problem, some fixing upon one thing, some upon another; and it may be instructive to glance at some of these definitions. _Some make it a Sensation._--Of those who have undertaken to define what beauty is, there are some who make it a mere _feeling_ or sensation of the mind, and not an objective reality of any sort. It is not this, that, or the other quality of the external object, but simply a subjective emotion. It lies within us, and not without. Thus, Sir George Mackenzie describes it as "a certain degree of a certain species of pleasurable effect impressed on the mind." So also Grohman, Professor of Philosophy at Hamburg, in his treatise on æsthetic as science, defines the beautiful to be "the infinite consciousness of the reason as _feeling_." As the true is the activity of reason at work as _intellect_ or knowledge, and as the good is its province when it appears as _will_, so the beautiful is its activity in the domain of _sensibility_. Brown, Upham, and others, among English and American writers, frequently speak of the emotion of beauty, as if beauty itself were an emotion. _Others an Association._--Closely agreeing with this class of writers, and hardly to be distinguished from it, is that which makes beauty consist in certain _associations of idea and feeling_ with the object contemplated. This is the favorite doctrine with the Scotch metaphysicians. Thus Lord Jeffrey, who has written with great clearness and force on this subject, regards beauty as dependent entirely on association, "the reflection of our own inward sensations." It is not, according to this view, a quality of the object external, but only a feeling in our own minds. Its seat is within and not without. _Theory that Beauty consists in Expression._--Of the same general class, also, are those who, with Alison, Reid, and Cousin, regard beauty as the _sign_ or _expression_ of some quality fitted to awaken pleasing emotions in us. Nothing is beautiful, say these writers, which is not thus expressive of some mental or moral quality or attribute. It is not an original and independent quality of any peculiar forms or colors, says Alison, for then we should have a definite rule for the creation of beauty. It lies ultimately in the mind, not in matter, and matter becomes beautiful only as it becomes, by analogy or association, suggestive of mental qualities. The same is substantially the ancient Platonic view. Kant, also, followed in the main by Schiller and Fichte, takes the subjective view, and makes beauty a mere play of the imagination. _All these Theories make it subjective._--Whether we regard beauty, then, as a mere emotion, or as an association of thought and feeling with the external object, or as the sign and expression of mental qualities, in either case we make it ultimately subjective, and deny its external objective reality.