Art-forms are the more lasting, the more closely they adhere to the nature of their individual species of art, the purer they keep their essential means and ends.
Sculpture relinquishes the expression of the human pupil, and effects of color; painting degenerates, when it forsakes the flat surface in depiction and takes on complexity in theatrical decoration or panoramic portrayal.
Architecture has its fundamental form, growth from below upward, prescribed by static necessity; window and roof necessarily provide the intermediate and finishing configuration; these are eternal and inviolable requirements of the art.
Poetry commands the abstract thought, which it clothes in words. More independent than the others, it reaches the furthest bounds.
_But all arts, resources and forms ever aim at the one end, namely, the imitation of nature and the interpretation of human feelings._
Architecture, sculpture, poetry and painting are old and mature arts; their conceptions are established and their objects assured; they have found the way through uncounted centuries, and, like the planets, describe their regular orbits.[A]
[A] None the less, in these arts, taste and individuality can and will unceasingly find refreshment and rejuvenation.
Music, compared with them, is a child that has learned to walk, but must still be led. It is a virgin art, without experience in life and suffering.
It is all unconscious as yet of what garb is becoming, of its own advantages, its unawakened capacities. And again, it is a child-marvel that is already able to dispense much of beauty, that has already brought joy to many, and whose gifts are commonly held to have attained full maturity.
Music as an art, our so-called occidental music, is hardly four hundred years old; its state is one of development, perhaps the very first stage of a development beyond present conception, and we--we talk of "classics" and "hallowed traditions"! And we have talked of them for a long time![B]
[B] Tradition is a plaster mask taken from life, which, in the course of many years, and after passing through the hands of innumerable artisans, leaves its resemblance to the original largely a matter of imagination.
We have formulated rules, stated principles, laid down laws;--we apply laws made for maturity to a child that knows nothing of responsibility!