THE FACT OF BEAUTY 265 



ally agreement in appreciating straightforward aesthetic ex- 

 cellence and in rejecting the ugly. 



In maintaining the objectivity of beauty we recognise to 

 the full the subjective side, namely the esthetic emotion, 

 which is complex, not simple. The emotion is the subjective 

 side, and, as every one knows, very personal, varying with 

 age, health, state of mind, past experiences, and so forth: 

 but certain qualities of form, colour, and movement in the 

 objects of contemplation are objective and do not in any 

 way depend on us. Against this position it does not seem 

 particularly cogent to urge that the uneducated may see 

 no beauty in a grass; that the sick man may find his old 

 favourites intrusive and repugnant; that an analysis of our 

 delight in the beautiful reveals subtle associations and self- 

 projections. For it must be remembered that all sensory 

 alertness demands discipline ; that there is, so to speak, easy 

 beauty and difficult beauty the latter often mistaken by 

 the careless for ugliness; that health in subject and in ani- 

 mate object is the normal state with which we have primarily 

 to reckon ; and that a pleasedness directly induced by certain 

 qualities of things may be enhanced and overwhelmed by 

 secondary factors due much more to the world within than 

 to the world without. 



5. Concrete Objections. 



But there is another series of objections, perhaps to the 

 scientific mind more interesting. These consist in bringing 

 forward evidence that the realm of organisms is spotted with 

 ugliness. To meet these objections let us briefly explain the 

 saving-clauses attached to our thesis. 



(1) There are some creatures which the average man 

 cannot contemplate without prejudice. He does not admire 



