V
On Morality in Poetry

‘… WE shall find a mere philosophy of morals without explanation of nature, such as Socrates wished to introduce … analogous to melody without harmony, which Rousseau desired exclusively; and contrariwise, mere Physics and Metaphysics without Ethics would be equivalent to harmony without melody.’—SCHOPENHAUER (‘On the Metaphysics of Music’), quoted in Wagner’s Beethoven. Trans. E. Dannreuther.

Never was a more valuable statement made. In addition to this harmony and melody, we need, as Emerson said (‘Uses of Great Men’, Representative Men), ‘fire enough to fuse the mountain of ore —E. S.