THE ART-PRINCIPLE IN POETRY 203 



bers will appear in his work that do not belong there, 

 while others that do belong will fail of getting ren- 

 dered. This is the reason why didactic or hortatory 

 versifying offends a healthy taste, why allegorical 

 sculpture and painting and music and poetry are 

 insipid, and why the " novel with a purpose " has 

 become a by-word and reproach. 



To return now to our starting-point, and realise 

 upon the long transaction we have been carrying on 

 in the grounds of our view, we may say, with a better 

 comprehension than at first, that art is imagina- 

 tive creation taking its hint from fact, and setting 

 into existence a thoroughly singularised unit, for the 

 simple purpose of giving the theme which the work 

 represents an embodiment in living accord with its 

 nature ; but this nature must be such as agrees with 

 the real-ideality that makes up the essence of art. 

 In short, art is the literal origination of a beautiful 

 object simply for the sake of its genuine beauty. 



To apply this to the poetic art : A poem, to be such, 

 must present some theme, of a completely original 

 unity, wrought out of the materials of real experience 

 by force of the ideal which, while carried in them, 

 points beyond them ; and which, though condemning 

 them to imperfection, recognises in them a token, at 

 least, of the Supreme Perfection. This theme must 

 not simply be rehearsed, it must be embodied — set 



