In the whole history of man there is no chapter more instructive for the heart and mind than the annals of his errors. On the occasion of every great crime a proportionally great force was in motion. If by the pale light of ordinary emotions the play of the desiring faculty is concealed, in the […]

THE BRIDE OF MESSINATranslated by A. Lodge DRAMATIS PERSONAE. ISABELLA, Princess of Messina.DON MANUEL | her Sons.DON CAESAR |BEATRICE.DIEGO, an ancient Servant.MESSENGERS.THE ELDERS OF MESSINA, mute.THE CHORUS, consisting of the Followers of the two Princes. SCENE I. [A spacious hall, supported on columns, with entranceson both sides; at the back of the stage a largefolding-door […]

A poetical work must vindicate itself: if the execution be defective, little aid can be derived from commentaries. On these grounds I might safely leave the chorus to be its own advocate, if we had ever seen it presented in an appropriate manner. But it must be remembered that a dramatic composition first assumes the […]

ALOYSIUS VON G—— was the son of a citizen of distinction, in the service of ——-, and the germs of his fertile genius had been early developed by a liberal education. While yet very young, but already well grounded in the principles of knowledge, he entered the military service of his sovereign, to whom he […]

IN TWO SCENES. Dramatis Personae. JUNO.SEMELE, Princess of Thebes.JUPITER.MERCURY. SCENE–The Palace of Cadmus at Thebes. SCENE I. JUNO. (Descending from her chariot, enveloped in a cloud.)Away, ye peacocks, with my winged car!Upon Cithaeron’s cloud-capped summit wait![The chariot and cloud vanish.Hail, hail, thou house of my undying anger!A fearful hail to thee, thou hostile roof,Ye hated […]

Sulzer has remarked that the stage has arisen from an irresistible longing for the new and extraordinary. Man, oppressed by divided cares, and satiated with sensual pleasure, felt an emptiness or want. Man, neither altogether satisfied with the senses, nor forever capable of thought, wanted a middle state, a bridge between the two states, bringing […]

The state of passion in itself, independently of the good or bad influence of its object on our morality, has something in it that charms us. We aspire to transport ourselves into that state, even if it costs us some sacrifices. You will find this instinct at the bottom of all our most habitual pleasures. […]

Whatever pains some modern aesthetics give themselves to establish, contrary to general belief, that the arts of imagination and of feeling have not pleasure for their object, and to defend them against this degrading accusation, this belief will not cease: it reposes upon a solid foundation, and the fine arts would renounce with a bad […]

The Greek fable attributes to the goddess of beauty a wonderful girdle which has the quality of lending grace and of gaining hearts in all who wear it. This same divinity is accompanied by the Graces, or goddesses of grace. From this we see that the Greeks distinguished from beauty grace and the divinities styled […]

As grace is the expression of a noble soul, so is dignity the expression of elevated feeling. It has been prescribed to man, it is true, to establish between his two natures a unison, to form always an harmonious whole, and to act as in union with his entire humanity. But this beauty of character, […]

The abuse of the beautiful and the encroachments of imagination, when, having only the casting vote, it seeks to grasp the law-giving sceptre, has done great injury alike in life and in science. It is therefore highly expedient to examine very closely the bounds that have been assigned to the use of beautiful forms. These […]

I call vulgar (common) all that does not speak to the mind, of which all the interest is addressed only to the senses. There are, no doubt, an infinite number of things vulgar in themselves from their material and subject. But as the vulgarity of the material can always be ennobled by the treatment, in […]

All the properties by which an object can become aesthetic, can be referred to four classes, which, as well according to their objective differences as according to their different relation with the subject, produce on our passive and active faculties pleasures unequal not only in intensity but also in worth; classes which also are of […]

There are moments in life when nature inspires us with a sort of love and respectful emotion, not because she is pleasing to our senses, or because she satisfies our mind or our taste (it is often the very opposite that happens), but merely because she is nature. This feeling is often elicited when nature […]

The author of the article which appeared in the eleventh number of “The Hours,” of 1795, upon “The Danger of Aesthetic Manners,” was right to hold as doubtful a morality founded only on a feeling for the beautiful, and which has no other warrant than taste; but it is evident that a strong and pure […]

The depicting of suffering, in the shape of simple suffering, is never the end of art, but it is of the greatest importance as a means of attaining its end. The highest aim of art is to represent the super-sensuous, and this is effected in particular by tragic art, because it represents by sensible marks […]

The reason passes, like the heart, through certain epochs and transitions, but its development is not so often portrayed. Men seem to have been satisfied with unfolding the passions in their extremes, their aberration, and their results, without considering how closely they are bound up with the intellectual constitution of the individual. Degeneracy in morals […]

THE WORLD AND THE THINKING BEING. The universe is a thought of God. After this ideal thought-fabric passed out into reality, and the new-born world fulfilled the plan of its Creator–permit me to use this human simile–the first duty of all thinking beings has been to retrace the original design in this great reality; to […]

On The Connection Between The Animal And The Spiritual Nature In Man “It behooves us to clearly realize, as the broad facts which have most wide-reaching consequences in mental physiology and pathology, that all parts of the body, the highest and the lowest, have a sympathy with one another more intelligent than conscious intelligence can […]

THE ANIMAL NATURE STRENGTHENS THE ACTION OF THE SPIRIT. S 2.–Organism of the Operations of the Soul–of its Maintenance and Support–of Generation. All those conditions which we accept as requisite to the perfection of man in the moral and material world may be included in one fundamental sentence: The perfection of man consists in his […]