OK MEASURE OF ALL A&T v 34! 



Whether a man selects poetry or selects music as the 'true 

 type or measure of consummate art,' to which ' in common 

 all the arts aspire/ will depend doubtless partly upon personal 

 susceptibilities, and partly upon the theory he has formed 

 of art in general. Both the popular critics and Mr. Pater 

 take up their position upon equally debatable ground. The 

 case stands thus. Mr. Pater is of opinion that the best 

 poetry is that in which there is the least appeal to 'mere 

 intelligence,' in which the verbal melody and the suggestive 

 way of handling it are more important than the intellectual 

 content. He thinks that the best pictures are those in which 

 the ' mere subject ' is brought into the least prominence. 

 Holding these views, he selects music as the ' true type and 

 measure of consummate art.' Herein he is consistent ; for 

 music, by reason of its limitations, is the least adapted of 

 all arts for the expression of an intellectual content. The 

 popular critic, on the other hand, is of opinion that the best 

 poetry is that which has the clearest, the most human, and 

 the most impressive motive. He thinks that the best pictures 

 are those which, beside being delightful by their drawing and 

 colour, give food for meditation and appeal to mental faculty. 

 Holding these vieAvs, he selects poetry as the ' true type and 

 measure of consummate art.' Herein he too is consistent; 

 for poetry, by reason of its limitations, is the best adapted of 

 all arts for appealing to intelligence and embodying motives 

 with lucidity. 



Mr. Pater and the popular critic are equally right or 

 equally wrong. We are, in fact, confronting two different 

 conceptions of art, each of which is partial and one-sided, 

 because the one insists too strongly on the sensuous form, the 

 other on the mental stuff, of art. 



Suppose a man does not accept Mr. Pater's doctrine ; 

 supposing he starts from another point of view, and demands 

 some defined conception in a work of art as well as a sensuous 

 appeal to our imaginative reason ; supposing he regards art 

 in its highest manifestation as a mode of utterance for what 

 is spiritual in man, as a language for communicating the ideal 

 world of thought and feeling in sensible form ; then he will 



