of explanation music is represented altogether as a _beautiful_ art; according to the latter, as a _pleasant_ art (at least in part). § 52. _Of the combination of beautiful arts in one and the same product_ Rhetoric may be combined with a pictorial presentation of its subjects and objects in a _theatrical piece_; poetry may be combined with music in a _song_, and this again with pictorial (theatrical) presentation in an _opera_; the play of sensations in music may be combined with the play of figures in the _dance_, and so on. Even the presentation of the sublime, so far as it belongs to beautiful art, may combine with beauty in a _tragedy in verse_, in a _didactic poem_, in an _oratorio_; and in these combinations beautiful art is yet more artistic. Whether it is also more beautiful may in some of these cases be doubted (since so many different kinds of satisfaction cross one another). Yet in all beautiful art the essential thing is the form, which is purposive as regards our observation and judgement, where the pleasure is at the same time cultivation and disposes the spirit to Ideas, and consequently makes it susceptible of still more of such pleasure and entertainment. The essential element is not the matter of sensation (charm or emotion), which has only to do with enjoyment; this leaves behind nothing in the Idea, and it makes the spirit dull, the object gradually distasteful, and the mind, on account of its consciousness of a disposition that conflicts with purpose in the judgement of Reason, discontented with itself and peevish. If the beautiful arts are not brought into more or less close combination with moral Ideas, which alone bring with them a self-sufficing satisfaction, this latter fate must ultimately be theirs. They then serve only as a distraction, of which we are the more in need the more we avail ourselves of them to disperse the discontent of the mind with itself; so that we thus render ourselves ever more useless and ever more discontented. The beauties of nature are generally of most benefit in this point of view, if we are early accustomed to observe, appreciate, and admire them. § 53. _Comparison of the respective aesthetical worth of the beautiful arts_