THE ART-PRINCIPLE IN POETRY 209 



being — or, as the Germans say, it is only art " striv- 

 ing to become." 



In all of the other four arts in the list, the crea- 

 tive function is quite emancipated from external uses 

 and mechanical conditions. The only question re- 

 garding each is, What limits to the perfection of 

 creative freedom remain because of its material or 

 medium of embodiment ? — what enlargement of free 

 expression has it, by reason of the greater complex 

 of elements which it merges into unity in its mate- 

 rial, or by reason of the more inward and intellectual 

 nature of its medium of embodiment ? 



Sculpture, by this principle, ranks below painting, 

 not only because its material, as matter in mass, is 

 less kindred with the intellectual nature of imagina- 

 tion than the surface of pigment which painting 

 presents, but because its medium of embodiment, 

 physical form, is less complex than that of painting, 

 which unites both form and colour with perspective. 

 The consequence of all this is, that sculpture is 

 much more restricted than painting in its control 

 over the principles of unity. It is limited to one 

 narrow spot of foreground space, as well as to a pres- 

 ent instant of time, while painting is limited in the 

 unity of time alone. Thus the larger manifold that 

 painting has the power of reducing to unity opens 

 to it a vaster range of creative combination. 



Painting, in its turn, must yield to music in crea- 

 p 



