There is a word that is inseparable from the word “form”—individuality.
Morphology, which does not analyse, but studies the form-unities as a
whole in the sense of Goethe’s definition, comes from the nature of
things to deal with the individual. In our artistic illustration the
Venus of Milo, as a form-unity, is an æsthetic individuality. When its
form is destroyed, its individuality perishes.
Let us apply this to any one of the higher plants or animals. Take a
turtle, for instance. A definite individual embodies the definite form
to which I give the name. This form as such is entirely lost if I cut up
the turtle until it is unrecognisable. The limit of morphological study
seems to be, just as in the case of the Venus of Milo, the integrity of
the individual turtle. Yet in the living turtle we find an enormous
difference.
If I grind the Venus of Milo into dust, I am at once in a totally
different world with this dust. I am amongst the raw material of nature,
untouched by æsthetic influence. From this calcareous powder I can, in
reality or imagination, pass on to the world of crystals, molecules, and
atoms. In that case I shall have done with æsthetic morphology. I come
to the morphology of the inorganic, a very different branch. What do we
find in the case of the living turtle?
It is true that I can break up the turtle into simple chemical
substances. In that case I make the same transition; I abandon organic
morphology, and pass, with the same _salto mortale_ as in the case of
the Venus of Milo, to the lower science of inorganic morphology.
But when I examine the structure of the living individual turtle before
me I notice a special feature. Let us suppose that I break up the Venus
of Milo only to a certain degree; or, with less vandalism, I do not
break it up, but light up its inner structure to some extent by a sort
of Röntgen-ray apparatus. And suppose I found that this one æsthetic
individuality is made up of millions of much smaller and æsthetically
finer and more unified images. I do not mean of millions of repetitions
of the large Venus in miniature, but of real and unmistakable little
works of art, each of which, regarded separately and without any injury
to its narrower individuality, might be just as excellent a subject for
æsthetic examination as the whole Venus.
This is, of course, nonsense as regards the Venus of Milo. There is
nothing of the kind in it. I have given the paradoxical supposition
merely for the purpose of showing what we really find in the case of the
turtle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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