Pagina 143 de 1391

3. In the third book of the Republic a nearer approach is made to

a theory of art than anywhere else in Plato. His views may be

summed up as follows:-True art is not fanciful and imitative, but

simple and ideal,-the expression of the highest moral energy,

whether in action or repose. To live among works of plastic art

which are of this noble and simple character, or to listen to

such strains, is the best of influences,-the true Greek

atmosphere, in which youth should be brought up. That is the way

to create in them a natural good taste, which will have a feeling

of truth and beauty in all things. For though the poets are to be

expelled, still art is recognized as another aspect of

reason-like love in the Symposium, extending over the same

sphere, but confined to the preliminary education, and acting

through the power of habit; and this conception of art is not

limited to strains of music or the forms of plastic art, but

pervades all nature and has a wide kindred in the world.