1670. To these the term art has been, by way of eminence, applied; for they, in a certain measure, comprehend the material and moral extremes of art, and the universal correlatives of science and nature, matter, sense, and intelligence: accordingly, the external, medial, and internal, characterize

these arts.

1671. Thus, Poetry participates most of the internal; Painting, of the external; and Music, of the medial: the effects of poetry are internal; those of painting, external; and those of music, medial. The purposes of painting and the external are alike, the beautiful; the purpose of music and the medial, is pleasure; and the purpose of poetry and the internal, the most exalted of the three, is moral, or happiness. The means of painting are material or physical; those of music, sensible; and those of poetry, intellectual: yet, in their general characters, poetry, music, and painting, have their means in the medial; and their general purpose is pleasure, modified by the material, sensible, and intellectual.

1672. We have, hence, a principle, upon which the relative dignity of these arts may be determined; for if poetry is more nearly related to the intellectual, music to the sensible, and painting to the material, and if the intellectual is above the sensible, and the sensible above the material, then poetry must rank above music, and music above painting.

1673. Again: the materials of poetry are ideas and sentiments; its instrument, mind; its effect, intelligence: the materials of music are sensations; its instruments, organical; its effects, feelings: lastly, the materials of painting are material; its instruments, mechanical; its effects, sensations. If, then, intelligence is more dignified than feeling, feeling than sense, mind than organs, organs than machines, ideas than sensations, sensations than matter, then poetry is above music, and music takes precedence of painting.

1674. Of these arts, poetry may be considered not only as chief and comprehending, but as the elder and ruling sister, since it is probable there were poets before there were musicians, and musicians before there were painters; and as the proper and immediate purpose of painting is beauty, and of music pleasure, and that of poetry is of a moral and more exalted kind, and may be called happiness, poetry ranks higher than music, and music higher than painting, not only in principles and means, but also in their ends or purposes.

1675. Though inferior in dignity, yet, as requiring fewer conditions, painting is, as an art, more perfect than music and poetry: its effects are on external sense; those of music on internal sense; while the effects of poetry are on intellect. As intellect prevails less than sentiment or feeling, and sentiment less than external sense, so painting

VOL. II.

D D

will please more extensively than either music or poetry, though its effects are less exalted and rapturous. Yet the field of poetry is that of intellect; it is universal, and all its beauties and amenities are founded in the analogy whereby the mind recognizes its native connexion with all things: so that even the images of fancy are not without a basis.

1676. From the above we may infer, that the rank, dignity, or precedence of these arts, is in the inverse order of their perfection; and to these may be added Sculpture and Architecture, arts still more material than that of the painter: they are, therefore, less dignified, but, as far as they go, they are more perfect. And thus we may descend to other arts; the meaner they are the more perfect they are, or accomplish their purpose more effectually, and with greater facility.

1677. On the other hand, the more dignified an art may be, the higher are its purposes, and the greater are the difficulties by which they are approached or attained: still, however, the excellences of inferior arts rise above the more ordinary productions of the superior, for it is MIND alone that confers true dignity; and that work which participates it in the highest degree, whatever be its relative station in the scale of art, is best entitled to our esteem: nay, base and mean performances in the more elevated class or rank of art, become doubly despicable by contrast. Who

does not prefer fine painting to ordinary music or poetry? In truth, the highest excellence in poetry is necessary to obtain currency, while performances not at all uncommon in the inferior arts are highly valued and esteemed.

1678. Yet is the intellectual operation of art not only more appropriate to, but more easily effected in the higher than in the inferior arts; for it is much easier to delude the imagination than it is the senses: and hence the poetry of the pencil is more difficult than that of the pen, and its harmony more rare than that of the musician.

SECTION V.

1679. Finally, of MORAL ART; a distinction to which the term Art will with difficulty be conceded by practical men. Yet are moral practices and disciplines truly entitled to this denomination, since they operate for objects and ends which, if not tangible, visible, or any way sensible, like the former, are permanently moral and intellectual, and not without some accordance and efficiency with material and sensible things.

1680. Moral Art may, accordingly, be distinguished, first, in external relation, into Economic Arts, conjointly with practical individual morals; secondly, in medial relation, into Political or Social Arts, and practical politics; and, thirdly, in in

ternal relation, into Religious Arts, including practical divinity, — of which Liturgy, or the art of prayer, is a part, and Theurgy, a false extreme; and hence nature deified, or the God of nature, was called by the Greeks, who were the greatest of artists, the Demiurgus, Architect or Artificer, of the universe, and Maker of all.*

1681. Of these departments of Moral Art, the first comprehends the practical duties of individuals, domestic relations, and economic arts; the second includes the practical duties of states and statesmen, and the arts of legislation and government, civil and military; and the third comprises the practical duties of Teachers, Preachers, religious rites and regulations, or what in a wide, and not offensive or perverse sense, is expressed by the term Priestcraft, as the two former might be by those of Statecraft and Homecraft.

SECTION VI.

1682. As science is, however, principally appropriate to the internal, so art, as opposed to science, is chiefly appropriate to the external; whence art relates by predominance to material things, and to such the term Art has been principally consigned yet not only is there an art to

*Proclus "On the Timæus," vol. i. p. 461.