The Sense of the Beautiful in Brutes [pp. 126-142]

TIlE SENSE OF THE
prevails, and in his honesty he quotes testimony of it which
shakes his theory. Such is that of Mr. Winwoodl Re-, wh()
has observed not only the negroes of the western shore of
Africa, but those of the interior. Mr. Winwood is convinced
that the ideas of beauty of these savages are in fact the srame as
ours, and that, alihough these people have never had initercourse
with Europoans, the young girls and the women whom tlhey esteem beantiful, would alseo be considered so in Par;ui, in London,
in Berlin. Will people believe it? After this honcst citatioj,Mr. Darwin remains at peace, and holds fast to hi own opi,nion.
His doctrine ha.s the nmisfortune of unceasin[ly contradicting
:tseIf, and of furnishing at every moment arms cg0unst itself. i
the animal has no general idea of beaty, resembling in this re
spect its descendant man, if, moreover, its supposed admiration
is powerless to reach beyondl what is particular and ltdi-vidual,
it is more than probable that it is absolutely wanting in any general idea. Is this poilnt adrmitted? Then, the animal will have
no idea of beauty. Why? Because ever since persons hlave
written on sestheties, although differing in many details, they
have always agreed that a general element underlies all idea of
beauty. From Plato, Aristotle, Plotiinus and St. Augustine down
to Kant, He,gel, Cousin, and( even the author of the more recent
work on the beautiful, MI. Gauekler, there is nott a single theorist who has not reckoned among the characteristics of beaut>y
order, harmony, law. Now are there any more general ideas
than tho.se of law, harmony, order? Mr. Darwin seems to thiink
that brightness of colors alone, or the simple power of sonlorou:
notes, can constitute to a certain degree the visible beautiful or
the musical beautiful. This is a grave error. The learned(
works of IM. Fechbier, Chevreul, Jamin, on light, those of Mr
H. Helmhioltz on acoustics, have cldemonstrated'that wheat charms
us msthetically is not the intensity of sonorous vibrat.ions, b,.i/
the relatio,ns according, to which tlhey succeed and produce oie
another simnultaneously; as to colors, they engender the pleasure
of the beautiful by the correspoitndence of shade,s mnucl morse
than by the piercing vivacity of hues. And what is a relation,
if not a bond which unites and sy stematizes particular thing,s in
such a way as to form from them complex unities, that is to say
general objects? As soon as an object excites our admiratLion,
how little soever it may be, it is because the elements, the parts.
138
LJan uary,