38 The Rice Institute Pamphlet
phoricised as physical in respect to the intuition. What is this
something? The artist, whom we have left vibrating with ex-
pressed images which break forth by infinite channels from
his whole being, is a whole man, and therefore also a practi-
cal man, and as such takes measures against losing the result
of his spiritual labour, and in favour of rendering possible or
easy, for himself and for others, the reproduction of his im-
ages; hence he engages in practical acts which assist that
work of reproduction. These practical acts are guided, as are
all practical acts, by knowledge, and for this reason are
called technical; and, since they are practical, they are dis-
tinguished from contemplation, which is theoretical, and
seem to be external to it, and are therefore called physical:
and they assume this name the more easily in so far as they
are fixed and made abstract by the intellect. Thus writing
and phonography are united with words and music, canvas
and wood and walls covered with colours, stone cut and in-
cised, iron and bronze and other metals melted and moulded
to certain shapes by sculpture and architecture. So distinct
among themselves are the two forms of activity that it is pos-
sible to be a great artist with a bad technique, a poet who
corrects the proofs of his verses badly, an architect who
makes use of unsuitable material or does not attend to statics,
a painter who uses colours that deteriorate rapidly: examples
of these weaknesses are so frequent that it is not worth while
to cite any of them. But what is impossible is to be a great
poet who writes verses badly, a great painter who does not
give tone to his colours, a great architect who does not har-
monise his lines, a great composer who does not harmonise
his notes; and, in short, a great artist who cannot express him-
self. It has been said of Raphael that he would have been a
great painter even if he had not possessed hands; but cer-