (the 

 relations of things) ; the first are seen by the mind or 

 perceived, the second are thought or conceived. The 

 knowledge referring to the first is intuitive (through 

 sight), the knowledge of the second is logical (through 

 thought). But intuitions or images cannot remain in 

 the form of sensations or impressions, they demand ex- 

 pression. This expression is called language in the 

 larger sense of the word. It need not be merely 

 language of words : any form of expression, lines, colours, 

 or sounds, is a sort of language in the wider sense. 

 ^Esthetics is the science of language in the largest 

 signification : it is " general linguistic." Art is the 

 expression of impressions, of intuitions ; science is a 

 further form of expression ; the concept, or general 

 thought as distinguished from the individual, follows 



