DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68796#0210
190 The Work of Art as Beautiful part n
forms, some of which are recognised as beautiful at the first
glance, while others fail to give us any satisfaction. The
differing aesthetic impressions have a physiological basis.
We cannot experience the sensations of light or of colour
without certain changes in the delicate visual organs con-
nected with the so-called optic-nerve. Muscular movements
in the eye and of the eye also accompany every act of
vision, especially every apprehension of form. The act of
vision is thus described by a recent writer:—■
‘ In the process of seeing, the eye in continual movement
passes over the whole object fixing it at every point, either
following its contours or attracted by the varying impressions
of light, which, vaguely apparent in different parts, are suffi-
cient to attract the attention to themselves. At no point
does the glance dwell, but it returns rapidly to every point
passed, so that gradually there are formed more or less
lively reminiscences of each part, out of which the resulting
complete impression is put together. The facility of the
eye in accomplishing these journeys is so great that the
details of the process quite escape our consciousness.’1
Now it is held by some authorities that aesthetic pleasure
and pain depend on the way in which these changes and move-
ments are made, and the matter, according to Mr. Herbert
Spencer, stands somewhat as follows. We have to take as
our starting-point the familiar sense of gratification we ex-
perience when we exercise to the full, but without straining
it, any of our bodily powers. We have already seen (§ 6)
how natural it is for the human organism to expend its
superfluous energies upon different forms of ‘ play,’ and this
is only the case because the exercise is in itself a pleasure.
It is a delight for the body to move in the rhythmical
rise and fall of the dance, for the wrist of the fencer to
1 Guido Hauck, die Subjective Perspective, etc., Stuttgart, 1879,
p. 7.
forms, some of which are recognised as beautiful at the first
glance, while others fail to give us any satisfaction. The
differing aesthetic impressions have a physiological basis.
We cannot experience the sensations of light or of colour
without certain changes in the delicate visual organs con-
nected with the so-called optic-nerve. Muscular movements
in the eye and of the eye also accompany every act of
vision, especially every apprehension of form. The act of
vision is thus described by a recent writer:—■
‘ In the process of seeing, the eye in continual movement
passes over the whole object fixing it at every point, either
following its contours or attracted by the varying impressions
of light, which, vaguely apparent in different parts, are suffi-
cient to attract the attention to themselves. At no point
does the glance dwell, but it returns rapidly to every point
passed, so that gradually there are formed more or less
lively reminiscences of each part, out of which the resulting
complete impression is put together. The facility of the
eye in accomplishing these journeys is so great that the
details of the process quite escape our consciousness.’1
Now it is held by some authorities that aesthetic pleasure
and pain depend on the way in which these changes and move-
ments are made, and the matter, according to Mr. Herbert
Spencer, stands somewhat as follows. We have to take as
our starting-point the familiar sense of gratification we ex-
perience when we exercise to the full, but without straining
it, any of our bodily powers. We have already seen (§ 6)
how natural it is for the human organism to expend its
superfluous energies upon different forms of ‘ play,’ and this
is only the case because the exercise is in itself a pleasure.
It is a delight for the body to move in the rhythmical
rise and fall of the dance, for the wrist of the fencer to
1 Guido Hauck, die Subjective Perspective, etc., Stuttgart, 1879,
p. 7.