第37章 Letter XXVI(1)

I have shown in the previous letters that it is only the aesthetic disposition of the soul that gives birth to liberty,it cannot therefore be derived from liberty nor have a moral origin.It must be a gift of nature,the favour of chance alone can break the bonds of the physical state and bring the savage to duty.The germ of the beautiful will find an equal difficulty in developing itself in countries where a severe nature forbids man to enjoy himself,and in those where a prodigal nature dispenses him from all effort;where the blunted senses experience no want,and where violent desire can never be satisfied.The delightful flower of the beautiful will never unfold itself in the case of the Troglodyte hid in his cavern always alone,and never finding humanity outside himself;nor among nomads,who,travelling in great troops,only consist of a multitude,and have no individual humanity.It will only flourish in places where man converses peacefully with himself in his cottage,and with the whole race when he issues from it.In those climates where a limpid ether opens the senses to the lightest impression,whilst a life-giving warmth developes a luxuriant nature,where even in the inanimate creation the sway of inert matter is overthrown,and the victorious form ennobles even the most abject natures;in this joyful state and fortunate zone,where activity alone leads to enjoyment,and enjoyment to activity,from life itself issues a holy harmony,and the laws of order develope life,a different result takes place.When imagination incessantly escapes from reality,and does not abandon the simplicity of nature in its wanderings;then and there only the mind and the senses,the receptive force and the plastic force,are developed in that happy equilibrium which is the soul of the beautiful and the condition of humanity.

What phaenomenon accompanies the initiation of the savage into humanity?

However far we look back into history the phaenomenon is identical among all people who have shaken off the slavery of the animal state,the love of appearance,the inclination for dress and for games.

Extreme stupidity and extreme intelligence have a certain affinity in only seeking the real and being completely insensible to mere appearance.

The former is only drawn forth by the immediate presence of an object in the senses,and the second is reduced to a quiescent state only by referring conceptions to the facts of experience.In short,stupidity cannot rise above reality,nor the intelligence descend below truth.Thus,in as far as the want of reality and attachment to the real are only the consequence of a want and a defect,indifference to the real and an interest taken in appearances are a real enlargement of humanity and a decisive step towards culture.In the first place it is the proof of an exterior liberty,for as long as necessity commands and want solicits,the fancy is strictly chained down to the real;it is only when want is satisfied that it developes without hindrance.But it is also the proof of an internal liberty,because it reveals to us a force which,independent of an external substratum,sets itself in motion,and has sufficient energy to remove from itself the solicitations of nature.The reality of things is effected by things,the appearance of things is the work of man,and a soul that takes pleasure in appearance does not take pleasure in what it receives but in what it makes.

It is self-evident that I am speaking of aesthetical evidence different from reality and truth,and not of logical appearance identical with them.

Therefore if it is liked it is because it is an appearance,and not because it is held to be something better than it is:the first principle alone is a play whilst the second is a deception.To give a value to the appearance of the first kind can never injure truth,because it is never to be feared that it will supplant it -the only way in which truth can be injured.

To despise this appearance is to despise in general all the fine arts of which it is the essence.Nevertheless,it happens sometimes that the understanding carries its zeal for reality as far as this intolerance,and strikes with a sentence of ostracism all the arts relating to beauty in appearance,because it is only an appearance.However,the intelligence only shows this vigorous spirit when it calls to mind the affinity pointed out further back.I shall find some day the occasion to treat specially of the limits of beauty in its appearance.

It is nature herself which raises man from reality to appearance by endowing him with two senses which only lead him to the knowledge of the real through appearance.In the eye and the ear the organs of the senses are already freed from the persecutions of nature,and the object with which we are immediately in contact through the animal senses is remoter from us.What we see by the eye differs from what we feel;for the understanding to reach objects overleaps the light which separates us from them.In truth,we are passive to an object;in sight and hearing the object is a form we create.While still a savage,man only enjoys through touch merely aided by sight and sound.He either does not rise to perception through sight,or does not rest there.As soon as he begins to enjoy through a sight,vision has an independent value,he is aesthetically free,and the instinct of play is developed.