166 SELECTED ESSAYS FROM LAY SERMONS 



what we call morphology, which consists in tracing out 

 the unity in variety of the infinitely diversified structures 

 of animals and plants. I cannot give you any example of 

 a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a 

 pleasure of this kind — the pleasure which arises in one's 

 mind when a whole mass of different structures run into 

 one harmony as the expression of a central law. That is 

 where the province of art overlays and embraces the prov- 

 ince of intellect. And, if I may venture to express an opin- 

 ion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of art are 

 not in the sense what I just now defined them to be — pure 

 art; but they derive muclj of their quality from simultaneous 

 and even unconscious excitement of the intellect. 



When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am 

 so now; and it so happened that I had the opportunity of 

 hearing much good music. Among other things, I had 

 abundant opportunities of hearing that great old master, 

 Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well — though I knew 

 nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing 

 whatever about it now — the intense satisfaction and delight 

 which I had in listening, by the hour together, to Bach's 

 fugues. It is a pleasure which remains with me, I am 

 glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find out the 

 why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that 

 the pleasure derived from musical compositions of this 

 kind is essentially of the same nature as that which is derived 

 from pursuits which are commonly regarded as purely 

 intellectual. I mean, that the source of pleasure is exactly 

 the same as in most of my problems in morphology — that 

 you have the theme in one of the old master's works fol- 

 lowed out in all its endless variations, always appearing 

 and always reminding you of unity in variety. So in paint- 

 ing; what is called "truth to nature" is the intellectual 



