PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED 



is, or wherein we have seen a union of the 

 real and the ideal. 



The most recent and most successful 

 attempt to bring our knowledge of beauty 

 down to more fundamental grounds has 

 been made in the field of psychology, which 

 is quite certainly the only field in which this 

 investigation can be hopefully cultivated. 

 The most satisfactory statement of the 

 whole matter that I have seen is that given 

 in Miss Puffer's "Psychology of Beauty," 

 and the following very brief statement of 

 the matter is made with her work in my 

 mind's foreground. 



Let us notice, then, that, according 

 to this psychological theory, all impressions 

 of the world without are experienced in the 

 body in the form of nerve or muscle ten- 

 sions. Probably there is in every case a 

 very close and precise co-ordination of 

 muscle tension with nerve tension, though 

 it is very difficult in common experience to 

 separate them. In fact, the muscular ten- 

 sions are consciously felt only in com- 

 paratively infrequent instances, yet often 

 enough to make this perfectly familiar 

 experience to all of us. Let one receive a 

 whiff of mignonette or hear a single clear 



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