1 1 6 Selections from Huxley 



process of comprehending the reasons symbolized by these 

 figures and these signs, confers upon them a sort of pleas- 

 ure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a 

 science of which I may speak with more confidence, and 



5 which is the most attractive of those I am concerned with. 

 It is what we call morphology, which consists in tracing 

 out the unity in variety of the infinitely diversified struc- 

 tures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any example 

 of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a 



10 pleasure of this kind the pleasure which arises in one's 

 mind when a whole mass of different structures run into 

 one harmony as the expression of a central law. That is 

 where the province of art overlays and embraces the prov- 

 ince of intellect. And, if I may venture to express an 



15 opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of 

 art are not in a sense what I just now defined them to be 

 pure art; but they derive much of their quality from 

 simultaneous and even unconscious excitement of the in- 

 tellect. 



20 When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am 

 so now; and it so happened that I had the opportunity of 

 hearing much good music. Among other things, I had 

 abundant opportunities of hearing that great old master, 

 Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well though I 



25 knew nothing about music then, and, I may add, know 

 nothing whatever about it now the intense satisfaction 

 and delight which I had in listening, by the hour together, 

 to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains with me, 

 I am glad to think ; but, of late years, I have tried to find 



30 out the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me 

 that the pleasure derived from musical compositions of this 

 kind is essentially of the same nature as that which is de- 

 rived from pursuits which are commonly regarded as purely 

 intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is exactly 



