The Scottish Philosophy [176]
Essays," Stewart has many fine observations on taste and beauty. On this subject he was favorably disposed towards the theory of his friend Mr. Alison, and he ascribes more than he should have done to the association of ideas. But he never gave his adhesion to this hypothesis as a full explanation of the phenomena. " If there was nothing," he says, " originally and intrinsically pleasing or beautiful, the associating principle would have no materials on which it could operate." The theory of association was never favorably received by artists, and has been abandoned by all metaphysicians. The tendency now is to return to the deeper views which had been expounded long ago by Plato, and, I may add, by Augustine. I find that Stewart refers to the doctrine of Augustine, who " represents beauty as consisting in that relation of the parts of a whole to each other which constitutes its unity;" and all that he has to say of it is: "The theory certainly is not of great value, but the attempt is curious." The aesthetical writers of our age would be inclined to say of it that there is more truth in it than in all the speculations of Alison, Stewart, Jeffrey, and Brown. It may be safely said that, while earnest inquirers have had pleasant glimpses of beauty, to no one has she revealed her full charms. When such writers as Cousin, Ruskin, and Macvicar dwell so much on unity, harmony, proportion, I am tempted to ask them: Does then the feeling of beauty not arise till we have discovered such qualities as proportion, unity, and harmony? And if they answer in the affirmative, then I venture to show them that they are themselves holding a sort of association theory; for they affirm that the beautiful object does not excite emotion till, as a sign, it calls forth certain ideas, -- I suspect of truth and goodness. I am not quite sure that we can go the length of this school, when they speak of beauty as a quality necessary, immutable, eternal, like {297} truth and moral good, and connect it so essentially with the very nature of God. There are sounds and colors and proportions felt to be beautiful by us, but which may not be appreciated by other intelligences, and which are so relished by us, simply because of the peculiarities of our human organization and constitution. I acknowledge that, when we follow these colors and sounds and proportions sufficiently far, we come in variably to mathematical ratios and relations; but we are now, be it observed, in the region of immutable truth. Other kinds of beauty, arising from the contemplation of happiness and feeling, land us in the moral good, which is also necessary and eternal. I have sometimes thought that beauty is a gorgeous robe spread over certain portions of the true and the good, to recommend them to our regards and cluster our affections round them. Our aesthetic emotions being thus roused, the association of ideas comes in merely as a secondary agent to prolong and intensify the feeling.
The two volumes on the "Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers " were published by Stewart immediately before his death. The leading ideas unfolded in them had been given, in an epitomized form, in the "Outlines," published many years before. They are somewhat too bulky for all the matter they contain, and they want somewhat of the freshness of his earlier works; but they are characterized by profound wisdom, by a high moral tone, by a stately eloquence, and the felicitous application of general principles to the elucidation of practical points. He begins with the instinctive principles of action, which he classifies as appetites, desires, and affections. The arrangement is good in some respects, but is by no means exhaustive. As the next step in advance in this department of mental science, an attempt must be made to give a classification of man's motive principles, or of the ends by which man may be swayed in desire and action. Among these will fall to be placed, first of all pleasure and pain; that is, man has a natural disposition to take to pleasure and avoid pain. But this is far from
The two volumes on the "Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers " were published by Stewart immediately before his death. The leading ideas unfolded in them had been given, in an epitomized form, in the "Outlines," published many years before. They are somewhat too bulky for all the matter they contain, and they want somewhat of the freshness of his earlier works; but they are characterized by profound wisdom, by a high moral tone, by a stately eloquence, and the felicitous application of general principles to the elucidation of practical points. He begins with the instinctive principles of action, which he classifies as appetites, desires, and affections. The arrangement is good in some respects, but is by no means exhaustive. As the next step in advance in this department of mental science, an attempt must be made to give a classification of man's motive principles, or of the ends by which man may be swayed in desire and action. Among these will fall to be placed, first of all pleasure and pain; that is, man has a natural disposition to take to pleasure and avoid pain. But this is far from