2i 8 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



perhaps fair to consider Euripides as the founder, but its 

 wider development is modern, and it is the requirement of 

 realism which has made the novel the dominant form of 

 modern literature, as that which gives readiest scope for 

 the display of the working forces of life in their full 

 extent. 



But as a pendant to the realistic interpretation of experi- 

 ence, the mind needs a free range into the beyond, and in 

 proportion as it becomes conscious of the fact that in this 

 range it is transcending the limits of actual knowledge, it 

 needs a vehicle for the expression of those feelings which 

 cannot be formulated without falsity, but which as feelings 

 are driving and impelling forces. It must find a voice for 

 the pathos of limitation and frustration and withal of per- 

 sistent underlying hope, for c infinite passion and the pain 

 of finite hearts that yearn.' Such a voice has been found 

 in music. It is to be heard in the modern lyric. The 

 same revolt against human finitude, the same longing 

 for hints and suggestions of a beyond that is known to be 

 unknown inspires the interpretation of nature, whether in 

 poetry or in painting. These, the characteristic modern 

 arts, are not themselves realistic, but constitute those 

 methods of transcending experience which realism sanc- 

 tions. We may therefore take the critical attitude towards 

 ideals which the term conveys as the characteristic of the 

 most advanced phase of art. 



The development of artistic representation does not 

 imply advance in the power to make beautiful things. 

 Beauty is something complete in itself and insusceptible 

 of progress. Everyone would admit that there are passages 

 of the Iliad and verses in Genesis which are perfect, and 

 where there is perfection there can be no progress. On the 

 contrary, the perfect may be a cause of decay since it inspires 

 second-hand imitation, and, generally speaking, an art 

 languishes when that which it has to render has been 

 expressed as well as it can be expressed, until a new genius 

 or a fresh experience opens up a new line. It is probably 

 from this cause rather than from fluctuations in the supply 

 of natural ability that the fortunes of art fluctuate so 

 strangely. The creator is a miner in unknown depths. 



