320 THE AESTHETICS OF 



nought is left but the mystery of Beauty. In it buds forth 

 the fore-shadowing of a higher significance of all pheno- 

 mena, its recognition is Religion, is the purest and most 

 elevated worship of God to which Man can raise himself; 

 in it is the most immediate Revelation of the Holy which 

 Man is capable of receiving. Let us, to avoid misconcep- 

 tion, add, that the Beauty of outward corporeal Nature is 

 not the highest that is met with in life. There is yet 

 something more noble than the material world, this is the 

 soul of Man ; Beauty of Soul and the noblest blossom 

 of it, pure Love, is a still more perfect reflection of the 

 Divine, and not out of the world of Matter, but out of the 

 innermost life of the human Soul do we therefore derive 

 our highest symbol. 



Nature having in this way obtained her proper signifi- 

 cance for us, we come apparently to the conclusion of our 

 discourse. Beauty is incapable of any explanatory science. 

 The decisions in which we recognize it, the criticisms of 

 Taste, are not to be built upon inductive reasonings. For 

 each of them stands independant, making its claim to 

 immediate validity, even the more when it presents itself 

 in a totally different shape to the souls of different 

 beholders. Where shall we find matter for a further 

 account of it ? If we cannot analyze the Nature of Beauty, 

 yet we may subject the Object which appears Beautiful to 

 us, to more minute investigation; we may become 

 acquainted with its separate parts and characters, their 

 relations to each other, and, in something like a system, 

 unfold what elements and what combinations animate in us 

 the feelings of Beauty and Sublimity. In analogy to the 

 researches into the Harmony of Colours, Rules of Compo- 

 sition, and so on, we may seek out more minutely in 

 the Vegetable World, the peculiarities through which 



