Lecture Viii.--on Art 154

Genius:--its attribute is creative power.--Refutation of the opinion that art is the imitation of nature--M. Emeric David, and M. Quatremère de Quincy.--Refutation of the theory of illusion. That dramatic art has not solely for its end to excite the passions of terror and pity.--Nor even directly the moral and religious sentiment.--The proper and direct object of art is to produce the idea and the sentiment of the beautiful; this idea and this sentiment purify and elevate the soul by the affinity between the beautiful and the good, and by the relation of ideal beauty to its principle, which is God.--True mission of art.