mentioned in a former chapter, (') which prevent politics from being an experimental science. $ 2 An ideal model in politics is analogous to ideals in the useful arts, not in the arts of design. The reason of this difference is to be found in the difference of the end. The arts of design only imitate external nature, whereas the useful arts produce something new-something which would not exist in that shape if it were not contrived and executed by man. A picture or a statue is a representation of an outward object, intended to give pleasure to the beholder, either by the excellence of the fiction, or by preserving the features and form of a particular person, or the appearance of a certain natural scene. On the other hand, an axe, a saw, a plough, a chain, a cup, a spinningmachine, a loom, a sword, a watch, a waggon, a ship, a printingpress, a steam-engine, is intended to produce, move, contain or measure something, or to assist man in some practical operation or manual work. None of these instruments and appliances exist in nature, nor are they suggested by any natural model: they are exclusively the fruit of man's invention, and they are fashioned by his hands.(*) Much has been said and written upon ideal beauty in art : but it is certain that a picture or statue, though it may not be a portrait, cannot improve upon nature. (3) It can only represent the best individuals, leaving out accidental defects. It may combine what is best in several, but it can never go beyond some real specimen of individual excellence, either in parts, or as a whole. If it creates something which does not exist in nature, it makes a monster. The artist may select from various subjects those features or limbs which are most beautiful, and may form (1) Above, ch. 6. (2) Stieglitz (Geschichte der Baukunst, p. 9) says that the forms of architecture are not borrowed from anything in outward nature, but are contrived by man according to the laws of nature. (3) As to the impossibility of improving upon nature-of producing ideal forms more beautiful than the real-see Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. i. p. 63. Concerning the ideal in art, see Sir Edmund Head's preface to Kugler's Handbook of the German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools of Painting, p. xxi. sqq. them into a whole, which resembles no one original, but represents what is most excellent in many.(") In combining these, he copies the forms of nature, if he desires to represent a beautiful man, or woman, or animal; but even if he combines heterogeneous parts, so as to make a monster-as a sphinx, a centaur, or a unicorn-the single elements which he puts together are all borrowed from nature. A model instrument is analogous to a type in art.(5) As the sculptor or painter, in representing a certain subject, maintains a certain resemblance to a traditionary ideal character of features and form, (such as we see exemplified in the treatment of gods and heroes by the ancients, and of sacred figures by the moderns,) so, in the useful arts, a general resemblance to a certain ideal pattern is constantly maintained, but its form and make are varied according to the judgment of successive artisans, and the wants of different customers. The artificer who fashions a new plough or knife has in his mind's eye a certain image of a plough or knife, similar to the image of a Jupiter or an Apollo, which was present to the mind of the Greek sculptor who made a statue of one of these gods. He could conceive a new treatment of the subject, but his imagination must be restrained within the limits of his type. So the ploughs described by Hesiod and (4) See this view of the ideal in the arts of design laid down by Socrates, in Xen. Mem. iii. 10, § 2; and by Aristotle, Pol. iii. 10. Compare the story of Zeuxis, in Cic. de Invent. ii. 1, who, having been employed by the citizens of Crotona to paint a picture of Helen, requested to be permitted to study from the most beautiful women of the city as models: Tum Crotoniatæ publico de consilio virgines unum in locum conduxerunt, et pictori, quas vellet, eligendi potestatem dederunt. Ille autem quinque delegit; quarum nomina multi poetæ memoriæ tradiderunt, quod ejus essent judicis probatæ, qui verissimum pulcritudinis habere judicium debuisset. Neque enim putavit omnia, quæ quæreret ad venustatem, uno in corpore se reperire posse; ideo quod nihil, simplici in genere, omni ex parte perfectum natura expolivit. Itaque, tamquam ceteris non sit habitura quod largiatur, si uni cuncta concesserit, aliud alii commodi, aliquo adjuncto incommodo, muneratur.' Compare the allusion of Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, xi. 71. The doctrine of an ideal in art more beautiful than nature, is expressed in Cic. Orator, c. 2, 3. In this passage, reference is expressly made to the Platonic ideas. (5) See the meaning of a type in the arts of design, explained and illustrated by Sir Edmund Head, ib. p. xxxix. Virgil belong to the same type as the improved plough of a modern English farmer; but they differ from it as the Jupiter or Madonna of one artist differs from the Jupiter or Madonna of another. Painting and sculpture-the arts of design-resemble poetry in this, that they all three represent natural objects, or at least objects supposed to be natural. They re-combine existing elements which they find in the reality of outward nature; but they are all essentially imitative. The disposition to represent illusion as the perfection of these arts, as in painting and the drama,(®) shows that they are conceived as a mere reproduction of something real. Moreover, they seek merely to give mental pleasure: they do not minister to the physical wants or business of mankind. (7) Utility is altogether foreign to the works of the painter, sculptor, or poet. Architecture, on the other hand, represents nothing; it imitates no object in external nature. Like the useful arts, it constructs something new. The purpose of its works is useful; it seeks to produce something which men can use for their bodily comfort, and for the business of life. Hence, utility is the main source and canon of architectural beauty, and all decorations of a building are accessory and subordinate to its structure.(*) Architecture, accordingly, belongs more to the useful than to the fine arts. A building, however, has this peculiarity among products of the useful arts, that, being immovable, it admits of decoration, both externally and internally. An instrument or machine, such as a plough, a shuttle, a saw, a gun, and even a carriage or a ship, would be encumbered by decoration. All ornaments involving a change of surface would render it clumsy (6) As to the illusion of painting, see the anecdotes of Zeuxis, in Plin. H. N. xxxv. 36, § 3, 4. The subject of illusion in dramatic representation is discussed by Dr. Johnson, in his preface to Shakspeare. (7) Drawings, plans, and models for practical purposes stand on a different footing: they do not belong to the fine arts. (8) On the beauty of architecture arising from utility, see Cic. de Orat. iii. 46. Houses are built to live in, not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had.'-Lord Bacon, Essay on Building. and unserviceable; and, even if applied, would be broken and worn off by friction and use. Decorated carriages or ships are only employed for occasions of ceremony, and not for daily use. Buildings, however, being stationary, admit of being decorated in relief, within certain limits, without impairing their utility, or exposing their decorations to damage. The ideals of the arts of design are, therefore, essentially imitative; the ideals of architecture, and of all the useful and constructive arts, are essentially original. The former represent something in outward nature-the latter represent nothing in outward nature. Every work of the useful arts must be conceived, in the mind of the inventor or improver, as something novel and non-existing, as having no archetype in nature, as a pure hypothesis of his own creation, before it assumes an outward form. When it has been actually made, and tried, and found to succeed, it can be copied for the use of others, and can afterwards be varied for different adaptations. Now the ideals of government resemble those of the constructive and useful arts, not those of the arts of design. An imaginary state, or system of legislation, resembles an idea of an instrument, or machine, or building, which the inventor or architect has conceived in his mind, and has designed upon paper, but has not yet executed, so as to try it in practice. The metaphors used in describing the practical ideals of politics are often derived from the useful arts. Thus, we hear of a political plan, outline, sketch, all of which expressions are borrowed from architecture or other constructive arts. Our ancestors spoke of a platform of government'—a platform being a ground-plan arranged in a pattern. (9) Cicero describes the perfect state of Plato under the image of a building erected upon an open space. (10) (9) Thus, in Pope: 'Grove nods at grove, each alley has its brother, (10) Nam princeps ille, quo nemo in scribendo præstantior fuit, aream sibi sumpsit, in quâ civitatem exstrueret arbitratu suo.'-De Rep. ii. 11. Compare his expressions in Epist. ad Fam. ix 2: Non deesse, si quis adhibere volet, non modo ut architectos, verum etiam ut fabros, ad ædificandam rempublicam.' They are The essence § 3 All practical plans and measures in government (as we shall see hereafter) involve an ideal conception. It is, however, an idea founded on real data, and applied to an individual case. Ideal models in politics, on the other hand, are founded on imaginary data, and are not limited to a single case. intended to serve as universal guides in practice. of an ideal state is, that it does not start from an historical basis-that it does not suppose an actual community. It is not only an imaginary fabric, but it assumes an imaginary foundation. All improvements which have been carried into effect have involved an ideal plan, but the ideal plan rested upon actual facts. For example, the plan of a uniform penny-postage was ideal: it had never had any actual existence; there had been no experience of its operation. But the plan was founded on real data, and was adapted to the existing circumstances of England. On the other hand, an ideal commonwealth, or the idea of perpetual peace, is not only a mental creation, but it presupposes no actual state of things, and is adapted to no given community. An Utopia has no special reference to any country: it is a fictitious frame of government, into which a society in a state of nature might be formed. § 4 A real and an ideal model are each, considered as models, equally general in their application. They have no peculiar reference to any actual case. An ideal model, however, possesses this advantage, that it is, or may be, free from defects, and that all which it holds out for imitation is worthy of being imitated. In all real models, there is some admixture of human defects; and since the model, as a whole, is consecrated in the minds of its admirers, its accidental peculiarities, however faulty, are sometimes imitated, as well as the excellences which were the cause of its acquiring authority. Hence (as Horace says), Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.'('') Now, by establishing (11) Ergo hoc sit primum in præceptis meis, ut demonstremus quem imitemur; atque ita ut quæ maxime excellant in eo quem imitabitur, ea diligentissime persequatur; tum accedat exercitatio, quâ illum quem ante delegerit, imitando effingat, atque ita exprimat, non ut multos imitatores VOL. II. R |