Page:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Huebsch 1916).djvu/259

 from one to the next. These forms are: the lyrical form, the form wherein the artist presents his image in immediate relation to himself; the epical form, the form wherein he presents his image in mediate relation to himself and to others; the dramatic form, the form wherein he presents his image in immediate relation to others.—

—That you told me a few nights ago—said Lynch—and we began the famous discussion.—

—I have a book at home—said Stephen, in which I have written down questions which are more amusing than yours were. In finding the answers to them I found the theory of esthetic which I am trying to explain. Here are some questions I set myself: ''Is a chair finely made tragic or comic? Is the portrait of Mona Lisa good if I desire to see it? Is the bust of Sir Philip Crampton lyrical, epical or dramatic? If no, why not?''—

—Why not, indeed?—said Lynch, laughing.

—If a man hacking in fury at a block of wood—Stephen continued—''make there an image of a cow, is that image a work of art? If not, why not?''—

—That's a lovely one—said Lynch, laughing again.—That has the true scholastic stink.—

—Lessing—said Stephen—should not have taken a group of statues to write of. The art, being inferior, does not present the forms I spoke of distinguished clearly one from another. Even in literature, the highest and most spiritual art, the forms are often confused. The lyrical form is in fact the simplest verbal vesture of an instant of emotion, a rhythmical cry such as ages ago cheered on the man who pulled at the oar or dragged stones up a slope. He who utters it is more conscious of the instant of emotion than of himself as feeling emotion. {{