But it is noteworthy that if we secretly deceived this lover of the
beautiful by planting in the ground artificial flowers (which can be
manufactured exactly like natural ones), or by placing artificially
carved birds on the boughs of trees, and he discovered the deceit, the
immediate interest that he previously took in them would disappear
at once; though, perhaps, a different interest, viz. the interest of
vanity in adorning his chamber with them for the eyes of others, would
take its place. This thought then must accompany our intuition and
reflection on beauty, viz. that nature has produced it; and on this
alone is based the immediate interest that we take in it. Otherwise,
there remains a mere judgement of taste, either devoid of all interest,
or bound up with a mediate interest, viz. in that it has reference to
society; which latter [interest] furnishes no certain indications of a
morally good disposition.
This superiority of natural to artificial beauty in that it alone
arouses an immediate interest, although as regards form the first
may be surpassed by the second, harmonises with the refined and
well-grounded habit of thought of all men who have cultivated their
moral feeling. If a man who has taste enough to judge of the products
of beautiful Art with the greatest accuracy and refinement willingly
leaves a chamber where are to be found those beauties that minister to
vanity or to any social joys, and turns to the beautiful in Nature in
order to find, as it were, delight for his spirit in a train of thought
that he can never completely evolve, we will regard this choice of his
with veneration, and attribute to him a beautiful soul, to which no
connoisseur or lover [of Art] can lay claim on account of the interest
he takes in his [artistic] objects.--What now is the difference in
our estimation of these two different kinds of Objects, which in the
judgement of mere taste it is hard to compare in point of superiority?
We have a faculty of mere aesthetical Judgement by which we judge forms
without the aid of concepts, and find a satisfaction in this mere act
of judgement; this we make into a rule for every one, without this
judgement either being based on or producing any interest.--On the
other hand, we have also a faculty of intellectual Judgement which
determines an _a priori_ satisfaction for the mere forms of practical
maxims (so far as they are in themselves qualified for universal
legislation); this we make into a law for every one, without our
judgement being based on any interest whatever, _though in this case
it produces such an interest_. The pleasure or pain in the former
judgement is called that of taste, in the latter, that of moral feeling.