THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

ARISTOTLE 59
9
with the body that bore the memory; but the "active reason/ the pure
power of thought, is independent of memory and is untouched with
decay. The active reason is the universal as
distinguished from the individual
element in man; what survives is not the personality, with its
transitory affections and desires, but mind in its most abstract and impersonal
form. 43 In short, Aristotle destroys the soul in order to give it im-
mortality; the immortal soul is "pure thought," undefiled with reality,
undefiled with action. Let him who
just as Aristotle's God is pure activity,
can, be comforted with this theology. One wonders sometimes whether
this metaphysical eating of one's cake and keeping it is not Aristotle's
subtle way of saving himself from anti-Macedonian hemlock?
In a safer field of psychology he writes more originally and to the
point, and almost creates the study of esthetics, the theory of beauty and
art. Artistic creation, says Aristotle, springs from the formative impulse
and the craving for emotional expression. Essentially the form of art is
an imitation of reality; it holds the mirror up to nature. 44 There is in
man a pleasure in imitation, apparently missing in lower animals. Yet
the aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but
their inward significance; for this, and not the external mannerism and
detail, is their reality. There may be more human verity in the sternly
classic moderation of the GEdipus Rex than in all the realistic tears of
the Trojan* Women.
The noblest art appeals to the intellect as well as to the feelings (as a
symphony appeals to us not only by its harmonies and sequences but by
its structure and development) ; and this intellectual pleasure is the highest
form of joy to which a man can rise. Hence a work of art should aim
at form, and above all at unity, which is the backbone of structure and
the focus of form. A drama, e. g., should have unity of action: there
should be no confusing sub-plots, nor any digressive episodes. 45 But above
all, the function of art is catharsis, purification: emotions accumulated
in us under the pressure of social restraints, and liable to sudden issue
in unsocial and destructive action, are touched off and sluiced away in
the harmless form of theatrical excitement; so tragedy, "through pity
and fear, effects the proper purgation of these emotions." 46 Aristotle
misses certain features of tragedy (e. g., the conflict of principles and
personalities) ; but in this theory of catharsis he has made a suggestion
endlessly fertile in the understanding of the almost mystic power of art.
It is an illuminating instance of his ability to enter every field of speculation,
and to adorn whatever he touches.
**De Anima, ii, 4; i, 4; iii, 5. "Poetics, i, 1447.
"Aristotle gives only one sentence to unity of time; and does not mention unity
of place; so that the "three unities" commonly foisted upon him are later inventions
(Norwood, Greek Tragedy9 p. 42, note) .
"Poetics, vi,