LECTURE VIII. 

 THE FACT OF BEAUTY. 



1. A Synoptic View of Animate Nature Must Include the Fact 

 of the Pervasiveness of Beauty. 2. General Characteristics 

 of the ^Esthetic Emotion. 3. Beauty a General Quality of 

 Animate Nature. 4. Theoretical Objections to the Thesis. 

 5. Concrete Objections. 6. Factors in Esthetic Delight. 

 7. Aspects of Beauty in Animate Nature. 8. Biological 

 Significance of Beauty to the Beautiful Organisms themselves. 

 9. Beauty of Animal Artifice. 10. Evolution of Esthetic 

 Emotion. 11. The Significance of the Pervasive Beauty of 

 Animate Nature. 



1. A Synoptic View of Animate Nature Must Include 

 the Fact of the Pervasiveness of Beauty. 



IN an inquiry into the significance of Animate Nature, 

 there is no getting past the fact of Beauty. Whatever we 

 make of it, the Beauty of Nature is a joy for ever to many, 

 not only to the cultured, but to the unsophisticated who 

 never heard of the aesthetic attitude. Man's contemplative 

 and disinterested delight in the beautiful is well-nigh the 

 best of him; and it is a reasonable and verified belief that 

 we get at something in this way which can be reached by 

 no other, certainly not by scientific analysis or by logic. 

 There are curiously few general affirmations that we can 

 make about Nature; one is that Nature is in great part 

 intelligible or rationalisable, and another is that Nature 

 is in greater part beautiful. 



It is our object in these lectures to indicate what contri- 



