gether fit term: we call it the sense of Beauty, or the sense of the beautiful and the sublime. 768. Among all the sounds that fall upon the ear, it is, as we have said, one class only that is organically pleasurable, namely, musical sounds; but among the infinitely various impressions that fall upon the visual organ there are impressions of several distinct classes that are in themselves pleasurable. This at least must be affirmed, that these impressions differ so widely in kind that it is better to consider them apart than as modes only of one species. 769. Yet it is true that, in the intensely pleasurable consciousness of Beauty as it is spread upon the surface of the material world, there is ordinarily little thought of its several constituents. In this luxury of the sense and of the soul there is an emotion, the tendency of which is to blend and to commingle rather than to distinguish and to separate the elements of enjoyment. It is when the Beauty of the visible world comes to be regarded as an object of Art, and when it is to be reproduced or imitated, that we are led-necessarily so-to make distinctions, and to give separate and careful attention to each ingredient in the composite enjoyment. Some such analytic process is needed also when, as now, we intend to consider the subject before us in relation to its elements in a scientific sense. But for a moment we may look at it apart from analysis, and without any discriminative carefulness. 770. The Beauty of the visible world and its sublimity for we must not now divide elements that are more often commingled than disjoined this Beauty is such that, if a man be exempt from the pressure of common wants, and if he be free to surrender himself to the life of intelligence, and also if he be of that temperament which relates him to such objects, then, and with these conditions supposed, the decorated aspect of the world quite fills the faculties which it stimulates: it is enough of enjoyment; more than this is not thought of or cared for. No other occupation than that of contemplating it is desired; no sense of satiety or weariness is engendered in this continuous contemplation. 771. It need scarcely be said that, in thus speaking, we put out of view, for the moment, that from which no human being may, in fact, insulate himself, namely, the requirements of his moral and spiritual nature. No man is free to hold himself clear of social and religious obligations. These duly allowed for and supposed, then it may be affirmed that the visible world and the human soul, with its circle of Emotions and of Tastes, are complements the one of the other. Throughout a large extent of its circle of faculties, the human soul has no vitality: it is not, or it is latent, until it receives its spring from its apprehension of the beauty which surrounds it in the visible world. 772. Thus it is, then, that, if the Reason be paramount in the individual temperament (419, et seq.), then the man finds his sphere in making himself conversant with the structure and functions of the material system; the world, when thus regarded, is the complement of the Human Reason. But if it be the Emotional nature and the Tastes that are paramount, then it is the Exterior of this same world that en gages the faculties and that supplies them with their aliment. 773. We have to seek for the rudiments of that composite pleasure which we derive from the spectacle of the world, regarded in its visible properties. 774. I suppose myself to be in an apartment or hall illuminated by a diffused light. Before me there is a slab of white marble. Unless the sight be weak and diseased, it is always true that "it is a pleasant thing for the eye to behold the light;" yet this is a pleasure of an undefined sort. But now upon the marble slab let there be thrown, by a prism, or by a sunbeam passing through colored glass, one of the three constituents of the solar light-the Yellow, or the Red, or the Blue. Let this two-inch square of color have an unsullied prismatic purity, and all the brilliance that can be given it, so as not to oppress the sight. This colored surface not merely attracts the eye, as might happen from the appearance of a dingy spot or stain upon the marble, nor as might happen from the falling of a beam of direct light on the same area. I gaze at this pure resplendent yellow, or red, or blue with a vivid pleasure. Unless there be an excess of radiation from the colored surface, the eye feeds upon the brilliant color-feasts upon it. We say the eye; but rather let us say the MIND, alive toward color, not merely notes it as distinguishable from whiteness, but imbibes it with a satisfaction, as if it were the aliment of an appetite. This yellow, or red, or blue-pure, spotless, and resplendent—if it were then seen for the first time, would kindle a faculty; it would impart a new element of enjoyment to conscious ness. 775. But now upon this same slab there is next thrown the three primary colors, each mingling with its neighbor, as seen in the prismatic spectrum. A new gratification, in this case, presents itself; for it is not merely three organic satisfactions for one, but these patches of color-the primaries, and their mixtures— the orange, the violet, the purple, the green-have a fixed relation each to the others, which the organ recognizes as true and as grateful, because it is a fixed relation. Take each of the secondary colors apart, and it exerts its own power over the sensuous faculty; but taking these secondary colors in groups with certain contrasts obtained by aid of the primary colors, and then new gratifications of an organic kind are the result. 776. Close by the side of the prismatic spectrum, within which the colors are so commingled as to preserve the purity of each, and a certain relationship among them, place a sheet of paper upon which stains, or any non-related mixtures of the same elements are spread out. Then appeal to any healthy eye to make its choice between the one surface and the other. Which of the two is it that the sight rests upon with satisfaction? Or let the adjudicator be an infant whose perceptions are unsophisticated. On this ground an analogy presents itself between sounds and colors which should be adverted to in passing, although we should not too far insist upon it: it is a suggestive analogy, not a scientific generalization. 777. Among the infinite diversities of sounds, it is vibratory or musical sounds only that are organically pleasurable, and these, if they be synchronous or close ly consecutive, must be inter-related in a certain perfectly exact manner, sound to sound, otherwise they give pain, not pleasure. Now as to colors, it is not the promiscuous or the accidental commingling of them, such as is presented on the dull surfaces of modern buildings, roadways, or overcast skies, that awakens and engages the visual sense; the elements of light must be presented in their purity, and they must be inter-related in a specific manner. Pure colors, commingled in certain proportions, and placed in a certain juxtaposition, are gazed upon with a vivid organic gratification. Musical (vibratory) sounds in their purity, and if related to each other in fixed proportions, are listened to with intense organic pleasure. In these facts there is, to say the least, the indication of an inner truth, resolvable probably into the mathematical conditions of Mind. But the pursuit of so recondite a subject would not consist with our present purpose. 778. The pure elementary colors, and also the secondary commixtures of them, are presented in many of the surfaces of the material system, organized and unorganized, and the eye (the eye that is gifted for color) recognizes them with pleasure; as, for example, in the cloudless vault of heaven, in the splendors of sunrise and sunset, in the precious stones-the amethyst, the emerald, the ruby, the sapphire, the topaz; in the vestiture of some animals, especially of birds and insects, and in shells; and not least, in the delicious gayeties of the flower-garden. 779. But besides these primary and these secondary colors, a large proportion of the surfaces that meet the eye in nature, and upon which the artistic eye rests |