Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling, On the Relation of the Plastic Arts to Nature (1807), tr. J. Elliot Cabot, (The German Classics: Masterpieces of German Literature, vol. V., 1913, p. 110 & 123-4):
Nature meets us everywhere, at first with reserve, and in form more or less severe. She is like that quiet and serious beauty, that excites not attention by noisy advertisement, nor attracts the vulgar gaze. [...]
But the beauty of the Soul in itself, joined to sensuous Grace, is the highest apotheosis of Nature.
The spirit of Nature is only in appearance opposed to the Soul; essentially, it is the instrument of its revelation; it brings about indeed the antagonism that exists in all things, but only that the one essence may come forth, as the utmost benignity, and the reconciliation of all the forces.
All other creatures are driven by the mere force of Nature, and through it maintain their individuality; in Man alone, as the central point, arises the soul, without which the world would be like the natural universe without the sun.
The Soul in Man, therefore, is not the principle of individuality, but that whereby he raises himself above all egoism, whereby he becomes capable of self-sacrifice, of disinterested love, and (which is the highest) of the contemplation and knowledge of the Essence of things, and thus of Art.
In him it is no longer concerned about Matter nor has it immediate concern with it, but with the spirit only as the life of things. Even while appearing in the body, it is yet free from the body, the consciousness of which hovers in the soul in the most beauteous shapes only as a light, undisturbing dream. It is no quality, no faculty, nor any-thing special of the sort; it knows not, but is Science; it is not good, but Goodness ; it is not beautiful, as body even may be, but Beauty itself.
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