6. The artist, even at his lowest level, is more than an imitator of imitations.[6] Abridgment, selection, combination, are the necessary instruments of his craft; and by their aid he introduces harmony and order into the confused multiplicity of sensuous images. He substitutes for the primary outward aspect of things a new view, in which thought already finds a resting place. Just as strong emotion tends to make all known existence the setting of a single form; just as intense meditation sees in all experience the manifestation of a single idea; so the artist, even if he be merely telling a story, or painting a common landscape, puts some of his materials in a relief, and combines all in a harmony, which the untaught eye does not find in the world as it is. He presents to us the facts in the one case, the outward objects in the other, as already acted upon by thought and emotion. In this sense every artist, instead of copying nature, idealises it. In degree and mode, however, the idealisation varies infinitely in the various kinds of art. It is by considering the height to which it is carried in the epic poem and the drama that we shall best appreciate its limitations in the novel. FOOTNOTE: [6] Here are three beds: one existing in nature, which is made by God, as I think that we may say--for no one else can be the maker?--No.--There is another which is the work of the carpenter?--Yes.--And the work of the painter is a third?--Yes?--Beds, then, are of three kinds, and there are three artists who superintend them: God, the maker of the bed, and the painter?--Yes, there are three of them.--God, whether from choice or from necessity, made one bed in nature and one only; two or more such ideal beds neither ever have been nor ever will be made by God.... Shall we, then, speak of Him as the natural author or maker of the bed?--Yes, he replied; inasmuch as by the natural process of creation He is the author of this and of all other things.--And what shall we say of the carpenter--is he not also the maker of the bed?--Yes.--But would you call the painter a creator and maker?--Certainly not.--Yet if he is not the maker, what is he in relation to the bed?--I think, he said, that we may fairly designate him as the imitator of that which the others make.--Good, I said; then you call him who is third in the descent from nature an imitator?--Certainly, he said.--And the tragic poet is an imitator, and therefore, like all other imitators, he is thrice removed from the king and from the truth.--That appears to be so.--Plato, 'Republic,' X. 597. G. THE EPIC