But further if we consider the nature of admirable mental qualities,
by themselves, it appears that a proper appreciation of them involves
a reference to purely material beauty in yet another way. Admirable
mental qualities do, if our previous conclusions are correct, consist
very largely in an emotional contemplation of beautiful objects;
and hence the appreciation of them will consist essentially in the
contemplation of such contemplation. It is true that the most valuable
appreciation of persons appears to be that which consists in the
appreciation of their appreciation of other persons: but even here a
reference to material beauty appears to be involved, _both_ in respect
of the fact that what is appreciated in the last instance may be the
contemplation of what is merely beautiful, _and_ in respect of the fact
that the most valuable appreciation of a person appears to _include_
an appreciation of his corporeal expression. Though, therefore, we
may admit that the appreciation of a person’s attitude towards other
persons, or, to take one instance, the love of love, is far the most
valuable good we know, and far more valuable than the mere love of
beauty, yet we can only admit this if the first be understood to
_include_ the latter, in various degrees of directness.
With regard to the question what _are_ the mental qualities of which
the cognition is essential to the value of human intercourse, it is
plain that they include, in the first place, all those varieties of
aesthetic appreciation, which formed our first class of goods. They
include, therefore, a great variety of different emotions, each of
which is appropriate to some different kind of beauty. But we must now
add to these the whole range of emotions, which are appropriate to
persons, and which are different from those which are appropriate to
mere corporeal beauty. It must also be remembered that just as these
emotions have little value in themselves, and as the state of mind in
which they exist may have its value greatly heightened, or may entirely
lose it and become positively evil in a great degree, according as the
cognitions accompanying the emotions are appropriate or inappropriate;
so too the appreciation of these emotions, though it may have some
value in itself, may yet form part of a whole which has far greater
value or no value at all, according as it is or is not accompanied by
a perception of the appropriateness of the emotions to their objects.
It is obvious, therefore, that the study of what is valuable in human
intercourse is a study of immense complexity; and that there may be
much human intercourse which has little or no value, or is positively
bad. Yet here too, as with the question what is beautiful, there seems
no reason to doubt that a reflective judgment will in the main decide
correctly both as to what are positive goods and even as to any _great_
differences in value between these goods. In particular, it may be
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