summaryå
In his essay On Simple and Sentimental Poetry, Schiller explains that our reverence for nature stems from its symbolism of “existence in all its freedom”. It is the “ideas represented in [these objects] that we love in them”, which give us satisfaction in a moral, not aesthetic, sense. “These objects which captivate us are what we were, what we must be again some day”. This notion reminds of Jacques from Giovanni’s Room’s comment on our departure and alienation from the Garden of Eden.
But why do natural objects give us moral satisfaction? “The very feature that constitutes their character is precisely what is lacking in ours to make it complete.” It is the contrast, the gap, between our decadence and their divinity, their perfection. “We are free and they are necessary; we change and they remain identical.” It is our freedom which corrupts us.
Yet, a child’s “pure and free force, of the integrity, the infinity of its being”, is sacred because it is simple. It is not corrupted by the artificial, and thus we are awed by “the contrast between their natural character and what is artificial in us”.
“Simplicity in the mode of thinking cannot then ever be the act of a depraved man; this quality only belongs to children, and to men who are children at heart.”
But rather than trying to escape from all the artificial corrupting influences of civilization, one must instead remain pure and free in the face of them. This reminds me of the lotus’s purity in Buddhism.
A poet either is nature or seeks nature. The former is a simple poet, the latter sentimental.
“True genius is of necessity simple, or it is not genius”
notes
In his use of “art”, Schiller is most likely referring to artifice.
highlights
But when you have consoled yourself for having lost the happiness of nature, let its perfection be a model to your heart. If you can issue from the circle in which art keeps you enclosed and find nature again, if it shows itself to you in its greatness and in its calm, in its simple beauty, in its childlike innocence and simplicity, oh! then pause before its image, cultivate this feeling lovingly. It is worthy of you, and of what is noblest in man. Let it no more come into your mind to change with it; rather embrace it, absorb it into your being, and try to associate the infinite advantage it has over you with that infinite prerogative that is peculiar to you, and let the divine issue from this sublime union. Let nature breathe around you like a lovely idyl, where far from artifice and its wanderings you may always find yourself again, where you may go to draw fresh courage, a new confidence, to resume your course, and kindle again in your heart the flame of the ideal, so readily extinguished amidst the tempests of life. – pp. 189–190