to mediate between them. Among colors, for example, hues somewhat
closer than the complementary are preferred to the latter, or, if the
extremes are employed, each one leads up to the other through
intermediate hues. The unity of contrasting colors is a balance because,
as extremes, they take an equal hold on the attention. The well-known
accentuation of contrasting elements does not interfere with the
balance, because it is mutual. A balanced unity is also created by
contrasts of character, as in Goethe's _Tasso_, or by a conflict
between social classes or parties, as in Hauptmann's _Die Weber_.
Balanced, finally, is the unity between the elements of a painting,
right and left, which draw the attention in opposite directions. The
third type of unity appears in any process or sequence in which all
the elements, one after another, contribute towards the bringing about
of some end or result. It is the unity characteristic of all
teleologically related facts. The sequence cannot be a mere succession
or even a simple causal series, but must also be purposive, because,
in order to be aesthetic, the goal which is reached must have value.
Causality is an important aspect of this type of unity, as in the
drama, but only because a teleological series of actions depends upon
a chain of causally related means and ends. The type is of two
varieties: in the one, the movement is smooth, each element being
harmoniously related to the last; in the other, it is difficult and
dramatic, proceeding through the resolution of oppositions among its
elements. The movement usually has three stages: an initial phase of
introduction and preparation; a second phase of opposition and
complication; then a final one, the climax or catastrophe, when the
goal is reached; there may also be a fourth,--the working out of the
consequences of this last. Illustrations of this mode of unity are:
the course of a story or a play from the introduction of the characters
and the complication of the plot to the denouement or solving of the