, or
death-weakness. Then, passing wholly beyond the domain of death, we may
still imagine the ascendant nobleness of the art, through all the
concordant life of incorrupt creatures, and a continually deeper harmony
of "puissant words and murmurs made to bless," until we reach

"The undisturbed song of pure consent,
Aye sung before the sapphire-colored throne."

142. And so far as the sister arts can be conceived to have place or
office, their virtues are subject to a law absolutely the same as that of
music, only extending its authority into more various conditions, owing
to the introduction of a distinctly representative and historical power,
which acts under logical as well as mathematical restrictions, and is
capable of endlessly changeful fault, fallacy, and defeat, as well as of
endlessly manifold victory.

143. Next to Modesty, and her delight in measures, let us reflect a
little on the character of her adversary, the Goddess of Liberty, and her
delight in absence of measures, or in false ones. It is true that there
are liberties and liberties. Yonder torrent, crystal-clear, and
arrow-swift, with its spray leaping into the air like white troops of
fawns, is free enough. Lost, presently, amidst bankless, boundless marsh
--soaking in slow shallowness, as it will, hither and thither, listless
among the poisonous reeds and unresisting slime--it is free also. We may
choose which liberty we like,--the restraint of voiceful rock, or the
dumb and edgeless shore of darkened sand. Of that evil liberty which men
are now glorifying and proclaiming as essence of gospel to all the earth,
and will presently, I suppose, proclaim also to the stars, with
invitation to them out of their courses,--and of its opposite continence,
which is the clasp and 'chrusee perone' of Aglaia's cestus, we must try
to find out something true. For no quality of Art has been more powerful
in its influence on public mind; none is more frequently the subject of
popular praise, or the end of vulgar effort, than what we call "Freedom."
It is necessary to determine the justice or injustice of this popular
praise.

144. I said, a little while ago, that the practical teaching of the
masters of Art was summed by the O of Giotto. "You may judge my
masterhood of craft," Giotto tells us, "by seeing that I can draw a
circle unerringly." And we may safely believe him, understanding him to
mean that, though more may be necessary to an a