_Guest._--They are passably good. They convey an imperfect but not a false impression. _I._--Well, then, to that extent we can take them for a ground to go upon. _Uncle._--What is it you assert of the treatment of the ancient tragic writers? _I._--The subjects they chose, especially in the early times, were often of an unbearable frightfulness. _Guest._--Were the ancient fables insupportably frightful? _I._--Undoubtedly; in the same manner as your account of the Laocoon. _Guest._--Did you find that also unbearable? _I._--I ask pardon. I meant the thing you describe, not your description. _Guest._--And the work itself also? _I._--By no means the work itself, but that which you have seen in it,--the fable, the history, the skeleton,--that which you name the characteristic. For if the Laocoon really stood before our eyes such as you have described it, we ought not to hesitate a moment to dash it to pieces. _Guest._--You use strong expressions. _I._--One may do that as well as another. _Uncle._--Now then for the ancient tragedies. _Guest._--Yes, these insupportable subjects. _I._--Very good; but also this manner of treatment that makes everything endurable, beautiful, graceful. _Guest._--And that is effected by means of “simplicity and serene greatness?” _I._--So it appears. _Guest._--By the softening principle of Beauty? _I._--It can be nothing else. _Guest._--And the old tragedies were after all not frightful? _I._--Hardly, so far as my knowledge extends, if you listen to the poets themselves. In fact, if we regard in poetry only the material which lies at the foundation, if we are to speak of works of art as if in their place we had seen the actual circumstances, then even the tragedies of Sophocles can be described as loathsome and horrible. _Guest._--I will not pass judgment on poetry. _I._--Nor I on plastic art. _Guest._--Yes, it is best for each to stick to his own department. _I._--And yet there is a common point of union for all the arts wherefrom the laws of all proceed. _Guest._--And that is-- _I._--The soul of man. _Guest._--Ay, ay; that is just the way with you gentlemen of the new school of philosophy. You bring everything upon your own ground and province; and, in fact, it is more convenient to shape the world according to your ideas than to adapt your notions to the truth of things. _I._--Here is no question of any metaphysical dispute. _Guest._--If there were I should certainly decline it. _I._--I shall admit for the sake of argument that Nature can be imagined as absolutely apart from man, but with him art necessarily concerns itself, for art exists only through man and for man. _Guest._--Where does all this tend? _I._--You yourself, when you make Character the end of art, appoint the understanding, which takes cognizance of the characteristic, as the judge. _Guest._--To be sure I do. What I cannot seize with my understanding does not exist for me.