o his inmost soul, and
awakened deep and holy emotions, that it has made him a better man;--the
same wise shrug of contempt greets him; he is told 'such effects are
impossible, for the work in question offends a fixed rule!'

Yet what great diversity of opinion obtains among the very band of
self-constituted elect! How few possess the requisite mastery of the
rules, and what an immense number of the human race would thus be
excluded from the elevating sources of enjoyment to be found in poetry
and the fine arts! Such scholastic critics confound two things to be
distinguished in every work in all branches of art; viz., the _pure
idea_, and the _material form_ through which it is manifested. It is
indeed necessary that the artist should make severe studies, and
thoroughly master the technics of his chosen art, whatever it may be;
for, as means to facilitate the clearest manifestation of his
conceptions, such formulae are of immense importance;--but an erudite
acquaintance with the technics of art is not necessary for the
comprehension of the _idea_, manifested; for the _idea_ itself is ever
within the range of the human intellect, and the soul may always
consider the thought of the soul, when appropriately manifested, _face
to face_. 'Imbibe not your opinions from professional artists,' says
Diderot; 'they always prefer the difficult to the beautiful!'

Artistic judgment is, indeed, too apt to be satisfied with correct
drawing and harmony of colors; harmony and keeping of plastic forms;
harmony of tones; harmony of thoughts in relation to one another;
without considering that to these necessary harmonies two more,
primarily essential, must be added: harmony of thought with the eternal,
with the divine attributes of truth, infinity, unity, and love; and
harmony of expression with what ought to be--which is indeed to assert
that true Beauty is neither sensuous nor scholastic, but vitally and
essentially moral. True Beauty lingers not in the soft halls of the
Circean senses; it wanders not in the trim paths, beaten walks, or dusty
highways of the schools, though the artist must indeed be familiar with
all the intricacies of their windings, that he may there master the laws
and proportions of the form through which he is to manifest the supernal
essence through our senses to our souls; it dwells above, too high to be
degraded by our low sensualism, too ethereal to lose its sweet freedom
in the logically woven links of our sc