[413] It must not be overlooked, however, that, especially in the arts of music and painting, genius may have reached maturity at a very early period, as was the case with Mozart, Rafael, and many another.
[414] Ganz vereinzelten Seite. It is a little strange to find such an expression applied to the arts of violin-playing or singing. But the emphasis is not so much on the art as a whole as to the technical aspect of execution.
[415] Anlage, lit., a laying to, an impulse in a certain direction.
[416] This statement is rather surprising from a fellow countryman of Bach, Handel, Mozart, etc., down to Wagner and Strauss. The explanation appears first to be due to the distinction between a national impulse toward popular singing which the Italian no doubt possesses, and a deep-rooted emotional life which finally discovers its supreme mode of expression in the art of instrumental music as developed by the Teuton stock. Secondly, it is quite clear, I think, from Hegel's correspondence that he had no real sympathy for orchestral music though an enthusiastic admirer of opera, particularly Italian opera.
[417] The other two aspects were: (a) That genius is a spiritual activity and in its operation offers a contrast to talent, where the personal initiative is not so prominent, (b) It has a certain aspect which may be called innate.
[418] It is a little surprising to find Hegel tracing technical accomplishment to the native gift. At least all technical accomplishment has to be learned.
[419] This is the real point. Whatever ignoramuses may say of the "shackles" of verse poets know only too well that they supply a supreme stimulus to imaginative powers both in virtue of the atmosphere of music into which they are thus carried and the suggestiveness of the words themselves. What Hegel's analysis appears rather to fail in is his perception of the unconscious work in the greatest men when working in most inspired moments whether in painting or poetry—the extraordinary power of their intuition.
[420] No doubt Hegel does not use our word "inspiration" in quite the sense it is usually used, and I should have said even less so the German word. At the same time we do apply the word inspiration to the technical execution and most justly where it is used as a distinction.
[421] Meredith in a letter to a correspondent expresses the same conviction. He even adds that he thinks Schiller's compositions were by no means improved by artificial stimulants.
[422] The Germans say, a song which "rings straight from the throat," der aus der Kehle dringt.