But Goethe's culture did not remain "behind the veil"; it ever emerged in
the practical functions of art, in actual production. For him the problem
came to be:--Can the blitheness and universality of the antique ideal be
communicated to artistic productions, which shall contain the fulness of
the experience of the modern world? We have seen that the development of
the various forms of art has corresponded to the development of the
thoughts of man concerning himself, to the growing revelation of the mind
to itself. Sculpture corresponds to the unperplexed, emphatic outlines of
Hellenic humanism; painting to the mystic depth and intricacy of the
middle age; music and poetry have their fortune in the modern world. Let
us understand by poetry all literary production which attains the power
of giving pleasure by its form, as distinct from its matter. Only in this
varied literary form can art command that width, variety, delicacy of
resources, which will enable it to deal with the conditions of modern
life.
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