Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/127

 116 CRITICAL NOTICES : indicated above. The question discussed is not " What is the true conception of the universe? " but " What is the ruling conception in works of art already admitted to be highest in their kind ? " And it is not proposed to pass judgment on a work of art accord- ing as it embodies a true or a false theory of things. The value of a work of art, it is acknowledged, must be decided by the aesthetic impression got from it and by nothing else. At the same time, anyone taking this view may or may not hold that, as a matter of fact, in the highest poetry a true theory of things will be found implied. It is not, however, in any theory of the relation of artistic form to different kinds of philosophical or ethical content, in whatever way such a theory may be understood, that we ought to find the characteristic doctrine of a treatise on ^Esthetics. The central idea of Prof. Carriere's book is rather to be seen in his manner of viewing beauty as consisting in a certain unity of idea combined with vividness of distinctly individualised feeling expressed in con- crete form. It is difficult to see how the elements of the general conception of the beautiful could be better indicated than in Prof. Carriere's formula ; and he never allows this formula to become a mere generality, but constantly applies it with success to the decision of actual aesthetic questions. We have, for example, an interesting application of one part of the formula when he explains the strength of the impression made by the depth of meaning and clearness of form of the masterpieces of Greek tragedy from the repeated introduction on the stage of the same myth and conse- quent absence of interest either on the part of the dramatist or the spectator in the subject-matter as distinguished from the form. In confirmation of his view of the subordinate position of "invention" as an element in poetic art, he points out that modern dramatists also have seldom invented their plots, but have taken their material as much as possible from history or from stories already extant. Thus the modern as well as the ancient dramatist has been able to gain freedom to impose on his special subject-matter the unity of idea characteristic of all art. But while this unity is shown to be an essential element in a work of art, we are never allowed to forget that there is also a concrete element, the element of personality. For the assigning of minor artistic significance to interest of plot and to details of life does not, with the author, tend to pass into an exaltation of the element of generality such as would make art merely the expression of an idea and nothing more. The individual element in art, indeed, is not this element of fact, of actual detail of life to which a lowrr place is given, but the element of vivid personal feeling. The artist has to select impressions both of inner and outer experience and impose on them the law of his own personality ; and this, as Prof. Carriere shows, is what constitutes " style " in the most general sense. In his discussion of such problems as those of style and of artistic " inspiration" nothing can be better than the