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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. JS^o. 1222 



pleasure are not accompanied by the per- 

 ception of beauty. Pleasant as our recol- 

 lections of a certain dinner may be we 

 would hardlj^ refer to it as beautiful, even 

 to compliment the most gracious hostess. 

 The frequent repetition of esthetic experi- 

 ence graduallj^ develops in the indi^^dual 

 a greater susceptibility to such stimulation, 

 in which regard esthetic pleasure differs 

 from other pleasures the frequent indul- 

 gence in which leads to satiety and even 

 repulsion. 



This ability to project ourselves, which 

 with respect to other creatures, leads to 

 that we call sjonpathy, is a most valuable 

 acquirement. It needs no argument to 

 prove that it tends to develop unselfishness, 

 humanitarianism, and iiltimately a love of 

 truth, right and justice, which is idealism. 

 The cultivation of esthetics, therefore, is 

 clearly not only one factor in the produc- 

 tion of idealism, but perhaps the most im- 

 portant factor of all. 



If one compare his impression with re- 

 gard to a beautiful object with that of 

 others he soon learns that the impression 

 of each person is different, depending on 

 previous experience, training and point of 

 view, and that perceptions of beauty are 

 always individualistic. The perceptions of 

 two individuals may approximate one 

 another if the basis of the one approximate 

 that of the other, but as each has his own 

 personality so each has his own percep- 

 tions of beauty. If one be honest with him- 

 self and others this tends to develop a re- 

 spect for others' opinions and his sense of 

 fellowship with the rest of mankind. 



To quote again from a text referred to 

 above :* 



It would be an error to suppose that esthetic 

 principles apply only to our judgments of works 

 of art or of those natural objects which we attend 

 to chiefly on account of their beauty. ... In the 



* Santayana, I. c, p. 110. 



leading political and moral idea of our time, in the 

 idea of democracy, I think there is a strong es- 

 thetic ingredient, and the power of the idea of 

 democracy over the imagination is an illustration 

 of the effect of multiplicity in uniformity. . . . 

 Of course, nothing could be more absurd than to 

 suggest that the French Revolution . . . had an 

 esthetic preference for its basis; it sprang, as we 

 know, from the hatred of oppression, the rivalry 

 of classes, and the aspiration after a freer social 

 and strictly moral organization. But when these 

 moral forces were suggesting and partly realizing 

 the democratic idea, this idea was necessarily 

 vividly present to men's thoughts; the picture of 

 human life which it presented was becoming fa- 

 miliar, and was being made the sanction and goal 

 of constant endeavor. . . . The consequence waa 

 that democracy, prized at first as a means to 

 happiness and as an instrument of good govern- 

 ment, was acquiring an intrinsic value; it was be- 

 ginning to seem good in itself, in fact the only 

 intrinsically right and perfect arrangement. A 

 utUitariau scheme was receiving an esthetic con- 

 secration. The practical value of the arrange- 

 ment on which, of course, it is entirely dependent 

 for its origin and authority, was forgotten, and 

 men were ready to sacrifice their welfare to their 

 sense of propriety; that is they allowed an es- 

 thetic good to outweigh a practical one. 



It was becoming an ideal. 



Esthetic love of uniformity, however, is usually 

 disguised under some moral label; we call it the 

 love of justice, perhaps because we have not con- 

 sidered that the value of justice also, in so far as it 

 is not derivative and utilitarian, must be intrinsic, 

 or what is practically the same thing, esthetic. 



The same author emphasizes the idea 

 that beauty is a species of value and the 

 philosophy of beauty a theory of values. 

 If this be true then another value of es- 

 thetic training is that it educates the 

 judgment. One is inevitably led to com- 

 pare beautiful objects one with another not 

 only to determine degrees of beauty, but 

 also to discover the new beautj^ which such 

 comparison may disclose. 



The pursuit of beautj-, furthermore, in- 

 volves continued attention ; a certain object 

 may attract us at first glance because it 

 exerts a powerful stimulus and commands 



