Excerpt from Hermaia: A Study in Comparative Esthetics
Noble art is nothing less than the expression of a great soul; and great souls are not common things. - Ruskin.
Art, at root, is the expression of man's feelings. The world of art is but the world of expression. And expression is at once the deepest and divinest necessity of our nature. It is an elementary and fundamental law of our being, without which every soul would remain for ever sequestered and estranged. It is the primary activity of our conscious existence. Be it a gesture or facial expression, these are the natural hieroglyphics by which we make known an inner state of being to consciousnesses, other than our own. This expressional law alone is the making of society. Even in our ordinary conversation we retail our most insignificant experiences. My soul is not alone, but is one of a kingdom of souls: - such is our thought. All books, poems, pictures, or songs, are but eloquent testimonies to the grandeur of this one fundamental principle. We would ever unfold ourselves and bring our innermost recesses of soul-life out into the searching light of revelation.
This self-projection is imperative, else would the soul know no growth whatsoever. Solitary seclusion is disease. If we brim not over in social ebullition, our isolation will force us to take up our pen. Tie up a limb effectually enough and mortification will set in. Nature resents extreme individualism and favours socialism. The true self-culture of any individual should aim at making him a higher social unit.
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