Sophon says that the fine arts
are thoughts; but I think I know a more comprehensive word; for they
are something more than thoughts; they are things also; that word is
NATURE--Nature fully--thorough nature--the world of creation. All
that is _in_ man, his mysteries of soul, his thoughts and
emotions--deep, wise, holy, loving, touching, and fearful,--or in the
world, beautiful, vast, ponderous, gloomy, and awful, moved with
rhythmic harmonious utterance--_that_ is Poetry. All that is _of_
man--his triumphs, glory, power, and passions; or of the world--its
sunshine and clouds, its plains, hills or valleys, its wind-swept
mountains and snowy Alps, river and ocean--silent, lonely, severe,
and sublime--mocked with living colours, hue and tone,--_that_ is
Painting. Man--heroic man, his acts, emotions, loves,--aspirative,
tender, deep, and calm,--intensified, purified, colourless,--exhibited
peculiarly and directly through his own form;_that_ is sculpture.
All the voices of nature--of man--his bursts of rage, pity, and
fear--his cries of joy--his sighs of love; of the winds and the
waters--tumultuous, hurrying, surging, tremulous, or gently
falling--married to melodious numbers;_that_ is music. And, the music
of proportions--of nature and man, and the harmony and opposition of
light and shadow, set forth in the ponderous; _that_ is Architecture.
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