THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ESTHETICS 61 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ESTHETICS 



By HENRY SEWALL, Ph.D., M.D. 



PROFESSOR OP MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 



IN its very etymology the word esthetics denotes perception of sense 

 impressions and implies a physiological reaction between a sense 

 organ and objective stimuli. The significance of the term has become 

 modified to indicate rather the feelings produced by the sense percep- 

 tions than the mental picture itself. Certain of such are pleasing in 

 their effect and the mind inevitably occupies itself in analyzing the fac- 

 tors giving rise to pleasing impressions and attempts to recombine them 

 in relations the results of which will be still more agreeable. 



Reason irresistibly seeks to formulate laws which may be used to 

 construct ideals, or concepts of perfect beauty, and we thus have the 

 origin of the fine arts. By general consensus of opinion there is drawn 

 a more or less well defined line of separation between those pleasurable 

 emotions which do and those which do not involve the intellect. The 

 latter are indispensable to the vegetative life, subserving especially the 

 functions of procreation and nutrition. 



The former we intuitively apprehend as higher in their nature, 

 leading us to conceptions of perfection, to ideals which lift us above the 

 sordid struggle of selfish existence. 



The fundamental query as to the nature and conditions of beauty 

 has engaged the minds of philosophers from the earliest times. Why is 

 one object or group of sensations beautiful, another ugly, another in- 

 different ? " Why we receive pleasure from some forms and colors and 

 not from others," says Professor Euskin, " is no more to be asked than 

 why we like sugar and dislike wormwood." 1 From Socrates to Herbert 

 Spencer abstract thinkers have devoted their best energies to elucidating 

 the origin and conditions of the Ideals that make up the apotheosis of 

 life. 



It would add little to the conception unfolded in the present essay 

 to review the voluminous literature of esthetics; indeed, such a task is 

 far beyond the powers of the writer. A comprehensive synoptical sur- 

 vey of the subject is given by Sully. 2 



The first writer to have attempted to coordinate the development of 

 esthetics with the evolution of physiologic function seems to have been 

 Herbert Spencer. 3 Grant Allen sought to give physiologic basis to the 



1 Quoted by Grant Allen, infra. 



2 Article "Esthetics," Encycl. Britannica, 9th Ed. 



3 " Psychology, " 2d Ed. 



