he states,22 "is as follows: first, there is an æsthetic intuition on the part of the original artist, the poet or creator; then, second, there is the internal expression of this intuition, the true creation or vision of beauty; third, there is the indication of this by external signs, language, for the purpose of communication, the technical activity; and, fourth, we find the resulting stimulation of the critic or rasika to reproduction of the original intuition or of some approximation to it."

This is mystic and at the same time intuitional æsthetics, and it is to be noted how this Indian mystic keeps his feet upon firm ground by asserting the artistic transaction. "Works of art are reminders of the Beauty discovered by the artist who created them," he says, and again: "The true critic perceives the Beauty of which the artist exhibited the signs."

Croce's chief criticism of mystic æsthetics is of its apparent disdain of philosophy and science. Yet Croce's intuitional æsthetics seems to have the same disdain. To use his own words: "Art does not allow itself to be troubled with the abstractions of the intellect, and therefore does not make mistakes,"28 and "Art is the dream of the life of knowledge."

This is also what Coomeraswamy says: "The vision of Beauty is spontaneous, just as is the Inward Light.”

"It

is a state of grace that cannot be achieved by deliberate effort." The Italian and the Indian both explain the mystical interpretation of Art.

What Croce has endeavored to do is to reconcile the various conflicting theories of æsthetics. It may be possible to do this with some of them. Rudolf Eucken has attempted to reconcile mystic and moral æsthetics. He writes24: "When the great object (of progress) is to attain to a new world and a new life, to rise above the petty aims of the mere man and mere every day life, then art, with its quiet and sure labour, conditioned by the inner necessities of things, with its inner liberation of the soul,

22 Burlington Magazine, April, 1915.

230p. cit., p. 401.

24 Main Currents of Modern Thought, p. 399.

and with its power to bring the whole infinitude of being inwardly near to us, and to make it part of our own life, must be directly reckoned as moral.

"On the other hand, a type of art which thinks highly of itself and its tasks cannot possibly despise morality. There has hardly ever been a creative artist of the first rank who professed the æsthetical view of life. For such a one cannot look upon art as a separate sphere dissociated from the rest of life; he must put his whole soul into his creation; he cannot be satisfied with a mere technique, and he is far too conscious of the difficulties and shortcomings of this creation to make it a mere matter of enjoyment. As a matter of fact, the æsthetical view of life is professed not so much by artists themselves as by dilletanti who study art from the outside, who, not much disposed to abstract discussion, and indeed defenceless against it, hardly realize that this separation of life from art as a whole does not elevate art but degrades it."

That the mystic æsthetician holds the same views as here expressed is shown when Coomeraswamy quotes the words of Millet: "Beauty does not arise from the subject of a work of art, but from the necessity that has been felt of representing that subject."

It will be seen that Eucken in the above passage criticises the ultra-emotional, the Oscar Wilde type of æstheticism, and while he does not appear elsewhere to be an avowed mystic, he shows the growing sympathetic understanding of mysticism on the part of modern thinkers. And at the same time it must be added that the mystic attitude is susceptible of better appreciation, for mysticism need not be understood as a retirement from life, since the goal of the mystic, ataraxia, has been brought near to the daily life of the world.

This is strikingly exemplified in William Blake, in whom was united, in a very remarkable way, the artist, poet, and mystic. The æsthetician would have far to seek to find a man equally great in all three fields, who subjected his art to his visions and lived true to his ideals. Engraver by profession, poet and painter by choice, mystic and seer by nature, Blake lived a truly mys

tical life, like Wordsworth "in a world of glory, of spirit and of vision, which for him was the only real world."25 Outwardly his life was no long holiday; far from that, it was a struggle against poverty which he unhesitatingly faced. But he could say of Lawrence and other popular artists, "They pity me-but it is they who are just objects of pity. I possess my visions and peace. They have sold their birthright for a mess of pottage." Blake had the misfortune, if such it was, to be isolated in an age which was uncongenial to the spirit of mysticism. Isolated, and hence undisciplined, resenting the restraint of criticism, he was led to what still seems to be extravagance. Had it not been for this we might have had a great historical example in William Blake of the illuminative influence of mysticism on Art.26

Thus mystic æsthetic cannot uphold Schopenhauer in believing that artistic gifts belong to the holidays, not to the working days of life. How far this theory leads one can be understood in reading Santayana. "Art," says he, "is the response to the demand for entertainment,"27 and again where he seems to quote 27 Sense of Beauty, p. 22.

Schopenhauer: "The appreciation of beauty and its embodiment in the arts are activities which belong to our holiday life, when we are redeemed for the moment from the shadows of evil and the slavery to fear, and are following the bent of our nature where it chooses to lead us."

Santayana was led to such conclusions by his definition of art and morality. We have already seen what a false idea he had of mysticism. Morality he makes mystic in character, concerning

25 Mysticism in English Literature, C. F. E. Spurgeon, p. 129.

26It would be inconsistent with the nature of this article to refer to the many painters, poets, writers, and musicians who have expressed mysticism in their art. The English mystics may be studied in Miss Spurgeon's Mysticism in English Literature. Evelyn Underhill's (Mrs. Moore's) Mysticism, which has a valuable bibliography, should be consulted, while Professor Rufus Jones' Studies in Mysticism is the best work on the subject of the religious mystics. This latter work also takes up the question of St. Francis and his influence. St. Francis is an important figure in the study of mysticism and art, as he exhibits in himself the blending of the two elements, the mystic and the artistic or poetic, as do Wordsworth and Blake.

itself in the prevention of suffering, while art is concerned with the giving of pleasure. These statements are on a par with his definition of mysticism.

Mystic æsthetics does not take this view; it does not content itself with the hedonistic conception of art, and hence finds no distinction, as that between servant and master, between Art and Morality. Mystic æsthetics will deny as totally insufficient such principles as Marshall works upon, making æsthetics a branch of hedonics and thereby developing a new so-called “algedonic” æsthetics. Any physiological theory such as Darwin, Spencer, or Groos have proposed is naturally opposed to a spiritual æsthetic. Great art, mystic æsthetics believe, is only produced by a spiritual activity. Where Beauty is, there is the Kingdom of Heaven, subjective and undivided, and here the essential mystic note is sounded: "There is no beauty save that in our own hearts."

Princeton, New Jersey.

ARTHUR EDWIN BYE.

THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW

As we left our carriage and walked down the lane towards the Sea, we could discern two gray towers rising above the bare hills along the coast and surrounded by a few stunted sycamores. This was the goal of our pilgrimage, Morwenstow. A spot more out of the world it would have been difficult to find. For miles inland the country is bleak and barren, wind-swept and forbidding, and what few trees and bushes are to be seen, bend away from the Sea, as if cowering before an expected blow from his mighty hand.

Cornwall was once a sacred land, like Ireland, and towns and villages bear the names of saints and missionaries. Of these was the Welsh saint, Morwena, who lived and taught in a cell in this cleft in the rocky coast. When she lay dying in the glen, she asked her companions to lift her up in their arms that her eyes might rest on her native Wales and its blue hills, just over the Severn Sea. On a clear day one can see the Welsh hills upon which rested the eyes of Saint Morwena; and this side of those hills, Lundy's Isle, once the stronghold of pirates; to the west the Atlantic piles up its wrath and scorn against the granite rocks, and far to the southeast loom the Tors of Dartmoor, and this side of them, the church towers of Kilkhampton Church, where the bones of the Granvilles lie sleeping.

It was to this church of Morwenstow, thus situate at the head of the valley running down to the Severn Sea, that Robert Stephen Hawker came as Vicar in 1834, bringing with him his wife, whom he had married when a student at Oxford, and who was only twenty-one years his senior, one year older than his mother. Church and parish were in a state of decay when Hawker appeared on the scene. Cornwall had been a favorite soil for the followers of Wesley and most of the inhabitants had become Dissenters. Hawker thus describes his people and his work: "My people were a mixed multitude of smugglers, wreckers, and dissenters of various hue. A few simple-hearted farmers had clung to the gray old sanctuary of the church and the tower