AESTHETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS

by Frederick Schiller

CONTENTS

[ INTRODUCTION. ]

[ VOCABULARY OF TERMINOLOGY. ]

[ LETTERS ON THE AESTHETICAL EDUCATION OF MAN. ]

[ LETTER I. ]

[ LETTER II. ]

[ LETTER III. ]

[ LETTER IV. ]

[ LETTER V. ]

[ LETTER VI. ]

[ LETTER VII. ]

[ LETTER VIII. ]

[ LETTER IX. ]

[ LETTER X. ]

[ LETTER XI. ]

[ LETTER XII. ]

[ LETTER XIII. ]

[ LETTER XIV. ]

[ LETTER XV. ]

[ LETTER XVI. ]

[ LETTER XVII. ]

[ LETTER XVIII. ]

[ LETTER XIX. ]

[ LETTER XX. ]

[ LETTER XXI. ]

[ LETTER XXII. ]

[ LETTER XXIII. ]

[ LETTER XXIV. ]

[ LETTER XXV. ]

[ LETTER XXVI. ]

[ LETTER XXVII. ]

[ THE MORAL UTILITY OF AESTHETIC MANNERS. ]

[ ON THE SUBLIME. ]

[ THE PATHETIC. ]

[ ON GRACE AND DIGNITY. ]

[ ON DIGNITY. ]

[ LIMITATIONS IN THE USE OF BEAUTY OF FORM. ]

[ THE VULGAR AND LOW ELEMENTS IN WORKS OF ART. ]

[ REFLECTIONS ON DIFFERENT QUESTIONS OF AESTHETICS. ]

[ ON SIMPLE AND SENTIMENTAL POETRY. ]

[ SENTIMENTAL POETRY. ]

[ SATIRICAL POETRY. ]

[ ELEGIAC POETRY. ]

[ IDYL. ]

[ THE STAGE AS A MORAL INSTITUTION. ]

[ ON THE TRAGIC ART. ]

[ THE PLEASURE WE DERIVE FROM TRAGIC OBJECTS. ]

[ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]

INTRODUCTION.

The special subject of the greater part of the letters and essays of Schiller contained in this volume is Aesthetics; and before passing to any remarks on his treatment of the subject it will be useful to offer a few observations on the nature of this topic, and on its treatment by the philosophical spirit of different ages.

First, then, aesthetics has for its object the vast realm of the beautiful, and it may be most adequately defined as the philosophy of art or of the fine arts. To some the definition may seem arbitrary, as excluding the beautiful in nature; but it will cease to appear so if it is remarked that the beauty which is the work of art is higher than natural beauty, because it is the offspring of the mind. Moreover, if, in conformity with a certain school of modern philosophy, the mind be viewed as the true being, including all in itself, it must be admitted that beauty is only truly beautiful when it shares in the nature of mind, and is mind's offspring.