Conduct of life; English essays -- 20th century; Ethics; Philosophy
It may be interesting to note in passing that, psychologically
considered, all æsthetic enjoyment among the ordinary population,
neither artists in the narrow sense nor philosophers, still necessarily
partakes to some degree of genuine æsthetic contemplation, and that such
contemplation seems to fall roughly into two classes, to one or other of
which every one who experiences æsthetic enjoyment belongs. These have,
I believe, been defined by Müller-Freienfels as that of the “Zuschauer,”
who feels that he is looking on, and that of the “Mitspieler,” who feels
that he is joining in; on the one side, we may say, he who knows he is
looking on, the _spectator_, and on the other he who imaginatively joins
in, the _participator_. The people of the first group are those, it may
be, in whom the sensory nervous apparatus is highly developed and they
are able to adopt the most typical and complete æsthetic attitude; the
people of the other group would seem to be most developed on the motor
nervous side and they are those who themselves desire to be artists.
Groos, who has developed the æsthetic side of “miterleben,” is of this
temperament, and he had at first supposed that every one was like him in
this respect.[140] Plotinus, who held that contemplation embraced
activity, must surely have been of this temperament. Coleridge was
emphatically of the other temperament, _spectator haud particeps_, as he
himself said. But, at all events in northern countries, that is probably
not the more common temperament. The æsthetic attitude of the crowds who
go to watch football matches is probably much more that of the
imaginative participator than of the pure spectator.
There is no occasion here to trace the history of æsthetic
contemplation. Yet it may be worth while to note that it was clearly
present to the mind of the fine thinker and great moralist who brought
the old Greek idea back into the modern world. In the “Philosophical
Regimen” (as it has been named) brought to light a few years ago, in
which Shaftesbury set down his self-communings, we find him writing in
one place: “In the morning am I to see anew? Am I to be present yet
longer and content? I am not weary, nor ever can be, of such a
spectacle, such a theatre, such a presence, nor at acting whatever part
such a master assigns me. Be it ever so long, I stay and am willing to
see on whilst my sight continues sound; whilst I can be a spectator,
such as I ought to be; whilst I can see reverently, justly, with
understanding and applause. And when I see no more, I retire, not
disdainfully, but in reverence to the spectacle and master, giving
thanks.... Away, man! rise, wipe thy mouth, throw up thy napkin and have
done. A bellyful (they say) is as good as a feast.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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