442 .ESTHETICS 



awakes the so-called proportion-feelings; and from the cooperation 

 of these two arise the so-called aesthetic complication-feelings. 



As to the pleasurable tone- and color-combinations, the first are 

 better known than the second, but even their theoretical interpre- 

 tation is not well settled. More diligent and successful at the present 

 time is the research into the proportion-feelings. So far as these 

 bear upon space-relations, they attach either to the outlines or to the 

 structure of the forms. The bounding-lines are then pleasing, One 

 theory holds, when they correspond to the easiest eye-movements, and 

 in general meet our desire for easy, effortless orientation. Another 

 doctrine, already referred to, explains their aesthetic value from a 

 cooperation of general bodily feelings, especially sensations of 

 breathing and equilibrium. Accurate experiments have not succeeded 

 in finding a real conformity to law in either the first or the second 

 direction. In the matter of the structure of forms, symmetry in 

 the horizontal position, and the proportion of the golden section 

 in the vertical position, receive especial attention. All those space- 

 shapes may be called symmetrical, whose halves are of equal value 

 aesthetically. How these must be constituted, has been studied 

 from the simplest examples by Miinsterberg and his pupils. The 

 explanation of the pleasing quality rests on the fact that the spec- 

 tator feels the contents of the two halves lines or colors as light 

 or heavy, according to the energy expended in the necessary eye- 

 movements. In the vertical position a proportion pleases (as does also 

 equality) which is only approximately that of the golden section. 

 The numerical proportion is, therefore, not the ground of pleasure, 

 for otherwise those forms which are thus divided would have to be 

 the absolutely beautiful ones, and the more a division varies from 

 the exact fraction, the more would it sacrifice in beauty. The ground 

 of pleasure is rather descried in the fact that in the case of the pleas- 

 ing divisions the two parts stand out as distinct and clearly character- 

 ized, while yet unified effect is secured through the larger division. 



The temporal ordering of an aesthetic character is that of rhythm. 

 Concerning the aesthetic object as such that is, concerning the 

 metrical forms in music and poetry, the views are still widely at 

 variance; this is true to a startling degree of poetry, because here 

 the element, that is to say, the word, is made up of accented and 

 unaccented syllables, and because the tendency of the logical con- 

 nections of the content to create unities cannot be done away with. 

 This state of confusion is so much the more to be regretted as it is 

 just to the art-forms that the most vivid rhythmical feelings attach. 

 The psychological investigations of Neumann, Bolton, and others have 

 nevertheless much advanced our scientific understanding of this 

 subject. A new point of view has taken its rise from Souriau and 

 Biicher: the connection of the art-rhythm with work and other 



