414 Life as a Fine Art. 



the application of the art-principle to the ordering of hu- 

 man life. 



The true artist does not imitate : he creates. He does 

 not copy Nature : he studies her varying moods and aspects, 

 he catches her finest spirit, he sees her unity and perfection 

 and ignores her defects, thus portraying her not as she act- 

 ually is in severest detail, but according to that ideal of 

 perfection toward which she constantly strives. His work 

 thus becomes in truth original and creative. " It is the ob- 

 ject of art," says Taine, " to manifest the essence of things." 

 Imitation in art should only be applied " to the relation- 

 ships and mutual dependence of parts," not to the spe- 

 cific features of the object to be portrayed.* The artist 

 takes the street beggar, perhaps, for his model, but into 

 his dull eyes he puts dignity, animation, and nobility of 

 spirit ; his shock of unkempt hair grows radiant under the 

 creative magic of his pencil, and becomes a fit crown for the 

 noblest ideal manhood ; the head is raised from its habitual 

 attitude of stolid humiliation and given a regal pose : be- 

 hold now Moses or one of the inspired prophets ! So life, if 

 we would make the most of it, should not be merely imita- 

 tive, even of the loftiest examples. I am convinced that 

 we do best honor the founder of Christianity, not by his 

 imitation, but by participation in his spirit of original in- 

 sight, spontaneity, and personal independence ; by the effort 

 nobly to live our own lives, to perfect our own personality 

 after its kind and according to its opportunities, even as he 

 developed and perfected his. 



The true artistic life is characterized by freedom and 

 spontaneity, not by conformity and compulsion. Its law 

 is graven on the heart, not on tablets of stone or rolls of 

 vellum. The artist does not work by rule and compass, 

 but by the free hand, trained, it is true, by long and patient 

 practice, but obedient to no necessity save that of the in- 

 stant inspiration of his divine ideal. Art, therefore, does 

 not antagonize science : it assimilates it. The hand must 

 be trained by repeated efforts to a perfect and spontaneous 

 control, the eye to an instinctive perception of color, per- 

 spective and the relation of parts. He who paints human 

 figures must understand the human anatomy ; but if he pos- 

 sesses no other talent than this scientific knowledge of the 

 structure of the body, no skill in drawing will enable him to 



* The Philosophy of Art. 



