tions, while out of this darkness spring the pointed bristles with the acutest of all vibrations. Hence we have in this object a series of vibrations of the most abrupt and irregular description, some being very strong and others in their immediate vicinity being very weak and almost unfelt— i.e., relatively unfelt, for black is darkness, and nothing can be seen except as distinguished from darkness. These vibrations, and the laws under which they act, may be illustrated by pins or needles. If I take one pin and tap it on the point with my finger, I shall receive a painful sensation; if I take two pins, the sensation will still be unpleasant but less painful; but if I take half-a-dozen pins or more, with the points evenly arranged and close together, I may tap them hard and press them forcibly and receive still less pain. Bristling objects are like single pins, in their manner of sending forth vibrations; and even surfaces are like the pins with their points pressed close together. Smoothness and roughness are thus merely modifications of shape-shape of the parts as distinguished from the whole.

From these circumstances it necessarily comes that the spherical is of all shapes the most grateful to look upon, the angular less șo, and the spiculated least so of all. Between these degrees innumerable grades and endless combinations intervene, of cylindrical, undulating, slanting, flat, curved, &c. Many experiments might be tried to prove that shape is a sensation, and that some shapes are organically more pleasant than others. Look steadily for about" a minute at a heap of sharp stones or broken bottles, or a bush of thorns or rotten branches, or on a brush or a mat, and then upon a sheet of smooth water, a pane of plateglass, a polished table, or a smooth wall, and the difference will be sensibly felt; passing from the sharp and rugged to the smooth and even surface you will experience a manifest relief. On the latter objects we love to let our eyes wander and linger, while on the former we require an effort to fix them with a steady gaze. Many

persons doubtless have observed how much more unpleasant it is to look at a pen when the point is turned towards the eye than when it is held parallel to the face and the cylindrical quill or barrel presented to the view, and this unpleasantness is by no means accounted for merely by the associations which cluster round a dangerous instrument in a menacing position. The emotion of apprehension is doubtless present and has its effect, but there is also a veritable sensation originating in the retina and conveyed by the optic nerve to the brain. This sensation is greatly dulled after years of repetition, and by the time we come to look for it it is not to be discriminated from the emotion which accompanies it, except after patient attention to delicate experiments. It was not always so, however; and it is reasonable to conclude that with children of tender years the phenomenon might easily be established. What happens in the case of adults who, having been born blind, are by a successful surgical operation made to see, or even who, after years of blindness, recover their sight, fully bears out these observations. To such persons sharp, pointed, angular objects are positively painful to look on, while flat, smooth, spherical ones are pleasant to gaze at. This is manifest from many tests and cases, and especially from the celebrated case of couching performed by Cheselden, which is quoted by so many philosophers. That eminent surgeon thus records the event himself:-" When he " (the patient)" first saw, he was so far from making any judgment about distance that he thought all objects whatever touched his eyes (as he expressed it) as what he felt did his skin, and thought no objects so agreeable as those which were smooth and regular, though he could form no judgment of their shape, or guess what it was in any object that was pleasing to him."1

To us whose eyes have been in constant use since infancy such tangible and decisive results are impractic1 Quoted by Sir William Hamilton, "Lectures," vol. ii. pp. 177, 178.

able. To us the sensitiveness of first impressions is forgotten and now unknown, and we must proceed by delicacy and patience if we would realise the true facts of the process. I am also disposed to believe that hard substances-flint, steel, stone, glass, &c.-send out stronger vibrations than soft substances-oil, butter, plants, wool, &c. but this is a physical question which remains to be experimentally resolved.

Not only the eyes, however, but also the ears are subject to pleasant and painful sensations, from objects at a distance; and here again it is only under abnormal circumstances that we can experience decisive results. Those who live in cities and towns are accustomed to all sorts of noises at every hour of the day, and though their organism is sufficiently sensitive to such sounds to hear them distinctly, it is sufficiently deadened to hear them with indifference. With country people, accustomed to the dead unruffled quietude of fields, and hills, and plains, it is very different, and on coming up to town such people are often bewildered, upset, and rendered sleepless by the never-ceasing din of business. Far worse is it for those whose ears having been stopped up for a lengthened time have their hearing suddenly restored to them. Surgeons know full well how to such persons the most ordinary sounds are positively excruciating, and that the noise of a cart in the street, of a dog barking, of a door shutting, of hammering or knocking, or even of a voice talking loudly, is such torture that the hearer is fain to have his ears stopped up again temporarily at least. We unconsciously carry about with us the accumulated results of our past lives, and in order to arrive at the truth we must divest ourselves of this accumulation and begin again—hoc opus, hic labor. The action of light renders the optic nerve less sensitive to light, the action of shape renders it less sensitive to shape, and the action of sound renders the auditory nerve less sensitive to sound; we must therefore endeavour to recover that lost sensitiveness before we

can appreciate the phenomena aright. We are, however, constantly drawing unwittingly upon the fact that certain shapes are sensibly pleasant, for where utility is not interfered with we choose smoothness and roundness before other shapes. Smokers do not care to smoke in the dark; why? partly because they do not see the round wreaths of curling smoke as they ascend in soft and gentle volumes to the ceiling. Shape, therefore, per se, is no more a thing of beauty than colour per se.

But lastly, motion is also a sensation, and when we have realised this great fact, together with the two previous ones regarding colour and shape, we are in a position to inquire into the nature of beauty, but not till then. The same reasoning that applied to colour and shape, applies to motion. By the fundamental law of metaphysics we are incapable of knowing intuitively any object, or any quality of an object, external to us. What we know intuitively is a modification of our own minds; what we believe of necessity is an unknown cause of that modification. Now, motion, in every form in which we are acquainted with it, is a modification of our own organism, and finally a feeling in the mind. That the motion of a bird flying through the air is a mere sensation in us, it may indeed be difficult for many persons to believe; but it is first absolutely necessary to remember, what is incontrovertible, that the bird itself, its size, colour, shape, are mere sensations of the mind, caused by something, we know not what, and we know not how. How then can motion be more real or independent than that which causes it? To be assured of the subjectivity of motion. you need only stand on the bank of a stream and gaze steadily for a while on the water flowing by; having done so, look as steadily on the bank at your feet, and you will see a stream of sand or grass, or whatever the bank consists of, flowing in the opposite direction; and what will appear most peculiar, the bank, though it seems to flow on, never seems to flow away from the spot at which

you are looking, nor to leave any gap behind. From this it will be understood, that motion is just as much a species of vibration set up in the retina, as are shape and colour. But why, after looking at the motion of the stream, should a motion in an opposite direction be set up in the bank? For precisely the same reason as the eye after contemplating a particular colour is rendered more sensitive to the complementary of that colour. After looking steadily at red for instance, the retina becomes more sensitive to greenish-blue, the complementary of red; after looking at violet, it becomes more sensitive to greenish-yellow, the complementary of violet; and so on; and whenever the complementary colour is to be had, the eye will pick it out in preference to any other. White, for example, contains all colours; if therefore you look steadily at a red wafer, or a bit of sealing-wax, or at the petal of a red flower, and then on a sheet of white paper, a portion of the retina being now sensitive to greenishblue will pick that colour out of the white, and you shall see on the paper a patch of greenish-blue, of the same figure as the red object. We are capable of a variety of very singular experiments of this kind with regard to light and colour. Similarly, motion in one direction being set up in the retina, the nerves become more sensitive to motion in the contrary direction-i.e., to the complementary motion-and after looking steadily at the running stream, the eye calls up an opposite motion in the still bank.

Thus much being premised, little remains to be said concerning motion or its value in æsthetic experiences, since very much the same remarks apply to it as have been predicated of shape. Motion must describe a certain figure, and as figure is shape of two dimensions, it follows that the same rules which govern pleasant and unpleasant shapes will apply to pleasant and unpleasant movements, for the vibrations must correspond with the figure whether the figure be caused by an object or by its motion. Circular, serpentine, undulating, uniform movements will there