The Essence of Aesthetic
Benedetto Croce
1921; a lecture prepared for the inauguration of the
Rice Institute, by Senator Benedetto Croce, Life
Senator of the Italian Kingdom, Member of several
Royal Commissions, Editor of “La Critica,” and
Minister for Education in the Gioletti Cabinet;
translation, Douglass Ainslie, 1921, London: William
Heinemann
Translator’s Preface
When I first visited Naples, in 1909, I was quite
unprepared for making the discovery of a new
philosopher, and nothing was further from my mind than
to become his prophet to the English-speaking world. Yet
so it has happened.
If I may be permitted the use of metaphor and to take the
eternal activities of the spirit of man as equivalent to the
eternal ideas of Plato, yet far more real than they, because
immanent and not transcendental, and if I may push yet
further the metaphor and figure these activities of the
spirit as planets, then one might say that Croce is the
Adams-Leverrier of philosophy, and his Theory of
Æsthetic the discovery of the planet Neptune. For just as
those astronomer-mathematicians proved the independent
existence of that planet, hitherto unknown, by observing
the perturbations it set up throughout the planetary
system, so Croce has proved the independent existence of
Æsthetic, the last of the great planetary activities of the
spirit of man to come into line with thought. Just as the
action of Neptune was falsely attributed to other causes,
so the action of Æsthetic has been falsely confused with
Ethic, Economic and Logic. Croce has disentangled and
proved its independence. And just as we can now say that
there is no other planet to be discovered in the heavens, so
we can say that there is no other activity of the spirit to be
discovered.
Returning to 1909 and my visit to Naples, I was not long
in finding a copy of the “Estetica,” and a single reading
made clear to me its supreme importance. Although first
published in 1901, no notice whatever had been taken of
it in the English-speaking world. How long this might
have continued, it is idle to surmise, but the fact that by
far the greatest history of Italian literature (De Sanctis’),
which dates from about the middle of last century, yet
awaits translation and is little known in Great Britain,
leads one to suppose that a like fate might have been in
store for Croce’s discovery.
That is now for ever averted, as I have had the pleasure
and privilege of presenting the English-speaking world
with my translation of the “Complete System of the
Philosophy of the Spirit,” in four volumes, besides other
works by the master, such as the application of the
theories of the Æsthetic to the greatest poets of Europe:
Dante, Ariosto, Shakespeare, Corneille, to name them
chronologically.
The present little volume, entirely original in statement,
contains, as the author says, the condensation of his most
important thoughts upon the subject of Æsthetic. In his
belief, it may prove of use to young folk and others who
wish to study poetry, and art in general, seriously. He is of
opinion that the study of Æsthetic is perhaps better
adapted to the understanding of philosophy than that of
any other branch, for no other subject awakens youthful
interest so soon as art and poetry. Logic remains, perhaps,
rather severe and abstract, Ethic is apt to sound too like a
“preachment,” and what is called “Psychology” is rather a
turning away from than a guide to Philosophy. The
problems of art, on the other hand, not only lead more
easily to the habit of thought upon themselves, but also
whet the appetite and sharpen the teeth for biting into the
marrow of those other problems, which, since all are
contained in the spirit, form with it an ideal whole.
Little remains to be said, beyond mentioning that the
“Essence of Æsthetic” was originally written by Croce
and translated by me to celebrate the inauguration of the
great Rice Institute, of Houston, Texas, in 1912. Croce
was invited to address the University personally, but he
was even then too busy with his own country’s affairs and
his enormous literary labours, and the learned and
courteous President Odell Lovett therefore kindly
accepted the written essay in lieu of the actual presence of
the philosopher. I was also, and for the same reason,
obliged to decline, on his behalf, the giving of the Giffors
Lectures in 1912.
The University of Columbia has recently presented Croce
with its gold medal for the most original and important
contribution to literature during the past five years, and
his present position in the Italian Government as Cabinet
Minister and Minister for Education (accepted solely from
a sense of duty) are, I think, proof that his merits are
beginning to be recognised.
Plato, returning discomfited from Sicily, where he had
failed to realise his conception of the Philosopher-King,
would have taken heart could he have seen his remote
brother and descendant, a scion of Greater Greece, so
valiantly, so disinterestedly, ruling alike in the worlds of
thought and practical life. For did he not lay it down as a
condition that those only should rule who would fain be
left to their lofty meditations?
Douglas Ainslie.
1
The Athenæum, 1, Pall Mall, S.W. 1.
January, 1921.
1
I should like to thank my learned friend, the Librarian of the
India Office, Dr. F. W. Thomas, M.A., Trinity College,
Cambridge, for kindly reading the proofs of this work and
making certain valuable suggestions.