Now on this Antithesis of idea and law, that is of mind as an unproductive but self-knowing power, and of mind as a productive but unconscious power, the whole religion of pantheism as disclosed in the Mysteries turns, as on its axis, bi-polar. FRAGMENT OF AN ESSAY ON TASTE. The same arguments that decide the question, whether taste has any fixed principles, may probably lead to a determination of what those principles are. First then, what is taste in its metaphorical sense, or, which will be the easiest mode of arriving at the same solution, what is there in the primary sense of the word, which may give to its metaphorical meaning an import different from that of sight or hearing, on the one hand, and of touch or 352 Fragment of an Essay on Taste smell on the other? And this question seems the more natural, because in correct language we confine beauty, the main subject of taste, to objects of sight and combina- tions of sounds, and never, except sportively or by abuse 'of words, speak of a beautiful flavour, or a beautiful scent. Our eyes and ears — (I am not now considering what is or is not the case really, but only that of which we are regularly conscious as appearances,) our eyes most often appear to us perfect organs of the sentient principle, and wholly in action, and our hearing so much more so than the three other senses, and in all the ordinary exer- tions of that sense, perhaps, equally so with the sight, that all languages place them in one class, and express their different modifications by nearly the same metaphors. The three remaining senses appear in part passive, and combine with the perception of the outward object a distinct sense of our own life. Taste, therefore, as opposed to vision and sound, will teach us to expect in its meta- phorical use a certain reference of any given object to our own being, and not merely a distinct notion of the object as in itself, or in its independent properties. From the sense of touch, on the other hand, it is distinguishable by adding to this reference to our vital being some degree of enjoyment, or the contrary, — some perceptible impulse from pleasure or pain to complacency or dishke. Briefly, taste is a metaphor taken from one of our mixed senses, and applied to objects of the more purely organic senses, and of our moral sense, when we would imply the co-existence of immediate personal dislike or complacency. In this definition of taste, there- fore, is involved the definition of fine arts, namely, as being such the chief and discriminative purpose of which it is to gratify the taste, — that is, not merely to connect, but to combine and unite, a sense of immediate pleasure in ourselves, with the perception of external arrangement. If we should find ourselves compelled to deny this, and to admit that, notwithstanding the consciousness of our liability to error, and in spite of all those many individual experiences which may have strengthened the consciousness, each man does at the moment so far legislate for aU men, as to believe of necessity that he is either right or wrong, and that if it be right for him, it is universally right, — we must then proceed to ascertain : — secondly, whether the source of these phenomena is at all to be found in those parts of our nature, in which each intellect is representative of all, — and whether wholly, or partially. The only necessary, but this the absolutely necessary, pre-requisite to a full insight into the grounds of the beauty in the objects of sight, is — the directing of the attention to the action of those thoughts in our own mind which are not consciously distinguished. Every man may understand this, if he will but recall the state of his feelings in endeavouring to recollect a name, which he is quite sure that he remembers, though he cannot force it back into consciousness. This might be abundantly exemplified and illustrated from the paintings of Salvator Rosa. I am now using the term beauty in its most comprehen- sive sense, as including expression and artistic interest, — that is, I consider not only the living balance, but likewise all the accompaniments that even by disturbing are neces- sary to the renewal and continuance of the balance. As to lines, the rectilineal are in themselves the lifeless, the determined ab extra, but still in immediate union with the cycloidal. The curve line is a modification of the force from without Fragment of an Essay on Beauty 355 by the force from within, or the spontaneous. The better way of applying these principles will be by a brief and rapid sketch of the history of the fine arts, — in which it will be found, that the beautiful in nature has been appropriated to the works of man, just in proportion as the state of the mind in the artists themselves approached to the subjective beauty. Determine what predominance in the minds of the men is preventive of the living balance of excited faculties, and you will discover the exact counter- part in the outward products. Egypt is an illustration of this. The introduction of the arch is not less an epoch in the fine than in the useful arts. The form given in every empirical intuition, — the stuff, that is, the quality of the stuff, determines the agreeable : but when a thing excites us to receive it in such and such a mould, so that its exact correspondence to that mould is what occupies the mind, — this is taste or the sense of beauty. So it may be in music and painting, but not in poetry. Click here to order! Or visit our site >> brave new world huxley predictions More info about: prohibition essays thesis statement essays religion essays free psychology research papers behavior essays for students essay writing servi narrative essay sample world history research paper
