Dissonance belongs to voice-leading and horizontalities and hence is art.
Consonance resides in the triad and dissonance in the passing motion. There are no other laws than consonance and dissonance, and no other basic inferences. One must even understand dissonance to be merely implied by consonance and consequently must understand the consonance of nature alone to be the ultimate basis of all possibilities of musical artistry, just as, at the same time, he must acknowledge it as the final goal of all universal aspirations. The creation of worlds manages with fewer laws. If the human sense grasps scarcely an atom of its endlessness at first, it foresees, at least, that all its appearances are obviously based on transformations of only a few primitive forces.