In the conclusion of his book, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Literature (1873), Walter Pater writes what many think is a beautiful encapsulation of the spirit of the Renaissance and all periods of high artistic, poetic and intellectual achievement...
"Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some mood of passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive to us, — for that moment only. Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end. A counted number of pulses only is given to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How may we see in them all that is to seen in them by the finest senses? How shall we pass most swiftly from point to point, and be present always at the focus where the greatest number of vital forces unite in their purest energy?
To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life… While all melts under our feet, we may well grasp at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems by a lifted horizon to set the spirit free for a moment, or any stirring of the senses, strange dyes, strange colours, and curious odours, or work of the artist's hands, or the face of one's friend… Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most. For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake."
For the complete conclusion, click here.
I believe this passage is coming from a well-known philosopher of early German Romantism, Novalis. He developed the idea of literary form of art. For that manner, he argued philosophy and poetry are strongly correlated with each other in a continuous basis.
ReplyDeleteHe also believed that education is a basis for everything and explained his idea with these words: "We are on a mission: we are called upon to educate the earth." I wonder how was he effective to generate the idea of poetry that has a political or moral message to educate people?
It's true that Pater quotes Novalis in this piece of writing, as you will see if you look at the complete conclusion...
ReplyDeleteAnd Novalis is indeed a fascinating figure: I'm glad you mention him, since he is really a great example of this effort to combine science and art, or poetry and philosophy, to attain a higher state of enlightenment. It could be political and moral, but most thinkers of Novalis's time (after the French Revolution) were cautious to propose new political solutions. It could be more about individual self-transformation...