An essay on taste by Alexander Gerard

Author:Alexander Gerard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J. Bell, and W. Creech

,would be foreign to our subject. We shall mention but one law of sensation, which has"

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gate these causes, and to explain the phenomena from them. On inquiry, it appears, that the internal fenses are not ultimate principles, because all their phenomena can be accounted for, by simpler qualities of the mind. Thus the pleasure we receive from beautiful forms is resolveable into the pleasure of facility, that of moderate exertion, and that which results from the discovery of art and wisdom in the cause. But, notwithstanding this investigation of the causes of our reflex sensations, we may continue to term them senses, since it does not contradict any of the phænomena, on account of which this name was originally bestowed upon them. Beautiful forms have uniformity, variety, and proportion; but the pleasure they give us, is an immediate sensation, prior to our analysing them, or discovering by reason that they have these qualities. 'We find, on examination, that uniformity and proportion are agreeable, as they enable us to conceive the object with facility; and var riety, as it hinders this facility from degenerating into langour; and that all of them are agreeable, as being indications of art and skill; and thence we conclude, that the pleasant sentiment of beauty is the result of those > simple principles which dispose us to relish moderate faci-1 lity, and moderate difficulty, and to approve intelligence i and design; but the sentiment of beauty arises, without,4 our reflecting on this mixture. This sentiment is compound in its principles, but perfectly simple in its feel- I ing. If this should seem to imply a contradiction, let it be remembered, that two liquors of different flavours may, by their mixture, produce a third flavour, which shall excite in the palate a sensation as simple as that

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