g6 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



But to teach virtue by taste in the fine arts is a desire 

 never yet satisfied, so far as we can find, although the 

 opposite result has often been attained, viz. the destruction 

 of the character by a weakening refinement and a love of 

 that which is merely beautiful externally, agreeable, and 

 within reach. The reason is probably not far to seek ; we 

 do not know what intellectual action is, and we can only 

 guess at some vague idea regarding some of its laws. It 

 may be that they are geometrical to a great extent, a 

 strange mystic geometry played out by the mysterious 

 atoms which constitute those organs that produce con- 

 sciousness, a chemistry of the brain. The emotions of the 

 higher kind, however, are far more obscure, and come from 

 a more mysterious region of the soul, but the perception of 

 beauty in music and in painting is more allied to mere 

 external movement ; the musical instrument sounds the 

 chords of the brain — we may refer to Helmholtz's 

 ' Tonempfindungen ' for this — and a pleasure is felt which 

 may be entirely unconnected with intellectual life, and 

 enjoyed by persons whose characters have only this one 

 touch of elevation, if it is elevation, in them. Indeed, we 

 know that music is enjoyed by many of the lower animals, 

 and paintings by many of the lowest men. 



Still there is a taste for the fine arts which refines some 

 of the lower habits, but the beauty cannot be observed by 

 all men ; whilst a taste which refines the higher does exist, 

 that is, when it comes in connection with the higher gifts of 

 the mind. This does not come either from the painter or the 

 sculptor. We do not find their arts well fitted to develop 

 minds. This explains why no amount of opportunity of 

 seeing beautiful pictures and statues raised the popula- 

 tion of Italy, or made it less of a land of robbery and 



