There are certain distinguishing characteristics of aesthetic expression
all of which are in harmony with the description we have given of it.
In the first place, in art the sensuous medium of the expression
receives an attention and possesses a significance not to be found in
other types of expression. Although every one hears, no one attends
to the sound of the voice in ordinary conversation; one looks through
it, as through a glass, to the thought or emotion behind. In our routine
perceptions of nature, we are not interested in colors and shapes on
their own account, but only in order that we may recognize the objects
possessing them; in a scientific woodcut also, they are indifferent
to us, except in so far as they impart correct information about the
objects portrayed. Outside of art, sensation is a mere transparent
means to the end of communication and recognition. Compare the poem,
the piece of music, the artistic drawing or painting. There the words
or tones must be not only heard but listened to; the colors and lines
not only seen but held in the eye; of themselves, apart from anything
they may further mean, they have the power to awaken feeling and
pleasure. And this is no accident. For the aesthetic expression is meant
to possess worth in itself and is deliberately fashioned to hold us
to itself, and this purpose will be more certainly and effectively
accomplished if the medium of the expression has the power to move and
please. We enter the aesthetic expression through the sensuous medium;
hence the artist tries to charm us at the start and on the outside;
having found favor there, he wins us the more easily to the content
lying within.

If the medium, moreover, instead of being a transparent embodiment of
the artist's feelings, can express them in some direct fashion as well,
the power of the whole expression will gain. This is exactly what the