THE FACT OF BEAUTY 267 



rightly we must see the creature in its native haunts, — in 

 the environment to which it is adapted, which is in a sense 

 its external heritage, which it has in some cases sought out. 

 The hippopotamus at the Zoo may fail to excite aesthetic 

 emotion, but that this is our misfortune and not Behemoth's 

 fault is evident from the book of Job. We have to see him 

 as the author of that poem saw him, with his ruddy hide 

 in the shade of the lotuses, in the covert of the reeds and fens. 

 " His strength is in his loins, his force in the sinews of 

 his belly, the muscles of his thighs are knit together, his 

 bones are pipes of brass, his limbs are like bars of iron, he 

 is the chief of the ways of God." And we, purblind, call 

 the hippopotamus an ugly creature! 



This is a subtle subject which we venture to discuss — 

 the pervasiveness of a certain quality in living things and 

 in the inorganic domain as well that makes life to the rela- 

 tively unfettered a continuous delight. So we must be par- 

 doned if we treat it gently, rather than with stern analysis. 

 The science of aesthetics has not gone far yet, and we are 

 not desirous of doing much more ■ than pleading that our 

 synoptic view of Nature must include a frank recognition 

 of the fact of beauty. 



§ 6. Factors in Esthetic Delight, 



What is implied in our aesthetic emotion when we watch 

 beautiful animals — the Shetland ponies racing in the field, 

 the kingfisher darting up the stream like an arrow made of 

 a piece of rainbow, the mayflies rising in a living cloud 

 from a quiet stretch of the river, or the sea-anemones nestling 

 like flowers in the niches of the shore-pool ? What is implied 

 in our thrill at finding in a corner of the rocks near the 

 waterfall a stately Royal Fern — 



