Science and Art 115 



est sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in 

 which we are now accustomed to use the word art, all 

 things feelable, all things which stir our emotions, come 

 under the term of art, in the sense of the subject-matter 

 of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are shut up to this 5 

 that the business of education is, in the first place, to pro- 

 vide the young with the means and the habit of observa- 

 tion; and, secondly, to supply the subject-matter of 

 knowledge either in the shape of science or of art, or of 

 both combined. 10 



Now, it is a very remarkable fact but it is true of most 

 things in this world that there is hardly anything one- 

 sided, or of one nature; and it is not immediately obvious 

 what of the things that interest us may be regarded as pure 

 science, and what may be regarded as pure art. It may be 15 

 that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, 

 before they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, 

 find artistic beauty about it; but, taking the generality of 

 mankind, I think it may be said that, when they begin to 

 learn mathematics, their whole souls are absorbed in trac- 20 

 ing the connection between the premises and the conclusion, 

 and that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it 

 may be said that mechanics and osteology are pure science. 

 On the other hand, melody in music is pure art. You can- 

 not reason about it; there is no proposition involved in it. 25 

 So, again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a " har- 

 mony in gray," touches none but the aesthetic faculty. But 

 a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not 

 great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive im- 

 mense pleasure from geometrical reasonings. Everybody 30 

 knows mathematicians speak of solutions and problems as 

 " elegant," and they tell you that a certain mass of mystic 

 symbols is " beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not 

 see it. They do see it, because the intellectual process, the 



