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244 Whitehead on art. Sat. Jan. 29 [[strikethrough]] August 31 [[/strikethrough]] effort, so that it stands alone, an individual thing detailed from the vague infinity of its background. Thus Art heightens the sense of humanity. It gives an elation of feeling which is supernatural. - In a sense art is a morbid overgrowth of functions which lie deep in nature. It is the essence of art to be artificial. But it is its perfection to return to nature, remaining Art. In short, art is the education of nature. Thus, in its broadest sense, art is civilization. For civilization is nothing other than the unremitting aim at the major perfections of harmony. The work of art is a message from the Unseen. The origin of art lies in the craving for re-enaction. In some mode of repetition we need by our 245 Whitehead on Art. Sat. Jan. 29 [[strikethrough]] September 1 [[/strikethrough]] personal actions, or perceptions, to dramatize the past & the future, so as to relive the emotional life of ourselves & of our ancestors. The secret of art lies in its freedom. The arts of civilization are all sublimations. Art can be described as a psychopathic reaction of the race to the stresses of its existence. This psychopathic function of art is lost when the conviction of Truth is absent. - It is here that the concept of Art as the pursuit of Beauty is shallow. Art has a curative function in human experience when it reveals as in a flash, absolute truth regarding the nature of things. This service of art is even hindered by trivial truths of detail. Such petty conformations place in them