THE ART-PRINCIPLE IN POETRY 1 95 



dispensable condition of their existence, is it also 

 the sufficient condition ? 



Now, upon thorough reflection, is it not plain that 

 in this quality of self-harmony, this unity of diverse 

 terms, we are not upon the nerve peculiar to beauty 

 and art, but upon the trunk of their kindred and 

 identity with truth and science, with good and reli- 

 gion ? To differentiate this into the specific quality 

 of art and beauty, some further principle is needed; 

 the principle of self-harmony, though indispensable, 

 is by itself insufficient. For science is as unques- 

 tionably a self -harmonious whole, a variety in unity, 

 as any work of art can be : truth is a system, of 

 which science is the imaging exposition, and its 

 supreme objective principle is the same as that of 

 religion — the one Creative Idea or Perfect Person; 

 while religion is the imaging practice of the moral 

 system (or harmony) in which good by its own 

 nature subsists. Beauty, truth, and good — art, 

 science, and religion — come thus alike under the 

 formula of unity in variety. But while this corrobo- 

 rates their kindred, and even puts it in a new and 

 striking light, the formula not only fails to give the 

 secret of their distinction, but makes no more than 

 a formal statement of their identity ; the essence of 

 their common nature is missing, after all. To say 

 that beauty, truth, and good are all self-harmonies 

 — all unities in variety — tells us as little of their 



