Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. THE INTERVENTION OF THE INTELLECT. 1. General Emotional Phenomena of the Intellect. The pleasures and pains which we have hitherto considered are those aroused by normal or excessive function in the peripheral end-organs of nerves, or in the fibres and central endorgans immediately connected with them. But there is a higher class of nervous structures in the human system, whose business it is to correlate and co-ordinate the energies so received, and, where necessary, to liberate--immediately or ultimately--in accordance with the intelligence conveyed by these impressions, new energies which re-act upon the external world in the manner demanded by the circumstances of the case. The functions of such higher co-ordinating structures are known on their subjective side by the name of Intellect. Like all other portions of the sentient system the organs of the Intellect are liable to normal and moderate exercise, subjectively cognized as pleasurable, or to abnormal and excessive exercise, subjectively cognized as painful. It was necessary in the last chapter to touch slightly upon a few of these phenomena, because the central and peripheral organ3 of sight are more closely connected with intelligence, genetically and actually, than any others. But we shall have to enter a little more fully here into the pleasures and pains of the Intellect, regarded as a separate element of iEsthetic Feeling. And first, in accordance with our Usual plan, we will glance briefly at those emotional phenomena of Intellect which do not attain the aesthetic level. Acutely painful feelings of intellectual exercise are rare or o unknown, as might indeed be expected from the peculiarly secluded position of the organs concerned, which almost pre-...

Excerpt from Physiological AEsthetics Why we receive pleasure from some forms and colours and not from others, says Professor Ruskin, is no more to be asked or answered than why we like sugar and dislike wormwood. The questions thus summarily dismissed by our great living authority on Esthetics are exactly the ones which this little book asks, and, I hope, answers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Robert Brain traces the origins of artistic modernism to specific technologies of perception developed in late-nineteenth-century laboratories. Brain argues that the thriving fin-de-siècle field of “physiological aesthetics,” which sought physiological explanations for the capacity to appreciate beauty and art, changed the way poets, artists, and musicians worked and brought a dramatic transformation to the idea of art itself.