Goodness.

Each of these finds its distinct expression even in the completest
repose, but a more living one where the Soul can reveal itself in
activity and antagonism; and since it is by the passions mainly that
the peace of life is interrupted, it is the generally received opinion
that the beauty of the Soul shows itself especially in its quiet
supremacy amid the storm of the passions.

But here an important distinction is to be made. For the Soul must not
be called upon to moderate those passions which are only an outbreak
of the lower spirits of Nature, nor can it be displayed in antithesis
with these; for where calm considerateness is still in contention
with them, the Soul has not yet appeared; they must be moderated by
unassisted Nature in Man, by the might of the Spirit. But there are
cases of a higher sort, in which not a single force alone, but the
intelligent Spirit itself breaks down all barriers--cases, indeed,
where even the Soul is subjected by the bond that connects it with
sensuous existence, to pain, which should be foreign to its divine
nature; where Man feels himself hard fought and attacked in the root
of his existence, not by mere powers of Nature, but by moral forces;
where innocent error hurries him into crime, and thus into misery;
where deep-felt injustice excites to rebellion the holiest feelings of
humanity.

This is the case in all situations, truly, and, in a high sense,
tragic, such as the Tragedy of the ancients brings before our eyes.
Where blindly passionate forces are aroused, the collected Spirit is
present as the guardian of Beauty; but if the Spirit itself be carried
away, as by an irresistible might, what power shall watch over
and protect sacred beauty? Or, if even the soul participate in the
struggle, how shall it save itself from pain and from desecration?

Arbitrarily to restrain the power of pain, of feeling in revolt, would
be to sin against the very meaning and aim of Art, and would betray a
want of feeling and soul in the artist himself.

Already therein, that Beauty, based on grand and firmly established
forms, has become Character, Art has provided the means of displaying
without injury to symmetry the whole intensity of Feeling. For where
Beauty rests on mighty forms, as upon immovable pillars, even a slight
change in its relations, scarcely touching the form, causes us to
infer the great force that was necessary in order to provide it. Still
more does Grace sancti