Autobiography and Selected EssaysHuxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Autobiography and Selected Essays
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in this
world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; and
it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us may be
regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. It may
be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, before they
have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty
about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think it may be
said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their whole souls
are absorbed in tracing the connection between the premisses and the
conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure science. So I think it
may be said that mechanics and osteology are pure science. On the other
hand, melody in music is pure art. You cannot reason about it; there
is no proposition involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an
arabesque, or a "harmony in grey,"[80] touches none but the aesthetic
faculty. But a great mathematician, and even many persons who are not
great mathematicians, will tell you that they derive immense pleasure
from geometrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathematicians speak of
solutions and problems as "elegant," and they tell you that a certain
mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not
see it. They do see it, because the intellectual process, the process of
comprehending the reasons symbolised by these figures and these signs,
confers upon them a sort of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual
symmetry. Take a science of which I may speak with more confidence, and
which is the most attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we
call morphology, which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of
the infinitely diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot
give you any example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely
real than a pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's
mind when a whole mass of different structures run into one harmony
as the expression of a central law. That is where the province of art
overlays and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture
to express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of
art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure
art; but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even
unconscious excitement of the intellect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account