Raphael, Milton, Mozart, Goethe, and Beethoven? Could their works have appeared except when and where they were produced? And if we want to find out what was the genius of the age of each, do we not examine what was done by these men and by others who were typical of their age? And is not this one reason why we term these men geniuses? But, of course, there is also another reason, yet it is connected with this. As indicated in Chapter IV., a man is considered to be a genius in the degree in which he is able to give unimpeded outward expression to results coming from the hidden sphere of mind. But this sphere is occultly connected with the whole hidden or spiritual sphere of nature. The genius, therefore, is a man whose temperament makes him one of his kind, and therefore makes his products reflect the fact, in the sense of inclining him to be influenced as are other human beings, and as are also all the animate or inanimate developments of life that is not human. The word genius is sometimes used for the word spirit. Why is this except because genius tends like spirit to make the mind work in harmony with what may be termed the Mind in nature, and hence with the Spirit, or, if we choose to be polytheistic, the spirits in nature, of which Milton sings when he says?— And as I wake, sweet music breathe Il Penseroso. The genius's interpretations of nature commend themselves, therefore, both because nature makes the same appeal to him as to others through its visible forms, and also because it causes a unity of action between the sub conscious processes of his mind and its own-i. e., nature's own-invisible processes. This unity of action results in expression which is artistic inasmuch as it is characteristic of the individual artist, and yet is also natural inasmuch as it is characteristic of what is experienced by men in general, the representations of art, notwithstanding the intervention of human skill, appearing to spring up and flow forth to influence as naturally as fountains issue into streams and buds burst into blossoms. As a result, the art of any age is the blooming and fruitage of the influences of nature and humanity that have been at work on every side throughout long centuries. CHAPTER IX. THE DIFFERENT ARTS AS REPRESENTING DIFFERENT PHASES OF MENTAL CONCEPTION. The Art Used in Expression is Often Determined by the Thought or Emotion to be Expressed-Form of Expression Appropriate for Each Stage of Any Given Experience-Physical Thrill, and Vocal Expression Leading to Music-Definite Opinions, and Verbal Expression Leading to Poetry-Conflicting Opinions Leading to Oratory-Contemplation of Facts as they Appear Leading to Painting and Sculpture-Planning and Re-arranging Leading to Architecture-Relations of External Influence and States of Consciousness as Represented in Each ArtMental Contents and Influence from Without Compared to Ice on Water Flowing into an Inlet-Conditions Corresponding to Music, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture-Testimony of Physics -Largest Nerve-Movement in Music, Less in Poetry, Less Still in Colours, Least in Lines-Nerves are Directly Conscious of Vibrations in Sound, as in Thunder, but not of Vibrations in Colours-This Fact Illustrated Mythologically and Medicinally-Mental Facts Accord with what has Preceded―The Indefinite is Represented in Inarticulated Music; the Definite, in Articulated Poetry-Difference in Representative Effects of Words and Tones-Is a Difference between Visualising Thought and Not Visualising it Illustrations - Non-Imaginative Effect of Poetry that does Not Suggest Sights-Non-Success of Poetry too Exclusively Musical. IT T has been shown that the artist represents the sights or sounds of nature in order, through them, to represent his thoughts or emotions. This statement at once suggests that certain classes of natural phenomena, and therefore certain forms of art, differing, say, as music from painting, must be better fitted than are others for the representation of certain phases of thought or emotion. Let us consider this suggestion. We shall find it introducing us to a very interesting and important field of inquiry. Our first conception would be that the sight or sound perceived in nature would of itself indicate the forms in which the thoughts or feelings awakened in connection with it should be reproduced in art. Such is sometimes the case. It would always be the case, if art were a mere imitation. But, whether imitative or not, art is also an expression of thought and emotion, and, because it is so, the form used must, at times, be subordinated to the requirements of that which is to be expressed. To illustrate this, suppose a man to have listened to the story of a battle. It might be presumed that a representation of what he has heard would also assume the form of a story, and therefore be artistically expressed in a poem. But often the effect of the story upon his imagination, as also of his imagination upon it, is such that what is experienced can be represented truthfully only through a picture. Again, it happens sometimes that the forms through which the effects have been exerted, have lingered so long in his mind, and experienced so many modifications there that, though critical analysis may detect, as in architecture and music, that the effects produced have been suggested by forms in nature, the artist himself is unconscious of what these forms were. Let us develop this idea, and show its relations to the form of representation manifested in each of the arts. As a result, we shall find that all these are elaborations of instinctive modes of expression which, in certain circumstances, the mind is forced to adopt. To make this fact clear is evidently to bring to light principles that lie at the very bottom of our subject, and which, when seen in their true proportions and relations, will reveal a sure foundation on which to base all that can be affirmed of the thoughts and emotions fitted for representation in each art. Let us consider, then, at first briefly and superficially, which is all that is necessary at this stage, the general order of development of representative modes of expression in the case of an individual influenced by some specific event or series of events. Suppose a man to be in a crowd composed of persons of conflicting opinions with reference to some subject mentioned. Suppose that a statement be suddenly made there—as was done in so many places in our country in 1861, when Fort Sumter fell-that some flag has been fired upon, or some fortress attacked. Of course, the effect of the news will differ in different individuals; but let us observe its influence on the average man strongly interested in what is thus brought to his notice. Is it not true that this man will first experience a thrill or shock, as if his nervous system had been physically shaken? At the same instant, from him, or at least from some parts of the crowd, will arise sounds of approbation or of disapprobation, cheers or hisses, followed by exclamations more or less inarticulate or incoherent, according to the degree in which the one uttering them is more or less excited. This condition evidently can have no artistic expression unless it be in music. In fact, it was in song that the crowds on Wall Street, New York, invariably expressed their first impressions during the American civil war, when receiving news from the army, especially, of course, when receiving news of victory; but they kept up their courage in the same way, also, when receiving news of defeat. But let us pass on. Immediately after the period of |