300 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



has to do chiefly with the feeKngs. " Of all the phenomena which 

 relate to man human affections are the most modifiable and there- 

 fore the most susceptible of idealization. Being more perfect 

 than any other, by virtue of their higher complexity, they allow 

 greater scope for improvement. ... All aesthetic study . . . 

 may become a useful moral exercise, by calling sympathies and 

 antipathies into healthy play. The effect is far greater when the 

 representation, passing the limits of strict accuracy, is suitably 

 ! idealized. This, indeed, is the characteristic mission of art. Its 

 I function is to construct t3^es of the noblest kind by the contem- 

 I plation of which our feelings and thoughts may be elevated." ^ 

 There are three stages in the aesthetic process, imitation, ideal- 

 ization and expression. Poetry is the art which idealizes the 

 most and imitates the least. The function of the poet is esteemed 

 because of his power to idealize and to stimulate.^ 



As to the relation of art to social progress our author says: 



/ " Utopias are to the art of social life what geometrical and me- 



l chanical types are to their respective arts. In these their neces- 



j sity is universally recognized; and surely the necessity cannot be 



I less in problems of such far greater intricacy. Accordingly we see 



that, notwithstanding the empirical condition in which political 



art has hitherto existed, every great change has been ushered in, 



one or two centuries beforehand, by an Utopia bearing some 



analogy to it. It was the product of the aesthetic genius of 



Humanity working under an imperfect sense of its conditions and 



requirements." ^ 



The function of art in education, in the propagation of positi- 

 vism, in government and religion is discussed at some length, and 

 he concludes " that the priest of Humanity will not have attained 

 his full measure of superiority over the priest of God, until, with 

 the intellect of the philosopher, he combines the enthusiasm of the 

 poet, as well as the tenderness of woman and the people's 

 energy." * 



1 A General View, p. 315. 



* Ibid., p. 325. Compare the teaching of Buckle who ignores this function of 

 literature and art, — supra, ch. VI. 



' Ibid., p. 317. * ^b^-y P- 354. 



