To us, also, the
entire surface of the earth is very well known, and all the peoples
that live upon it. Do we, then, now know any such people, like to
the aborigines of the New World, of whom similar expectations may be
entertained? I believe that every one who has not merely a fanatical
opinion and hope, but who thinks after profound investigation, will
be compelled to answer this question in the negative. There is,
therefore, no escape; if you sink, all humanity sinks with you, devoid
of hope of restoration at any future time.
This it was, gentlemen, that at the close of these addresses I felt
compelled to impress upon you as representatives of the nation and,
through you, upon the nation as a whole.
_FRIEDRICH WILHELM JOSEPH VON SCHELLING_
* * * * *
ON THE RELATION OF THE PLASTIC ARTS TO NATURE (1807)
A Speech on the Celebration of the 12th October, 1807, as the Name-Day
of His Majesty the King of Bavaria
Delivered before the Public Assembly of the Royal Academy of Sciences
of Munich
TRANSLATED BY J. ELLIOT CABOT
Plastic Art, according to the most ancient expression, is silent
Poetry. The inventor of this definition no doubt meant thereby
that the former, like the latter, is to express spiritual
thoughts--conceptions whose source is the soul; only not by speech,
but, like silent Nature, by shape, by form, by corporeal, independent
works.
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