Æsthetic activity may then be described as an independent self-activity of some sense, or of perception, or imagination, or emotion as impelled by a pleasure, this pleasure being a distinct and new form we term æsthetic. It is probable this pleasure first arose in connection with the exercise of the sense as a vent for spontaneous energy, and pleasure once somehow being taken in a mere activity _per se_, it is thenceforth conducted therefor. This is the plainest path of conjecture thus far. If the first æsthetic pleasure were taken in some quiet moment of venting energy in sensing red, then red will continue to be sensed, impelled by the pleasure involved in the act. Granted such an origin, the development of æsthetic psychosis can be traced in the way we have noted. Æsthetic psychosis is commonly regarded as passive, and it is indeed true that the first moment of the pleasure _comes_ as result of an activity impelled by other motives. New psychoses are not consciously formed but are rather hit upon in natural development; but once a new pleasure is felt its conditions will be attained and kept to by conscious effort, and the pleasure itself will receive its development only through effortful activity. It is by supreme effort the great artist attains the vision of beauty, it is by supreme effort he expresses this vision, it is by supreme effort the critic appreciates this expression. He who has no appreciation of sculpture may by patiently and earnestly observing statuary reach at length some æsthetic pleasure. Thus the æsthetic, like all mental modes, so far as progressive, is effortful; and it seems certain that the æsthetic pleasures that come to us so easily are race acquirements, a heritage of culture. From its first germ onwards æsthetic, like intellectual, like moral, like all mental activity, is the achievement of intense struggle.