In reaction to the previous excesses of expression and emotionalism, the Enlightenment emphasized the ideals of simplicity, balance, clarity, and directness of thought and expression. The revival of interest in those values, which were associated with Greek and Roman cultures, led also to a concern for underlying order governed by laws and conventions. Romantic thinkers rejected the Enlightenment concept of nature as mechanical, as only physical particles in motion, and the Cartesian dualism that restricted spirit to the realm of the mind. Nature is now spiritualized and humanity can achieve knowledge and freedom primarily in communion with nature. A study of the specifics of nature gives access to the divine, the absolute, and the universal.
Nature becomes symbolic of the greater wholeness and the source of unity in life.
The static and mechanical conception of the cosmos is replaced by a dynamic and organic concept. History becomes the movement and triumph of spirit and of the emerging Romantic concept of reason. The mission of the artist, whether in visual, musical, literary, or philosophical medium, is to invest the familiar with wonder and awe, as well as to explore the mysterious and the exotic. The intense subjectivity of the artist often leads to a life of rebellion or self-imposed spiritual exile. The French Revolution, as symbol of the age, unleashed millennial expecta-tions for the creation of a new society in which humanity could achieve expanded spiritual and political freedom.