LONDON, _November 9,_ 1865. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Since the publication of the first edition of the "_Philosophy of Art_" seven years ago, in London, its author has become deservedly popular, and especially in this country. His writings are sought for, read and translated both in England and on the continent of Europe, and it would be but refining gold to say aught in his praise. Like every man of genius he has, as time moves on, improved in his order of thought and in his wonderfully artistic style. His latest work, "_On Intelligence_" ranks him as high among thinkers, as his former works among men of letters. The present edition is a careful revision of the former one, and amounts, indeed, to a new translation. Were either to be compared with the original, no change of sense could probably be detected. The present edition, however, being much more literal, the translator considers it an improvement, and hopes that it will be found more worthy of its gifted author, the publishers, his indulgent critics, and the public generally. J. D. SOUTH ORANGE, N. J. _January,_ 1873. CONTENTS. PART I. ON THE NATURE OF THE WORK OF ART. § I. Object of this Study--The Method employed--The search for Aggregates on which the Work of Art depends. First Aggregate, the Entire Production of the Artist--Second Aggregate, the School to which he belongs; examples, Shakespeare, Rubens. Third Aggregate, Contemporary Society; examples, Greece, Spain, in the Sixteenth Century. Conditions determining appearance and character of Works of Art; examples, Greek Tragedy, Gothic Architecture, Dutch Painting, French Tragedy--Comparison of Climate and Natural Productions with a Moral Temperature, and its effect--Application of this method to Italian Art. Objects and method of Æsthetics--Opposition of the Historic and Dogmatic Methods--Laws--Sympathy for all Schools--The Analogy between Æsthetics and Botany, and between the Natural and the Moral Sciences 19 § II. What is the Object of Art--The Research Experimental and not Ideal--Comparisons and Eliminations of Works of Art sufficient. Division of the Arts into two groups--On the one hand, Painting, Sculpture and Poesy; and, on the other, Architecture and Music. First group--Imitation apparently the end of Art--Reasons for this derived from ordinary experience, and from the lives of great men; Michael Angelo, Corneille--Reasons derived from the History of Art and Literature; Pompeii and Ravenna--Classic Style under Louis XIV., and Academic Style under Louis XV 39 § III. Exact Imitation not the end of Art--Illustrations derived from Casting, Photography, and Stenography--Comparison between Denner and Van Dyck--Certain Arts purposely Inexact--Comparison between Antique Statues and Draped Figures in the Churches of Naples and Spain--Comparison between Prose and Verse--The Two Iphigenias of Goethe § IV.