•60 ESSAYS IN NATIONAL/IDEALISM.

the thoughts of God, and not the acts of the bodies
of individuals are the true realities of art. Art is not an
.analysis of things, but their synthesis, a revelation of the
reality enduring behind the evanescent, a revelation above
all of love, that is Unity.

The most general definition of art is the * rhythmic
•expression and suggestion of controlled emotion' (rasa)*
Art that is uncoloured by rasa* is no longer art, but
science. How then are we to judge of art ? Kot surely as
we judge of empirical science, by the test of accuracy of
•observation. The true basis of art criticism is embodied
in the pregnant words of Leonardo da Vinci: ^JQbat
drawing is best which best expresses the passion that
animates the figure." * Passion' is'^Sre^n¥>e^^*eqiiivaTent''
of 'rasa.' We do wrong to demand of the artist that he
should compete with the appliances of science—we should
4isk from him not i realism,' but truth, sincerity, imagi-
nation and einotion-T 'How far second to these are the
standards of archaeological and anatomical accuracy, by
reference to which the modern public tests a work of art!
This modern public, Indian or English, with its complacent
ignorance, provides a mental atmosphere which is—with
Tare exceptions of men who are able definitely to live in a
world of their own—quite fatal to the possibility of any
real art.

The keynote of all great art, no less than of yoga, is
•selflessness. And yet originality is actually thought of
by the modern art student as a duty ! He loves to be
•described as ' seeing things with his own eyes,' as * eman-

* Dispasssion is included under rasa. Perfect balance (same-
sightedness) is not the absence of emotion, but the transcending of
emotions. In the Buddha type, dispassion itself is the * passion
that animates the figure.'