THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



in the case of any individual, may be almost indefi- 

 nitely cultivated through direct stimulation and de- 

 velopment of the aesthetic or emotional nature, pro- 

 vided always that such development is carried out 

 sanely and temperately, not with hysterical over- 

 enthusiasm and sentimentality. 



In proportion as the appreciation of things artistic 

 the aesthetic sense is developed, man becomes 

 capable of experiencing the most intense pleasure 

 through the mere contemplation of natural phenomena, 

 the observation of which leaves the uncultured mind 

 absolutely unmoved. The trained eye roves a land- 

 scape, and the observer has no thought of self he is 

 lost in contemplation; yet a sense of pleasure suffuses 

 his whole personality; he is oblivious of time and place; 

 he makes no egoistic comparisons, is for the time being 

 scarcely conscious of his own personality; yet the up- 

 lift of, so-to-say, impersonal emotion pervades his 

 entire being. 



Of closely similar character is the emotional uplift 

 which the cultured mind experiences through scan- 

 ning the cadenced words of a poem or through listen- 

 ing to the soul-compelling rhythm of music. In the 

 same category, too, are the emotions associated with 

 the turning inward of the mental vision, not toward 

 the Ego as such, but across the broad fields of abstract 

 reasoning. 



The cultivation of such inward visions enables the 

 person of developed artistic and philosophical tempera- 

 ment to transcend in considerable measure his seem- 

 ing physical limitations. That it is possible thus to 



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