FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF THE EMOTIONS 523 



skill in surfaces, in. outlines, or rules of art can ever teach — namely, a 

 radiation from the work of art of human character — a wonderful expres- 

 sion through stone, or canvas, or musical sound, of the deepest and simplest 

 attributes of our nature, and therefore most intelligible at last to those 

 souls which have these attributes. In the sculptures of the Greeks, in 

 the masonry of the Romans, and in the pictures of the Tuscan and Venetian 

 masters, the highest charm is the imiversal language they speak. A 

 confession of moral nature, of purity, love, and hope breathes from 

 them all." i 



Or what can. be more beautiful than Goethe's definition of 

 genius ? — 



" Alles, was wir Erfinden, Entdecken im hoheren Siime nennen, ist die 

 bedeutende Ausiibung, Betatigung eines originalen Wahrheitsgefiihles, das, 

 im stiUen langst ausgebildet, unversehens mit Blitzessohnelle zu einer 

 fruchtbaren Erkenntnis fuhrt. Es ist eine aus dem Innern am Aussem 

 sich entwickelnde OfEenbaning, die den Menschen seine Gottahnlichkeit 

 vorahnen lasst. Es ist eine Synthese von Welt und Geist, welche von der 

 ewigen Harmonie des Daseins die seligste Versioherung gieht."^ 



And it was Goethe who made the profound remark that 

 " man must hold fast to the belief that the incomprehensible 

 is comprehensible ; for otherwise he woidd make no in- 

 quiry."^ But if this condition is to be fulfilled, is not belief an 

 essential requisite to its fulfilment ? For what can make the 

 scientifically incomprehensible comprehensible to us, if not 

 behef ? 



It is a curious fact that RationaUsm, while it proclaims freedom 

 of inquiry, and the necessity for the intellect to be unrestricted 

 in its expansion ; nevertheless would deny to that which is more 

 fundamental than the intellect the satisfaction which alone can 

 be adequate to it. But if we grant to the intellectual nature of 

 man the right to expand, and to seek in scientific research the 

 satisfaction to which it is entitled ; surely we must grant like- 

 wise to the emotional nature of man the right to expand, and to 



^ Emerson, Essays, p. 204. World's Classics Edition, 1902. 



2 Werke, xviii. 194. Edition Max Hesse, Leipzig. 



3 " Der Mensch muss bei dem Glauben verharren, dass das Unbe- 

 greiflich begreifUoh sei ; er wiirde sonst nicht forschen." 



