The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
[Footnote 239: _Schnabelthier_, otherwise called the _duck-billed
platyptis_, a mammal found in Australia, much the size of an otter,
with the horny beak of a duck and paws formed for swimming.]
[Footnote 240: _Getrübt_, we have the word _trüben_ above, translated
there "troubled," life merely seen through the thick veil of
instinctive sense.]
[Footnote 241: That is, the unity manifested is as abstract from all
concrete totality as the form itself.]
[Footnote 242: This shows clearly that symmetry is only in an analogous
way applicable to musical tones.]
[Footnote 243: In other words, uniformity is outside the purely
qualitative relation, whereas symmetry is not so.]
[Footnote 244: _Beseelte Lebendigkeit_, lit., the insouled
life-principle.]
[Footnote 245: Lit., "Is continually thrust out into the external." Its
activity as life is directed outward.]
[Footnote 246: _Was schon im Sichverzehren begriffen ist._ I think the
distinction implied is that in smell we are in actual contact with a
part of the object. The same thing would, however, be true of sight
according to former theory exploded by Newton's hypothesis.]
[Footnote 247: _Gesetzmässigkeit._ I cannot think of an English word
that quite reproduces it. I am not sure that either conformity to rule
or law singly quite expresses it. It implies both.]
[Footnote 248: As in uniformity.]
[Footnote 249: As in symmetry.]
[Footnote 250: That is to say, apart from symbolical meaning, it
possesses no hidden law to be discovered in the relation of part to
part.]
[Footnote 251: The words are _die grosse und kleine Axe von
wesentlichem Unterschiede._ These refer primarily, it appears, to the
axes of an ellipse, but the expression may possibly include the axes of
a parabola parallel to the sides of a cone. However I admit frankly I
find the words _von wesentlichem Unterschiede_ difficult to interpret
closely.]
[Footnote 252: In the text _grossen_, obviously a misprint.]
[Footnote 253: The incorrectness of this statement according to more
recent analysis does not, of course, affect the argument.]
[Footnote 254: _Nicht einseitig._ I think the meaning here is that
colour is not an abstract idea for independent qualities, but is the
generic notion of a really existing totality.]
[Footnote 255: _Alles melodische_, primarily, organic, of course.]
[Footnote 256: Namely, that of abstract unity.]
[Footnote 257: Hegel expresses this rather differently by saying that
they tend to pass over into pink (_röthliche_) or orange (_gelbliche_)
and green. I have put the same statement rather more directly.]
[Footnote 258: I think this is the meaning of the words _aber nur
äusserlich, d.h._, _nicht beschmützt._ Violet, however, is now regarded
as a cardinal colour. It may also be doubted whether the difficulty of
harmonizing pure colour is as Hegel states it.]