A quote from Frederick Beiser's Schiller as Philosopher: A Re-Examination:

It is generally recognized that one of the most creative periods of aesthetics was that from Baumgarten to Hegel. . . . Among the crowning achievements of this period are Schiller's aesthetic essays, which were written from 1791 to 1795. Schiller's three major essays... ..."On Grace and Dignity"....."On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters"... and "On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry"...have been regarded as classics. Since their publication over two centuries ago, they have been the subject of intensive discussion and commentary. (p.1)

Beiser claims that the Letters is not aestheticist (i.e., it is not escapist) and is instead politically and morally oriented towards actively improving social life. This is because aesthetic education -- one's self-conscious attention to, spiritual absorption of, and consequent behavioral instantiation of beauty -- aims to reinforce and cultivate people's moral awareness in a concrete, and not merely abstracted and contemplative sense. This is for the sake of creating good citizens. Ideally, aesthetic education will produce a set of people who will automatically act morally when they are given their freedom, as opposed to having violent and retributive inclinations, as happened horribly in France during Schiller's time.