Yet these arts likewise aim, by bringing into
prominence certain relations of symmetry in form as perceived by
the eye, or in aerial vibrations as perceived by the ear, to
excite in us the states of feeling with which these species of
symmetry are by subtle laws of association connected. They, too,
imitate, not literally, but under the guidance of a predominating
sentiment or emotion, relations which really exist among the
phenomena of nature. And here, too, we estimate excellence, not
in proportion to the direct, but to the indirect imitation. A
Gothic cathedral is not, as has been supposed, directly imitated
from the towering vegetation of Northern forests; but it may well
be the expression of the dim sentiment of an unseen,
all-pervading Power, generated by centuries of primeval life amid
such forests. So the sounds which in a symphony of Beethoven are
woven into a web of such amazing complexity may exist in
different combinations in nature; but when a musician steps out
of his way to imitate the crowing of cocks or the roar of the
tempest, we regard his achievement merely as a graceful conceit.
Art is, therefore, an imitation of nature; but it is an
intellectual and not a mechanical imitation; and the performances
of the camera and the music-box are not to be classed with those
of the violinist's bow or the sculptor's chisel.
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