260 THE FACT OF BEAUTY 



butions Biological Science has to offer to a general view 

 of the world, and it is impossible for biologists to pass over 

 the pervasiveness of beauty in the realm of organisms. We 

 cannot say that science is required to discover this beauty 

 in its obvious expressions in bird and flower, but its luxuri- 

 ance in the unobtrusive, in the well-concealed, in internal 

 and microscopic structure, and among the unicellulars cannot 

 be discerned without scientific investigation. If the popular 

 impression be that beauty is the exception, the scientific im- 

 pression is that beauty is the rule. For a long time, perhaps 

 till the middle of the 19th century. Beauty was very gen- 

 erally spoken of as a quality of the exotic — the orchid and 

 the Bird of Paradise — now we feel it most at our doors. St. 

 Peter's lesson has been learned, for we find nought common 

 on the earth. As one of the poets says, " Beauty crowds us 

 all our life." Moreover, sound science tells us much that is 

 very interesting regarding the beautiful and intensifies our 

 appreciation of its significance. 



§ 2. General Characteristics of the Esthetic Emotion, 



We mean by the beautiful that which excites in us the 

 particular kind of emotion which we call esthetic. This is 

 experienced in many degrees of intensity and of purity, but 

 it is distinctive. The gesthetic emotion is not excited by 

 touch, taste, or smell. The aesthetic emotion is an end in 

 itself, like intellectual contemplation, though it may liberate 

 Man's formative impulse. It grips us as organisms, ^ body 

 and soul ' at once, and abides with us incarnate. The thing 

 of beauty is a joy for ever. Prof. B. Bosanquet points out 

 (1915) that sesthetic feeling has qualities of permanence, rel- 

 evance, and community. That is to say, it brings no satiety; 

 it is annexed to particular qualities — not a feeling of general 



