himself and communicated to others. Thus, in this sense, a lyric poem
is an expression--a bit of a poet's intimate experience put into words;
epic and dramatic poetry are expressions--visions of a larger life
made manifest in the same medium. Pictures and statues are also
expressions; for they are embodiments in color and space-forms of the
artists' ideas of visible nature and man. Works of architecture and
the other industrial arts are embodiments of purpose and the well-being
that comes from purpose fulfilled.

This definition, good so far as it goes, is, however, too inclusive;
for plainly, although every work of art is an expression, not every
expression is a work of art. Automatic expressions, instinctive
overflowings of emotion into motor channels, like the cry of pain or
the shout of joy, are not aesthetic. Practical expressions also, all
such as are only means or instruments for the realization of ulterior
purposes--the command of the officer, the conversation of the market
place, a saw--are not aesthetic. Works of art--the _Ninth Symphony_, the
_Ode to the West Wind_--are not of this character.

No matter what further purposes artistic expressions may serve, they
are produced and valued for themselves; we linger in them; we neither
merely execute them mechanically, as we do automatic expressions, nor
hasten through them, our minds fixed upon some future end to be gained
by them, as is the case with practical expressions. Both for the artist
and the appreciator, they are ends in themselves. Compare, for example,
a love poem with a declaration of love.[Footnote: Contrast Croce's use
of the same illustration: Esthetic, p. 22, English translation.] The
poem is esteemed for the rhythmic emotional experience it gives the
writer or reader; the declaration, even when enjoyed by the suitor,
has its prime value in its consequences, and the quicker it is over