s, both psychic and physical, that the severance from them
would, if it were indeed possible, destroy our own existence. Our
so-called intensive life is conditioned by the extensive; the former is
only a reflex of the latter, in which the figures and images received,
as if reflected in a concave mirror, often appear in changed relations
that are wonderful and singularly strange, notwithstanding that these
caricatures again And their real originals in life. I boldly maintain,
that no man has ever thought or dreamt anything the elements of which
were not to be found in Nature; nohow can he get out of her."

Was this the cause or the result of the visions he used to see?

From his conception of strife between good and evil as interpreting the
significance of existence arose that dissonance which lies at the root
of nearly all his most characteristic works--that sense of want, that
failure to find final satisfaction which may be only too readily
detected. For the conflict within himself he knew no real mediatory: he
was baffled to discover a higher category in which to unite the
conflicting principles. Religion he never willingly talked about; hence
it could not give him the satisfaction he lacked. He thought he found
it in Art, however; since for Art he battled with all the strength of
his genius, and in the sacred mission of Art he believed with all his
soul. He has many enthusiastic bursts on the subject, agreeing in some
respects with the views laid down by Schiller in his _Aesthetische
Erziehung des Menschen_:--

"They alone are true artists who devote themselves with undivided love
and enthusiasm to their goddess; to them alone is true Art revealed....
There is no Art which is not sacred.... The sacred purpose of all Art
is apprehension of Nature in that deepest sense of the word which
enkindles in the soul an ardent striving after the higher life.... I do
not ask about the artistes life; but his work must be pure, in the
highest degree respectable, and if possible religious. It has no need,
therefore, to have any so-called moral tendency; nay, it ought not to
have such. The truly beautiful is itself moral, only in another
form.... Art is eternally clear. The mists of ignorance are as inimical
to her as the life-destroying carbonic acid gas of immorality. Art is
the highest perfection of human power. Heart and Understanding are her
common parents."

Music was his favourite art. It first taught him to feel; an