whereas the mechanical limb, however perfect its adaptation, will
always remain a piece of dead mechanism, a separate thing from the
body to which it is attached and simply opposing its own inertia to
the nervous effort.

In the _mechanical_ joining together of parts, each remains
isolated; if one be abstracted the others remain as they were, while
in an _organic_ union they combine to a whole, and if one be
withdrawn the whole is destroyed, or at least vitally impaired. This
furnishes us with a criterion for the technical construction of every
work of art, whatever it be; each single part must contribute its
share towards the whole; there must be nothing superfluous. The work
has an idea to express; if we find (in a drama, for example) that no
scene, no single speech even, or sentence, can be omitted without
impairing the work as a whole, and weakening its expression, then the
work is technically as perfect as it can possibly be made; its value
will then depend only on that of the idea to be expressed.

Now let us turn to Wagner's criticism of the sunrise scene in _le
Prophete_, which I mentioned a few pages back, in the first part of
_Oper und Drama_.[12] Here was a unique opportunity for a great
dramatic artist. After the representation, not unskilfully contrived,
of the victorious career of a young and aspiring hero, in the supreme
moment of his destiny, the sun rises, adding its glory to his triumph,
as if the very heavens were shedding their blessing upon the deeds of
a noble man;--so it might have been. But Meyerbeer and Scribe care
nothing for that; such is not the effect either felt by the audience
or intended by the poet. The latter had nothing higher in his mind
than a grand spectacular effect, which may be omitted without the rest
of the drama being any the worse, and the result is in the worst sense