Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/613

600 CRITICAL NOTICES I e.g., that on Schiller's Goiter Grieclienlands (ii. 106-108), sayings which rise through all the clumsiness of expression into poetry, and passages full of sarcastic humour, like that on the modern sense of the word " Eomantic " (ii. 215-217), which Dr. J. H. Stirling has translated in the Preface to his Secret of Hegel things of literary value, apart from their philosophical significance, which it is a pity should not be accessible to the English reader. A mere collection of the references to Goethe in the ^Esthetik would be of interest. When will someone give us a good treatment of the relation between Goethe's and Hegel's theories of life and of art? It is a promising subject. Then, again, Hegel is at his very best in his Philosophy of Art (as in his Philosophy of History) in his ap- preciation of the Hellenic genius. A measure of the suggestiveness of Hegel to the art-critic may be found by anyone who will turn to Mr. Pater's beautiful essay on Winckelmann (in his Renaissance). On the whole, an acquaintance with the ^Esthetik and its influence direct and indirect should do a great deal to dispel many of the prejudices against Hegel as a philosopher. He defines the object of the Philosophy of Art as being " to ascertain what beauty in general is, and how it has displayed itself in actual productions, in works of art, without meaning to give rules for guidance". The objection is easily made that " beauty in general " is a profit- less subject of inquiry; but let the objector refer to Hegel's own criticism of Plato's abstract metaphysics (pp. 40-42 in ?tr.), and let him pay due attention to the second clause of the above definition. Hegel's perpetual endeavour is to get rid of abstractions and one-sided views, and to see things in their complexity and concrete reality ; and this endeavour is perhaps more obviously successful in the jEsthetik than anywhere else. Undoubtedly, the work loses much of its interest for us because its illustrations, so far as they concern literature, are naturally enough taken mainly from German authors though Shakespeare at least is not neglected. Undoubtedly, too, much has become commonplace owing to Hegel's own influence. Again, new questions of con- troversy have come up since Hegel's day, and the old feud between Classicist and Romanticist has not the same excitement for us that it had for his contemporaries ; nor would it be worth the while of every conscientious student to make himself acquainted, e.g., with the extravagances of Fr. v. Schlegel in order to enjoy Hegel's contemptuous criticism. It must be admitted also that Hegel has his own limitations and prejudices, notably in his want of appreciation for Nature, a defect which goes along with his MIND vi. 149). But the earlier portions have filtered through a French version, and much of the detail, which is just what is characteristic in Hegel, has been, without warning, omitted, although in the later part, which is taken direct from the German, the translator has been so careful as to put asterisks where he has been too prudish to translate Flohe and some other things which Hegel mentions among the Gemeinheiten dcs iiiglichen Lebens !