336 IS MUSIC THE TYPE 



made a matter of indifference.' He then proceeds to point 

 out that each of the fine arts has its own sphere, its own 

 untranslatable mode of expression, its own way of reaching 

 the imaginative reason through the senses, its own special 

 responsibilities to its material. 



So far, every intelligent student of the subject will agree 

 with him. Nor will there be any substantial difference of 

 opinion as to the second point on which he insists namely, 

 that each of the arts, while pursuing its own object, and obey- 

 ing its own laws, may sometimes assimilate the quality of a 

 sister-art. This, adopting German phraseology, Mr. Pater terms 

 the Anders-streben of an art, or the reaching forward from its 

 own sphere into the sphere of another art. We are familiar 

 with the thought that Greek dramatic poetry borrowed some- 

 thing of its form from sculpture, and that the Italian romantic 

 epic was determined to a great extent by the analogy of 

 painting. Nor is it by any means an innovation in criticism 

 to refer all the artistic products of a nation to some dominant 

 fine art, for which that nation possessed a special aptitude, 

 and which consequently gave colour and complexion to its 

 whole assthetical activity. Accordingly, Mr. Pater, both in 

 the doctrine of the independence of each art, and also in the 

 doctrine of the Anders-streben of one art toward another, 

 advances nothing which excites opposition. 



At this point, however, he passes into a region of more 

 questionable speculation. Having rebuked popular criticism 

 for using poetry as the standard whereby to judge the arts, he 

 proceeds to make a similar use of music ; for he lays it down 

 that all the arts in common aspire ' towards the principle of 

 music, music being the typical, or ideally consummate art, the 

 object of the great Anders-streben of all art, of all that is 

 artistic, or partakes of artistic qualities.' 



The reason for this assertion is stated with precision : J 



All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music. For while 

 in all other works of art it is possible to distinguish the matter from the 

 form, and the understanding can always make this distinction, yet it is 

 the constant effort of art to obliterate it. That the mere matter of a 



Fortnightly Review, p. 528. The italics are Mr. Pater's. 



