621st OEDINARY GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL 

 WESTMINSTER, S.W., ON MONDAY, MAY 31st, 1920, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



Alfred T. Schofield, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



The Chairman called on Lieut-Col. Mackinlay, acting for Mr. W. Hoste 

 (absent in Dublin) to read the Minutes of the previous meeting ; they were 

 read, confirmed and signed. 



The following elections were announced : — Miss E. L. Curteis and Miss 

 Florence E. King as Associates, and the Right Rev. Dr. M. S. O'Rorke, 

 Bishop of Accra, as Foreign Corresponding Member. 



The Chairman then introduced the Rev. S. A. McDowall, B.D., and called 

 upon him to read his paper on " The Meaning of the JEsthetic Impulse." 



THE MEANING OF THE MSTHETIC IMPULSE. By the 

 Rev. Stewart A. McDowall, M.A., B.D. 



I BELIEVE that I am guilty of no exaggeration in saying 

 that we owe to the genius of Benedetto Croce the first 

 really competent theory of ^Esthetic and of the nature 

 and place of the Beautiful. No doubt there are still difficulties 

 which he has not fully elucidated ; no doubt there are many 

 points in his whole philosophical system that are open to objection. 

 Among these I should give the first place to his rejection of 

 the idea of God as generally conceived in religious philosophy. 

 Nevertheless, he has advanced the cause of thought in a degree 

 given to few philosophers in the whole history of speculation ; 

 and, most important of all for our present purpose, we find 

 for the first time in his system a place accorded to Beauty that is 

 consonant with her actual importance in the life of every man 

 and woman. Moreover, his theory of ^Esthetic is destined, I 

 am convinced, to play no unimportant part in the reconstruction 

 of the philosophy of Christianity which is already well under 

 way. My purpose this evening is to try to indicate one or two 

 of the ways in which it may influence this reconstruction, and to 

 oSer a few suggestions of a practical nature which seem to arise 

 out of the ideas which I shall try to put forward. 



As what I want to say to you will be based on Croce's theory. 



