beauty.

Hegel (1770-1831) said: "Art is God manifesting himself in the form of
beauty. Beauty is the idea shining through matter. Art is a means of
bringing to consciousness and expressing the deepest problems of
humanity and the highest truths." According to Hegel beauty and truth
are one and the same thing.

Thus we see that the great thinkers of the world make art of supreme
importance in the perfecting of the human race. They all agree that art
is not in material objects, but is a condition and activity of spirit.
They agree in the main that beauty and truth emanate from the same
source. Said Keats:

"Beauty is truth and truth beauty,
That is all ye know on earth and all ye need know."

Said Schelling: "Beauty is the perception of the Infinite in the
finite."

But perhaps the highest concept of art is from the great artist
Whistler. He said: "Art is an expression of eternal absolute truth, and
starting from the Infinite it cannot progress, IT IS."

Art in some form and in some degree finds a response in every one. Why?
Because every one consciously or unconsciously is looking toward and
striving for perfection. This is the law of being. Every one is seeking
to improve his condition, and this means that in some degree every one
is an idealist. Ever since time began idealism has been at work, and to
it we owe every improved condition--social, political and religious.

Hegel believed that the aim of art is to portray nature in perfect form,
not with the imperfections seen around us; and Herbert Spencer defined
art as the attempt to realize the ideal in the present. The artist tries
to make his picture more perfect than what he sees around him. The poet,
the sculptor, the musician, the craftsman, the mechanic, are all
striving for a more perfect expression, because perfection is the
fundamental, eternal law of being.

Wagner said: "The world will be redeemed through art," and if Whistler's
definition be accepted he is not far from the truth.

The important thing to remember is that art is not a mere pastime, but a
great world force operating to lift mortals out of mortality. It is the
striving of the finite to reach the Infinite.

In human history art, no less than languages, has conformed to the
theory of evolution. Language in the beginning was monosyllabic. Far
back in the early dawn of the race, before the development of the
community spirit, when feelings, emotions, ideas, were simple and few
the