XIV. Deaf to the joys she gives― Blind to the pomp of which she is possest― Unconscious of the spiritual Power that lives Around, and rules her-by our bliss unblest— Dull to the Art that colours or creates, Like the dead timepiece, godless NATURE creeps Her plodding round, and, by the leaden weights, The slavish motion keeps. XV. To-morrow to receive New life, she digs her proper grave to-day; XVI. Home! and with them are gone The hues they gazed on and the tones they heard ; Life's Beauty and life's Melody :-alone Broods o'er the desolate void the lifeless Word; THE ARTISTS. 66 The THIS justly ranks amongst Schiller's noblest poems. He confessed "that he had hitherto written nothing that so much pleased him— nothing to which he had given so much time." It forms one of the many pieces he has devoted to the Progress of Man. "The Eleusinian Festival" records the social benefits of Agriculture; Four Ages panegyrises the influence of Poetry in all times; "The Walk" traces, in a quick succession of glowing pictures, the development of general civilisation; "The Lay of the Bell" commemorates the stages of Life; and "The Artists," by some years the earliest of the Series, is an elaborate exposition of the effect of Art (i. e., the Fine Arts) upon the happiness and dignity of the Human Species-a lofty Hymn in honour of Intellectual Beauty. Herein are collected, into a symmetrical and somewhat argumentative whole, many favourite ideas of Schiller, which the reader will recognise as scattered throughout his other effusions. About the time when this Poem was composed, the narrow notions of a certain School of miscalled Utilitarians were more prevalent than they deserved; and this fine composition is perhaps the most eloquent answer ever given to those thinkers, who have denied the Morality of Fiction, and considered Poets rather the Perverters than the Teachers of the World. Perhaps, in his just Defence of Art, Schiller has somewhat underrated the dignity of Science; but so many small Philosophers have assailed the divine uses of Poetry, that it may be pardoned to the Poet to vindicate his Art in somewhat too arrogant a tone of retaliation. And it may be fairly contended that Fiction (the several forms of which are comprehended under the name of Art) has exercised an earlier, a more comprehensive, and a more genial influence over the Civilisation and the Happiness of Man, than ninetenths of that investigation of Facts which is the pursuit of Science. In the former Edition of these Translations, I thought it desirable 1 It will be seen, by a note to the text, that it was Wieland who suggested to Schiller the lines on which this preference, before implied, is more emphatically asserted. not to adopt the various irregularities in metre to be found in the original. In this Edition, however, much of the Translation is entirely rewritten; and I have generally followed Schiller in his alternation of the Lyrical and Didactic. This version is more verbally close than the former one, although the occasional obscurity, and compression of the original have rendered it necessary, as before, sometimes to develop and paraphrase the sense, to translate the idea as well as the words. For the yet clearer exposition of the train of thought which Schiller pursues, the Poem has been divided into sections, and the Argument of the whole prefixed. If any passages in the version should still appear obscure to those readers who find the mind of Schiller worth attentive study, even when deprived of the melodious language which clothed its thoughts, by referring to the Argument the sense will perhaps become sufficiently obvious. ARGUMENT. SECT. 1. Man regarded in his present palmy state of civilisation-free through Reason, strong through Law-the Lord of Nature. (2.) But let him not forget his gratitude to ART, which found him the Savage, and by which his powers have been developed-his soul refined. Let him not degenerate from serving ART, the Queen - to a preference for her handmaids, the Sciences. The Bee and the Worm excel him in diligence and mechanical craft-the Seraph in knowledge-but Art is Man's alone. (3.) It is through the Beautiful that Man gains the Intuition of Law and Knowledge, and the Spiritual World. (4.) The supposed discoveries of Philosophy were long before revealed as symbols to Feeling. Virtue charmed and Vice revolted before the Laws of Solon, and Man, gazing on the Stars, guessed at Eternity before the Sage ventured the attempt to prove it. (5.) That Goddess which in Heaven is Urania-the great Deity whom only pure Spirits can behold-descends to earth as the earthly Venus-viz., the Beautiful. She adapts herself to the childlike understanding. But what we now only adore as Beauty, we shall one day recognise as Truth. (6.) After the Fall of Man, this Goddess-viz., the Beautiful- -(comprehending Poetry and Art) alone deigned to console him, and painted on the walls of his Dungeon the Shapes of Elysium. (7.) While Men only worshipped the Beautiful, no Fanaticism hallowed Persecution and Human Sacrifice-without formal Law, without compulsion, they obeyed Virtue rather as an instinct than a duty. (8.) Those dedicated to her service (viz., the Poet and the Artist) hold the highest intellectual rank Man can obtain. (9.) Before Art introduced its own symmetry and method into the world, all was chaos. (10.) You, the Artists, contemplated Nature, and learned to imitate; you observed the light shaft of the cedar, the shadow on the wave. (11.) Thus rose the first Column of the Sculptor-the first Design of the painter-and the wind sighing through the reed suggested the first Music. (12.) Art's first attempt was in the first choice of flowers for a posy; its second, the weaving of those flowers into a garland-i. e., Art first observes and selects-next blends and unites-the column is ranged with other columns-the individual Hero becomes one of a heroic army-the rude Song becomes an Iliad. (13.) The effect produced by Homeric Song, in noble emulation-nor in this alone; Man learns to live in other woes than his own-to feel pleasures beyond animal enjoyments. (14.) And as this diviner intellectual feeling is developed, are developed also Thought and Civilisation. (15.) In the rudest state of Man, you, the Artists, recognise in his breast the spiritual germ, and warm it into life-true and holy Love awoke with the first Shepherd's love-song. (16.) It is you, the Artists, who, generalising and abstracting, gather all several excellencies into one ideal.-You thus familiarise Man to the notion of the Unknown Powers, whom you invest with the attributes Man admires and adores.-He fears the Unknown, but he loves its shadow. You suffered the Nature around him to suggest the Prototype of all Beauty. (17.) You make subject to your ends-the passion, the duty, and the instinct-All that is scattered through creation you gather and concentrate, and resolve to the Song or to the Stage-Even the murderer who has escaped justice, conscience-stricken by the Eumenides on the scene, reveals himself— Long before Philosophy hazarded its dogmas, an Iliad solved the riddles of Fate -And with the wain of Thespis wandered a Providence. (18.) Where your symmetry, your design, fail in this world, they extend into the world beyond the grave-Life compared to an arch, the segment of a circle-in order to complete the circle, your eye followed it through the grave, where the torch of Castor is extinguished, that of his twin brother, Pollux, is illumed the former compared to that portion of the moon which is in darkness, the latter to that portion which is light.—(The allusion to the new moon continues the image of the circle, which is complete, though one-half is invisible.) (19.) Not contented with bestowing immortality on Man - you furnish forth from Man the ideal of the Immortals-Virgin Beauty grows into a Pallas-manly strength into a Jove. (20.) As the world without you is thus enlarged, and the world within you agitated and enriched, your Art extends to Philosophy:-For as the essentials of Art are symmetry and design, so the Artist extends that symmetry and that design into the system of Creation, the Laws of Nature, the Government of the World;-Lends to the spheres its own harmony-to the Universe its own symmetric method. (21.) The Artist, thus recognising Contrivance everywhere, feels his life surrounded with Beauty-He has before him in Nature itself an eternal model of the Perfect and Consummate-Through joy-grief-terrorwherever goes his course one stream of harmony murmurs by his side-The Graces are his companions-his life glides away amidst airy shapes of BeautyHis soul is merged in the divine ocean that flows around him. Fate itself, which is reduced from Chance into Providence, and which furnishes him with themes of pleasurable awe, does not daunt him. (22.) You, Artists, are the sweet and trusty companions of life-You gave us what life has best-Your reward is your own immortality and the gratitude of Men's hearts. (23.) You are the imitators of the Divine Artist, who accompanies power with sweetness, terror with splendour; who adorns himself even in destroying-As a brook that reflects the evening landscape, so on the niggard stream of life shimmers Poetry. You lead us on to the Unknown Bourne, and robe even Death in the garments of a bride. As your Urns deck our Bones, so your fair semblances deck our cares. -Through the history of the world, we find that Humanity smiles in your presence and mourns in your absence. (24.) Humanity came young from your hands, and when it grew old and decayed, you gave it a second youth.-Time has bloomed twice from seeds sown by Art. (25.) When the Barbarians chased Civilisation from Greece, you transplanted it to Italy-and, with Civilisation, freedom and gentle manners-Then you retired to leave free scope for the modern genius you had aroused. (26.) If the Philosopher now pursues his course without obstacles-if he now would arrogate the crown, and hold Art but as the first Slave to Science-pardon his vain boast.-Completion and Perfection in reality rest with you. With you dawned the Spring, in you is matured the Harvest, of the Moral World. (27.) For although Art sprung first from physical materials-the clay and the stone-it soon also embraced in its scope the spiritual and intellectual-Even what Science discovers only ministers to Art.-The Philosopher obtains his first hints from the Poet or Artist - and when his wisdom flowers, as it were, into beauty, it but returns to the service, and is applied to the uses, of its instructor.-When the Philosopher contemplates the Natural World, side by side with the Artist-the more the Latter accumulates images of beauty, and unites the details of the great design, the more the Former enriches the sphere of his observation-the more profound his researchthe more bold his speculations-The Imagination always assists the Reason-And Art, which teaches Philosophy to see Art (i. e., Symmetry and Design) everywhere, may humble the Philosopher's pride, but it augments his love. — Thus scattering flowers, Poetry leads on through tones and forms, ever high and higher, pure and purer, till it shall at last attain that point when Poetry becomes but sudden inspiration and the instantaneous intuition of Truth ;-when, in fact, the Art sought by the Poet, the Truth sought by the Philosopher, become one. (28.) Then this great Goddess, whom we have hitherto served as the earthly Venus, the Beautiful-shall reassume her blazing crown-and Man, to whose earlier and initiatory probation she has gently familiarised her splendour, shall behold her without a veil-not as the Venus of Earth, but as the Urania of Heaven-Her beauty comprehended by him in proportion to the beauty his soul took from her-So from the Mentor of his youth shone forth Minerva to Telemachus. (29.) To you, O Artists, is committed the dignity of Man-It sinks with you, it revives with you. (30.) In those Ages when Truth is persecuted by the Bigotry of her own time, let her seek refuge in Song.-The charm she takes from the Muse but renders her more fearful to her Foes. (31.) Aspire then constantly, O Artist, to the Supremest Beautiful-covet no meaner rewards. -If the Moral escape you, search for it in Nature.-Remember that the excellent and the perfect ever must be found in whatsoever fair souls esteem fair.— Do not bound yourselves to your own time-Let your works reflect the shadow of the coming Age-It matters not what paths you select-You have before you the whole labyrinth of being-but all its paths for you unite at one throne-As the white breaks into seven tints, as the seven tints re-dissolve into white-so Truth is the same, whether she dazzles us with the splendour of variegated colours, or pervades the Universe with one Stream of Light. |