Aphorism #12 Nature and Art:

[Admin]

Aphorism #12 Nature and Art:

material and workmanship. There is no beauty unadorned and no excellence that would not become barbaric if it were not supported by artifice: this remedies the evil and improves the good. Nature scarcely ever gives us the very best; for that we must have recourse to art. Without this the best of natural dispositions is uncultured, and half is lacking to any excellence if training is absent. Every one has something unpolished without artificial training, and every kind of excellence needs some polish. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ArtOfWorldlyWisdom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ArtOfWorldlyWisdom?a=84MZdrUdNVs:fw3BKVrQhnY:yIl2A UoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ArtOfWorldlyWisdom?d=qj6IDK7rITs (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ArtOfWorldlyWisdom?a=84MZdrUdNVs:fw3BKVrQhnY:qj6ID K7rITs)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ArtOfWorldlyWisdom/~4/84MZdrUdNVs

More... (http://www.balthasargracian.com?id=12)

[cafolini]

I disagree with Balthasar on this one. Art is as natural as anything else. People have always failed to draw a genuine division between the two. What does natural polishing, however appropiate, has to do with his schism? But apart from that, the need for natual artifice is correct.

Balthasar was not stupid, however. Note he uses the conjunction instead of the disjunction in art AND nature. It could have been far worse had he said art OR nature.