All art is a blend of form and content; and it is through certain excellences characterising either that the artist succeeds in inducing in us the artistic attitude. In the case of poetry, for example, the content is constituted by the figurative ideas and sentiments it expresses, and the form by the musical language through which they find expression.

Of these, the form varies much from one art to another, and it is also technical. We shall not refer to it here at any length and shall confine our attention mainly to the content.

We shall only observe, in passing, that the legitimate function of form is to subserve the content; and if it assumes greater importance, the work in which it does so makes a lapse from the best type of art. The content of art may be defined generally as the meaning which it expresses. The excellences that may characterise it are many, and they have been classified in various ways.