| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: man. Art has, therefore, this peculiarity, that it is at once
elevated and popular, that it manifests that which is often most
recondite, and that it manifests it to all.
Having determined what a work of art is, our author goes on to
study the social conditions under which works of art are
produced; and he concludes that the general character of a work
of art is determined by the state of intellect and morals in the
society in which it is executed. There is, in fact, a sort of
moral temperature which acts upon mental development much as
physical temperature acts upon organic development. The condition
of society does not produce the artist's talent; but it assists
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: select be men or dogs or anything else, few are the extremes, but many are
in the mean between them. Did you never observe this?
Yes, I said, I have.
And do you not imagine, he said, that if there were a competition in evil,
the worst would be found to be very few?
Yes, that is very likely, I said.
Yes, that is very likely, he replied; although in this respect arguments
are unlike men--there I was led on by you to say more than I had intended;
but the point of comparison was, that when a simple man who has no skill in
dialectics believes an argument to be true which he afterwards imagines to
be false, whether really false or not, and then another and another, he has
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