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PREFACE THE human being who thrills to the experience of beauty in
nature and in art does not forever rest with that experience
unquestioned. The day comes when he yearns to pierce the secret of
his emotion, to discover what it is, and why, that has so stung
him-to defend and to justify his transport to himself and to
others. He seeks a reason for the faith that is in him. And so have
arisen the speculative theories of the nature of beauty, on the one
hand, and the studies of concrete beauty and our feelings about it,
on the other. Speculative theory has taken its own way, however, as
a part of philosophy, in relating the Beautiful to the other great
concepts of the True and the Good; building up an architectonic of
abstract ideas, far from the immediate facts and problems of the
enjoyment of beauty. There has grown up, on the other hand, in the
last years, a great literature of special studies in the facts of
aesthetic production and enjoyment. Experiments with the aesthetic
elements; investigations into the physiological psychology of
aesthetic reactions; studies in the genesis and development of art
forms, have multiplied apace. But these are still mere groups of
facts for psychology; they have not been taken up into a single
authoritative principle. Psychology cannot do justice to the
imperative of beauty, by virtue of which, when we say "this is
beautiful," we have a right to imply that the universe must agree
with us. A synthesis of these tendencies in the study of beauty is
needed, in which the results of modern psychology shall help to
make intelligible a philosophical theory of beauty. The chief
purpose of this book is to seek to effect such a union. A way of
defining Beauty which grounds it in general principles, while
allowing it to reach the concrete case, is set forth in the essay
on the Nature of Beauty. The following chapters aim to expand, to
test, and to confirm this central theory, by showing, partly by the
aid of the aforesaid special studies, how it accounts for our
pleasure in pictures, music, and literature. The whole field of
beauty is thus brought under discussion; and therefore, though it
nowhere seeks to be exhaustive in treatment, the book may fairly
claim to be a more or less consistent and complete aesthetic
theory, and hence to address itself to the student of aesthetics as
well as to the general reader. The chapter on the Nature of Beauty,
indeed, will doubtless be found by the latter somewhat technical,
and should be omitted by all who definitely object to professional
phraseology. The general conclusions of the book are sufficiently
stated in the less abstract papers. Of the essays which compose the
following volume, the first, third, and last are reprinted, in more
or less revised form, from the "Atlantic Monthly" and the
"International Monthly." Although written as independent papers, it
is thought that they do not unduly repeat each other, but that they
serve to verify, in each of the several realms of beauty, the truth
of the central theory of the book. The various influences which
have served to shape a work of this kind become evident in the
reading; but I cannot refrain from a word of thanks to the teachers
whose inspiration and encouragement first made it possible. I owe
much gratitude to Professor Mary A. Jordan and Professor H. Norman
Gardiner of Smith College, who in literature and in philosophy
first set me in the way of aesthetic interest and inquiry, and to
Professor Hugo Munsterberg of Harvard University, whose
philosophical theories and scientific guidance have largely
influenced my thought. WELLESLEY COLLEGE, April 24, 1905.. CONTENTS
PAGE I.CRITICISM AND AESTHETICS II.THE NATURE OF BEAUTY III.THE
AESTHETIC REPOSE IV. THE BEAUTY OF FINE ART A.THE BEAUTY OF VISUAL
FORM B.SPACE COMPOSITION AMONG THE OLD MASTERS V. THE BEAUTY OF
MUSIC VI. THE BEAUTY OF LITERATURE VII. THE NATURE OF THE EMOTIONS
OF THE DRAMA VIII. THE BEAUTY OF IDEAS
The loss of personality! In that dread thought there lies, to most
of us, all the sting of death and the victory of the grave. It
seems, with such a fate in store, that immortality were futile, and
life itself a mockery. Yet the idea, when dwelt upon, assumes an
aspect of strange familiarity; it is an old friend, after all. Can
we deny that all our sweetest hours are those of
self-forgetfulness?
The loss of personality! In that dread thought there lies, to most
of us, all the sting of death and the victory of the grave. It
seems, with such a fate in store, that immortality were futile, and
life itself a mockery. Yet the idea, when dwelt upon, assumes an
aspect of strange familiarity; it is an old friend, after all. Can
we deny that all our sweetest hours are those of
self-forgetfulness?
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