Design, the greater part of those philosophers, who have declared their views on the nature of the beautiful. Among them we find mentioned Plato and Aristotle, Locke and Leibnitz; the French empyrists, Helvetius, Diderot, Cabanis, and D'Alembert; Burke, Hemsterhuis, and Kant, the ingenious and profound Winkelmann, all of whom have more or less explicitly investigated the nature of the beautiful. From a consideration of the opinions of all the philosophers, enumerated by Mr. von Schlegel, it would appear that Plato far surpasses his fellow-labourers in the field of speculative philosophy, as to the exalted idea which he entertained of the beautiful. He makes no attempt at definition:—he speaks of the beautiful by similes only. He calls it the reflex in the visible world, which excites in the soul a longing after the divine as after its source. Let us, then, rest satisfied with this view of the matter, and regard and venerate the beautiful, as an internal revealing, a spark of the divine in man, which prompts him to give a visible and material form to the image that is within him. We can thus dispense with the definition of Aristotle, who says that "the beautiful pleases for its own sake, and is praised because it pleases," though this definition, or rather explanation, is indeed appliIcable to the idea of the beautiful. We will rather listen to the voice of a genius, who understands the opinion of Plato, better than I can hope to do. This is Goethe, who, in his " Wilhelm Meister," says:

"Beauty creates the thoughts of the soul, as though

they were a harmony of colours; its sentiments, as an unison of all tones; its life, as a melodious song, which soothes all sorrows, softens all passions, vivifies pale fear, crowns all love, fills all space, cures all wounds; or, as a lovely image created by God, as if he would copy himself, and for that purpose took the elements of the human world. There is nothing more beautiful than a soul which, without poetically composing works, forms within itself and creates in itself the beautiful. The beautiful unites all contrasts. The pure man, glowing with patriotism, desires to die the death of unostentatious sacrifice,— and he also desires to seat himself calmly with the Sacontala among the lotus flowers, beside the Ganges, -both, because it is beautiful. He longs to wander in freedom afar off-in the rustling alpine forests— in the orient tinged with the colours of Aurora—in all the lovely places of the earth,-and like a child, in his restriction of home, he wishes likewise the abode in every lovely spot-both, because it is beautiful. Thus the truly mindful man, modest as brave, mild as powerful, in the bloom of youth, or decline of age, filled with hopes or memories, chooses for himself one ideal, which in a hundred forms reveals itself, like Brahma, as one, as the divine, in the image of the beautiful."

And in another passage:

"In the beautiful,' the divine speaks by images, has clothed itself as the human mind, and has acquired form, as the thought in the word. And the wise con

ceive in it the Eternal, and revere it as religion in terrestrial form."

The divine, then-that is, truth is the source of the beautiful; but it is also admitted by all to be the source of the moral-the good. Consequently, the beautiful and the good are only pulses, or vibrations, if I may so say, of one idea. The good appears in deeds the beautiful, in forms. Hence the former, in its expression, is eternal; good deeds being written in the book of life: the latter, perishable; that is, as regards the form; but the idea is eternal, as is also the act, though not the work.

1

Gentlemen, If I have been so fortunate as to make myself clearly understood, you will have perceived the close relation between art, in its highest sense, and religion. Religion is the belief in, and the longing after, the sources of truth. It moves the soul to act. The will is followed by a deed. Virtue is evinced by good actions; which are the result of religious feelings and persuasions. Art is humbly. and faithfully subservient to her elder sister. Songs are its first expression. The first poets are priests: the premices of poetry, in all nations, epic songs, celebrating the deeds of gods, as fancy and feeling prompted the poet. Then follow the arts of design; but mythology is always their object. The image represents the idea: but when the idea is lost, or forgotten, the image becomes either hieroglyphic, or an idol; as, when the spirit quits the body, death

ensues; the body either falling into dust, or becoming a mummy, or petrified. Religion, like art, has her earthly and perishable form. In order to captivate the senses by the means of fancy, she avails herself of ceremonies, worldly institutions, and rituals: but we must bear in mind, that she is heavendescended, and dwells on earth to point out the celestial path to men. With time, these forms and ceremonies change. The works of art, which lend to her an earthly charm, perish also: but the eternal ideas live in the memory of man; and this, in truth, is immortality. Phidias is immortalized by his works, although no trace of them be now discoverable. Raphael, long after his divine paintings shall have perished, will be gratefully remembered, when the names of contemporaneous heroes have passed away. The more the beautiful has of the lofty in it, the more does it receive a religious colouring.

This nature, in its sublime variety, is religiously enjoyed by us through poetry and devotion, if our reflection embrace it, as the representative form of the idea of the beautiful, organized according to the laws of symmetry and harmony.

The artist works religiously, if, when imitating and copying nature, the idea of beauty within him generates the form organically.

We see, then, that religious feeling is the source of all art and hence we find it, in the highest stage of its perfection, invariably devoted to the religious belief of the age. The symbolical part of religion

that is, the formal expression of the eternal truths, as conceived by mortal man-comes within the special province of the artist: an opinion which is borne out by the ancient and modern history of art and literature.

The objection that art, even in its most perfect state, is often intent on creating for worldly purposes alone, and that this is especially the case in modern times, does not at all contradict my assertion. In every flower and tree, the artist beholds an image of the divine. Truth and beauty are his aim on all occasions; and religious and worldly art are merely different forms of the same idea. The mode of accomplishing an idea must vary with the individuality of man, and the nationality of peoples.

Mo

The objects of art are various as those of nature; and they are traceable to the self-same source. dern times, when reason rules the feeling, and checks the wanton flight of fancy, have given to art a more philosophical tendency. What the artist formerly achieved by a sort of inspiration, he now endeavours to accomplish by reflection. This often stamps modern works with the impress of labour and jejuneness: but reason, in itself, is not the cause of this, which proceeds only from a misapplying of reflection. Inspiration and reason form no contrast. To both be

longs consciousness of the laws of harmony; and this consciousness, and that of the mutual pervasion of idea and form, are indispensable requisites in the mind of an artist.