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Untitled Article
td hav £ mgUtted to display the peculiarities of the cases ; tbHif'ttStdtints of them do hbt satisfy my mind , inasmuch as tftiy db ndt separate them from other cases of association . * The pleksttrfes exfcited by the sight of one ' s grandfather ; of the po&tman with a lettel * for us , or of a soup tureen , doubtless sire the results of the association of ideas ; and therefore , adopting Mr Alison ' s definition in all strictness , these persons and things
odght also to be either beautiful or at least pretty , instead of which they may all be very incontestibly ill-favoured . Mr Mill , a name which no student of this , or of many other subjects , can mention without a tribute of respect , however humble the homage , though he has not completed the analysis of bfeauty in this respect , has at least done the next best thing , by recognizing the deficiency and recommending it to attention . The following is the passage : —
" That there should be a remarkable difference between a train composed of the indifferent class , and a train composed of ideas of the pleasurable class , can easily be supposed . It is necessary further to observe * that between two trains , both of the pleasurable class , there are sttiSh important differences as to have suggested the use of marking them by different names . Thus , even in the class which we have been now considering ,, one train is composed of pleasurable ideas of such a kind that we call it sublime ; another of pleasurable ideas of such a kind that we call it beautiful . From the train of ideas associated with the form of the
statue called the Venus de Medicis , we call it beautiful . We have a train of ideas also pleasurable , associated with the bust of Socrates . But this is a train riot reckoned to belong to the class either of the beautiful or the siibllfcfae ; it is a train including all the grand associations connected with the ideas of intellectual and moral worth . " A particular description of the sort of ideas which constitute each of the more remarkable cases of our pleasurable trains ( that they are of
one kind in one train—of one kind , for example , in the trains called sublimity ; another in the trains called beauty ; another in the trains for which we have no better name than moral approbation—no one can doubt ) would be highly necessary in a detailed account of human nature . It Is noi necessary for the analysis which is the object of this work , and woulcl ehffaffe us in too tedious an exposition . "—Mill ' s Analysis * m . si .
For the case of the bust of Socrates , the pleasure we expefieiibe on seeing it , is met by associations of ugliness—that is , lt > y unpleasant associations—rthe contrast of which prevents the suggestion of the pleasures with that degree of immediate connection with the bust , which could alone warrant our calling it the object of those pleasures . The pleasure , arises not sip much from tliei bust , as from the ideas of the life of Socrates ,
u * lh Braking df ' beauty ' it has beert argued by Mi Hazlitt , that it sbmfeUmte * ei ^ sjn ^ ereinljrjq jjhe , objectj independent of association p f ideas ; , and thft * « ;| j custom is 4 second nature , there is another nature which ranks before it . " Of ^ his position he gives many striking illustrations in the Bound Table / yot ii . 1817 .
Untitled Article
34 Is there a Standard of Taste 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1837, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1827/page/36/
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