THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



note struck on the piano and he will be 

 able to observe the muscular tension which 

 immediately ensues. By following such 

 experiments only a little way one may 

 see that the sight of a sphere or of a lamp 

 or a picture immediately produces nerve 

 and muscle tensions, for the nerves some- 

 times make themselves felt more clearly 

 than the muscles. 



Now, certain of these tensions are 

 agreeable. Perhaps it would be more ac- 

 curate to say that certain degrees of tension 

 are agreeable. Indeed, it is one of the 

 commonest theories of physical pleasure 

 and pain that the former arises from a de- 

 gree of nerve excitation which, if carried 

 beyond certain limits, produces the latter. 



For the far greatest part, however, our 

 physical and mental experiences consist 

 not in the reception of single isolated im- 

 pressions, as the hearing of one simple 

 note or the seeing of one straight line, but 

 in the reception of very complicated groups 

 and series of impressions. We see a picture 

 all at once with thousands of lines, with 

 various forms and masses, with lights and 

 shadows and, perhaps, with many different 

 colors. These hundreds, or even thousands, 



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