THE FACT OF BEAUTY 283 



the True, the Beautiful, and the Good — is there not signifi- 

 cance in the correspondence that obtains between these and 

 what we find in nature? To the ideal of the true there 

 corresponds, perhaps, the rational orderliness and harmoni- 

 ous consistency of Nature, but rather, we should say, the 

 reward of those organisms which face the facts effectively 

 with the clear-headedness of vigorous health. To the ideal of 

 the good there corresponds the extraordinary subordination 

 of self to species which is so characteristic of organisms. To 

 the ideal of the beautiful there corresponds the richness of 

 the realm of organisms where ugliness is banned. 



SUMMARY. 



In an endeavour to indicate what contribution Natural Science has 

 to make to our general view of the world, it is impossible to pass 

 over the pervasiveness of beauty in the realm of organisms. Scien- 

 tific investigation has disclosed it in the microscopically minute, in 

 internal structure, in the well-concealed — everywhere. 



We mean by the beautiful that which excites in us the distinctive 

 kind of emotion called aesthetic, the characteristic qualities of 

 which, such as duration without satiety, communicability, and detach- 

 edness from utility, have been much discussed by experts. What 

 concerns us in this study is the interesting fact that all natural, 

 free-living, fully-formed, healthy living creatures, which we can 

 contemplate without prejudice, are in their appropriate surroundings 

 artistic harmonies — a joy to behold. 



This thesis may be objected to on various grounds — that beauty 

 is wholly in our minds, that our likes and dislikes are wholly due 

 to individual and racial nurture, that there is no agreement as to 

 what is beautiful; but it seems possible to meet these objections. 

 Another series of objections, however, consists of evidence that 

 the realm of organisms is spotted with ugliness; and to meet these 

 it is necessary to emphasise the saving-clauses of our thesis, that 

 it docs not apply to the domesticated and cultivated, the diseased or 

 crippled, the unfinished, the parasitic, and the freakish. Moreover, 

 the artistic harmony is often obscure till the creature is seen in its 

 native haunts — a fact of special importance when these are of its 

 own choosing. 



