118 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



result of the growth of biological and physiological know- 

 ledge, based upon observation, scientific theories, and 

 experiment ; the latter is a result of historical studies, 

 of an increasing knowledge of the life of other nations 

 and the mental labours of other civilisations. Although, 

 therefore, theories of the Beautiful and of Art, from a 

 comprehensive or philosophical point of view, have 

 seemingly lost in interest and attractiveness, works on 

 ^Esthetics, from the scientific, the psychological, and 

 the historical point of view have increased in number 

 and in bulk. It would not serve my present purpose to 

 do more than refer to this growing literature which deals 

 mainly with special problems of psychology, criticism, or 

 taste. They are referred to, though hardly in sufficient 

 completeness, in several comprehensive works on the 

 history of ^Esthetics which have appeared in the course 

 of the last thirty years in all the three countries under 

 review. Most of these works are written from definite 

 philosophical points of view, from aspects derived from 

 one or the other among those systematic attempts which 

 have occupied us in this chapter. 



Among these various historical treatises I confine 

 myself to the mention of one which does not belong to 

 any of the three literatures to which this history is, in 

 the main, limited. I refer to the treatise on Esthetics 

 by Signer Benedetto Croce. It was published in 1902 

 at Palermo ; a second edition appeared in the following 

 year. Of this a translation has been brought out in 

 French by M. Henri Bigot. In this connection I refer 

 to this work, of which the larger portion is historical 

 and critical, not because other works on the history of 



