364 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



tered to the concentrated, from the outline or 

 framework to the clothed and completed form ; 

 and, although organic growth may appear to be 

 an expansion rather than a concentration, it is 

 not so in reality. When the bugle-call of a rcsri- 

 ment in the field summons the skirmishers to re- 

 tire upon their supports, the result is a concen- 

 tration of force, although accompanied by an en- 

 largement of the central mass. 



In the process of organic development there 

 appear to be at least four well-marked stages, 

 which seem to indicate the existence of four large 

 secondary waves immediately subsidiary to each 

 organic primary. In the animal kingdom these 

 mark the development of the four great systems 

 of organic tissue — the cellular, the osseous, the 

 fibrous, and the nervous. In the vegetable king- 

 dom they are represented by the cellular tissue, 

 the trunk and branch system, the foliage, and the 

 blossom. 



The visible beauty of the organic world de- 

 pends upon the correlation between the sense- 

 organs of the human race and these concentrat- 

 ing organic waves of force. That an object 

 should appear to be beautiful is not the result of 

 accidental surroundings, nor of any superficial 

 garment spread over an ugly and repulsive inte- 

 rior. The elements of the beautiful are inherent 

 in all things ; that we cannot always recognize 

 them is due to the limitation of our senses. 



Beauty is an abstract idea, of the same na- 

 ture as goodness, truth, power, charity, etc., and 

 that which causes this idea to present itself in 

 the human consciousness is Jhe perception of re- 

 lationship among a number of diverse sensations, 

 of unity coexistent with variety. The mental 

 sense of ordered activity is always accompanied 

 by the idea of Beauty more or less vividly im- 

 pressed. When the attention of the mind is 

 focused upon a variety of points in rapid suc- 

 cession, and the intellect is able to recognize re- 

 lationship among all those points as members of 

 one group, then arises the idea of Beauty. It 

 can only present itself under the conditions of 

 mental activity coexistent with the perception of 

 relationship, proportion, unity. 



Variety is necessary in order to secure the 

 condition of mental activity, which is effected by 

 the perpetual change implied in the successive 

 contemplation of many points. Each act of at- 

 tention is a force-wave which is very rapidly dis- 

 sipated. No natural phenomenon can ever be 

 exactly repeated ; but if there is repetition, with 

 too little variation, temporary paralysis follows, 

 the well-known result of monotonous sensation. 



To keep up a vigorous mental activity the force- 

 waves of attention must be sufficiently varied. 

 Hence it follows that the primary condition under 

 which any object can appear beautiful to the hu- 

 man mind is that it be compounded of a variety 

 of parts, and that these parts be so much varied 

 that the mind which contemplates them is not 

 paralyzed by monotony. Every object in Nature 

 is so compounded of various parts, but human 

 minds are not equally sensitive to small shades 

 of difference. Obtuse minds are paralyzed by a 

 succession of acts of attention whose difference 

 is sufficient to keep wide awake and active other 

 minds of more delicate perceptivity. If any mind 

 were absolutely sensitive to all shades of differ- 

 ence, the paralysis due to monotony would be im- 

 possible to it. 



Activity alone, however, is not sufficient to 

 arouse the idea of Beauty ; it must be recognized 

 as ordered activity. The mind requires cot only 

 the perception of change, but also of relationship 

 in passing from one act of attention to another, 

 the perception that there is similarity as well as 

 difference in those acts of attention. Similarity 

 implies identity in at least one direction, with 

 difference in other directions ; and the point of 

 identity which must be perceived in order that 

 the group may appear beautiful is, that all those 

 phenomena belong to that group, all take a ne- 

 cessary part in its formation, are bound together 

 by a common bond, and form one unity. There 

 may be many aspects of unity in a single group 

 of concrete phenomena — as unity of form, unity 

 of color, unity of motion, unity of purpose, etc. 

 — and the vividness with which the idea of Beauty 

 is presented will be intensified as both variety 

 and unity are perceived in a larger number of 

 such aspects. 



As different minds vary in their sensitiveness 

 to differences between the acts of attention, so 

 they vary also in their sensitiveness to relation- 

 ship among those acts. A group of phenomena 

 may appear to one mind to be closely related, 

 while to another no element of identity among 

 the varied parts can be perceived, so that the 

 group appears a chaos, and the idea of Beauty is 

 not evolved. Every object in Nature is a group 

 of parts related to each other in ways more or 

 less complex and subtile. If any mind were ab- 

 solutely sensitive to all degrees of relationship, 

 in all its aspects, nothing would appear chaotic. 

 A mind absolutely sensitive to all shades of dif- 

 ference, and to all degrees of relationship at the 

 same time, would see everywhere throughout 

 creation variety bound up in unity, would find 



