ABSTRACT
The whole play of vital motion hinges on harmony and contrast. Among the Greeks human nature was self-sufficient; it was conscious of no defects, and strove for no other perfection than that which it could actually attain through its own powers. Just as in the serene framework of Greek culture the asperity of tragedy was nonetheless possible, so romantic poetry, springing from the source, can encompass every mood, even the most joyful. But it will always bear traces of its origins in some ineffable element. The Greek ideal of humanity was a perfect accord and balance of all forces, natural harmony. The moderns, on the other hand, have become conscious of an inner dualism, which precludes such an ideal. In Greek art and poetry there is a fundamental unconscious unity of form and matter; in the modern, it has remained true to its peculiar spirit, a deeper interpenetration of the two is sought as a union of contraries.
