CYCLE ELEVEN

1. One should distinguish the cultural barbarity of art (including painting) from the cultural civility of literature, and each of these female art forms from the natural culture of sculpture and the cultural (or subnatural-to-supernatural) culture of music, both of which are comparatively male art forms, or art forms the overall integrity of which is rather more subjective than objective.

2. Art, literature, sculpture, and music, corresponding in elemental terms to fire, water, vegetation, and air, stand in a shadowy relationship to science, politics, economics, and religion, since, although a correlation indubitably exists, it is rather one between premise and conclusion, precondition and resolution.

3. In fact, it is safe to say that without art, there would be no science, without literature no politics, without sculpture no economics, and without music no religion.

4. A barbarous people, dominated by fire, will be scientific; a civilized people, governed by water, will be political; a natural people, represented by vegetation, will be economic; and a cultural people, led by air, will be religious.

5. Art will especially flourish under barbarism, literature under civilization, sculpture under nature, and music under culture.

6. Art uses barbarous means (paint) to illustrate science, literature uses civilized means (ink) to illustrate politics, sculpture uses natural means (clay) to illustrate economics, and music uses cultural means (notes) to illustrate religion.

7. Science is always beyond art, just as politics is always beyond literature, economics always beyond sculpture, and religion always beyond music.

8. One can exemplify fire through art, but only science can amplify it, using the diabolic element par excellence directly.

9. Likewise, one can exemplify water through literature, but only politics can amplify it, using the feminine element par excellence directly.

10. Similarly, one can exemplify vegetation through sculpture, but only economics can amplify it, using the masculine element par excellence directly.

11. Finally, one can exemplify air through music, but only religion can amplify it, using the divine element par excellence directly.

12. The positive exemplification of fire through art is called beauty, and beauty is an apparent shortfall from love.

13. The positive exemplification of water through literature is called strength, and strength is a quantitative shortfall from pride.

14. The positive exemplification of vegetation through sculpture is called knowledge, and knowledge is a quantitative shortfall from pleasure.

15. The positive exemplification of air through music is called truth, and truth is an apparent shortfall from joy.

16. Art may serve, when positive, to exemplify beauty, but only science can serve to amplify love, its essential resolution.

17. Literature may serve, when positive, to exemplify strength, but only politics can serve to amplify pride, its qualitative resolution.

18. Sculpture may serve, when positive, to exemplify knowledge, but only economics can serve to amplify pleasure, its qualitative resolution.

19. Music may serve, when positive, to exemplify truth, but only religion can serve to amplify joy, its essential resolution.

20. The relationship of art, literature, sculpture, and music to their respective elements is accordingly indirect, whereas the relationship of science, politics, economics, and religion to their respective elements is direct.

21. The 'cultural' disciplines utilize fire, water, vegetation, and air indirectly, through their various media of presentation, whereas the 'natural' disciplines utilize these same elements directly - to greater effect.

22. The 'cultural' disciplines exemplify the particle aspect of any given subatomic element, whereas the 'natural' disciplines tend to amplify its wavicle aspect.

23. Hence although the utilization of fire is barbarous in both art (paint) and science (Bunsen burner, etc.), it is indirectly barbarous in the one case and directly so in the other.

24. Although the utilization of water is civilized in both literature (ink) and politics (speech), it is indirectly civilized in the one case and directly so in the other.

25. Although the utilization of vegetation is natural in both sculpture (clay) and economics (produce), it is indirectly natural in the one case and directly so in the other.

26. Although the utilization of air is cultural in both music (notation) and religion (meditation), it is indirectly cultural in the one case and directly so in the other.

27. Art, in the broadest sense, can never be a substitute for life, but only a guide to living it more fully.

28. Neither, on account of its illustrative nature, is art an obstacle to life but, rather, a 'cultural' precondition, in disciplinary vein, of that fuller commitment to life which, being equally if not more disciplined, is commensurate with civilization in the broadest possible sense, a sense antithetical to or, at any rate, distinct from savagery.