As far indeed as we have any
means of judging, our improvement has been exceedingly little, and did
we know anything of ancient Art in this department, we might be
astonished at discovering that we had advanced even far less than we
suppose. As regards Architecture, whatever progress we have made has
been precisely in those particulars which have no reference to
imitation:- that is to say, we have improved the utilitarian and not
the ornamental provinces of the art. Where Reason predominated, we
advanced; where mere Feeling or Taste was the guide, we remained as we
were.
Coming to the Drama, we shall see that in its mechanisms we have
made progress, while in its spirituality we have done little or
nothing for centuries certainly- and, perhaps, little or nothing for
thousands of years. And this is because what we term the
spirituality of the drama is precisely its imitative portion- is
exactly that portion which distinguishes it as one of the principal of
the imitative arts.
Sculptors, painters, dramatists, are, from the very nature of
their material- their spiritual material-imitators-conservatists-prone
to repose in old Feeling and in antique Taste. For this reason- and
for this reason only- the arts of Sculpture, Painting, and the Drama
have not advanced- or have advanced feebly, and inversely in the ratio
of their imitativeness.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191