482 PROGRESS OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN 1892. 



V. TECHNOLOGY, 



A remarkable contribution to the natural history of aesthetics, which 

 the author of this summary has elsewhere called a'sthetology, is the 

 address of William H. Holmes, as vice president, before Section H of 

 the American Association. The science of the beautiful was exam- 

 ined in order to study the x>benomena of the beautiful as the botanist 

 studies the real llowers of the field. 



"The science of the beautiful nuist deal with actual ])henomena; 

 witli facts as hard, with principles as fixed, and laws as inflexible, as 

 do the sciences of bioloiiy and physics." 



The author takes up the subject from the phenomenal side and 

 ignores the x>iii"tdy metaphysical element altogether, which is alleged 

 to have woven about it a dense and very subtle web of transcendental 

 fancy! 



The author's appreciation of the amount of tiine and energy given 

 to this field of human activity is charming. "We totally fail to real- 

 ize how much time and thought are given to aesthetic considerations, 

 and what a large place they really fill in tlie thoughts and activities of 

 the world. This would come home to us if by some sudden change in 

 the constitution of things all that is aesthetic should be rudely torn 

 from us and banished from the world. - - - To make this clear, 

 let us suppose that some dire disease should destroy our perception of 

 the beautiful, a world of useless things would encumber our existence. 

 The fine arts would fall into disuse. Painting, sculpture, architecture, 

 poetry, music, romance, the drama, and landscape gardening would dis- 

 a])pear utterly. No picture would grace the wall of gallery or dwelling. 

 Temples and halls would be without statuary and books without illustra- 

 tions. Architecture would degenerate into the merest house building, 

 without projections, moldings, carving, painting, frescoes, hangings, 

 or carpeting. Churches would be but the 2)lainest barns without arch- 

 ways or columns, or steeples, or towers, or stained glass ; the organ and 

 the choir and the singing of hymns as though they had never been. 

 All artists, sculptors, architects, poets, authors, composers, and drama- 

 tists, and all the multitude that depend upon them, decorators, engrav- 

 ers, carvers, musicians, actors, book-makers, manufacturers of all that 

 pertainsto the polite arts, and all merhants who deal in aesthetic things 

 would turn to other callings. The ships and railways that transport the 

 products of a'sthetic industry, silks and rugs, and laces, and orna- 

 mental goods, and furniture, and tiles, and paints, and dyes, and porce- 

 lains, and brasses, would cease to plow the sea and girdle the land. The 

 range of human livelihood would be reduced to a dangerous degree, 

 and existence — a burden without art, would be overwhelmed with poverty 

 and distress. Now, there was a time when this jiicture was a true 

 one, and men had no great results in aesthetic art to show. From then 

 to our day, Mr. Holmes declares to be a question of evolution. 



