ABSTRACT
We have now reached the point at which we can knot together all our threads, the psychological and the aesthetic ones. If we do so, we come to the true thesis of this whole book. Our aesthetic discussion showed us that it is the aim of art to isolate a significant part of our experience in such a way that it is separate from our practical life and is in complete agreement within itself. Our aesthetic satisfaction results from this inner agreement and harmony, but, in order that we may feel such agreement of the parts, we must enter with our own impulses into the will of every element, into the meaning of every line and color and form, every word and tone and note. Only if everything is full of such inner movement can we really enjoy the harmonious cooperation of the parts. The means of the various arts, we saw, are the forms and methods by which this aim is fulfilled. They must be different for every material. Moreover, the same material may allow very different methods of isolation and elimination of the insignificant and reinforcement of that which contriute to the harmony. If we ask now what are the characteristic means by which the photoplay succeeds in overcoming reality, in isolating a significant dramatic story, and in presenting it so that we enter into it and yet keep it away from our practical life and enjoy the harmony of the parts, we must remember all the results to which our psychological discussion in the first part of the book has led us.
