_I._--We need not give it a name; but let us ask ourselves what are the demands the soul makes of a work of art. It is not enough that it fulfils a limited desire, that it satisfies our curiosity, or gives order and stability to our knowledge; that which is Higher in us must be awakened; we must be inspired with reverence, and feel ourselves worthy of reverence. _Guest._--I begin to be at a loss to comprehend you. _Uncle._--But I think I am able to follow in some measure;--how far, I shall try to make clear by an example. We will suppose our artist had made an eagle in bronze which perfectly expressed the idea of the species, but now he would place him on the sceptre of Jupiter. Do you think it would be perfectly suitable there? _Guest._--It would depend. _Uncle._--I say, No! The artist must first impart to him something beyond all this. _Guest._--What then? _Uncle._--It is hard to express. _Guest._--So I should think. _I._--And yet something may be done by approximation. _Guest._--To it then. _I._--He must give to the eagle what he gave to Jupiter, in order to make him into a God. _Guest._--And this is-- _I._--The Godlike,--which in truth we should never become acquainted with, did not man feel and himself reproduce it. _Guest._--I continue to hold my ground, and let you ascend into the clouds. I see that you mean to indicate the high style of the Greeks, which I prize only so far as it is characteristic. _I._--It is something more to us, however; it answers to a high demand, but still not the highest. _Guest._--You seem to be very hard to satisfy. _I._--It beseems him to demand much for whom much is in store. Let me be brief. The human soul is in an exalted position when it reverences, when it adores; when it elevates an object and is elevated by it again. But it cannot remain long in this state. The general concept of genus leaves it cold; the Ideal raises it above itself; but now it must return again into itself; and it would gladly enjoy once more that affection which it then felt for the Individual, without coming back to the same limited view, and will not forego the significant, the spirit-moving. What would become of it now, if Beauty did not step in and happily solve the riddle? She first gives life and warmth to the Scientific, and breathing her softening influence and heavenly charm over even the Significant and the High, brings it back to us again. A beautiful work of art has gone through the entire circle; it becomes again an Individual that we can embrace with affection, that we can make our own. _Guest._--Have you done? _I._--For the present. The little circle is completed; we have come back to our starting point; the soul has made its demands, and those demands have been satisfied. I have nothing further to add. (Here our good uncle was peremptorily called away to a patient.) _Guest._--It is the custom of you philosophic gentlemen to engage in battle behind high-sounding words, as if it were an ægis.