How shall we proceed in seeking such an idea of art? We must follow
a twofold method: first, the ordinary scientific method of observation,
analysis, and experiment; and second, another and very different method,
which people of the present day often profess to avoid, but which is
equally necessary, as I shall try to show, and actually employed by
those who reject it. In following the first method we treat beautiful
things as objects given to us for study, much as plants and animals
are given to the biologist. Just as the biologist watches the behavior
of his specimens, analyzes them into their various parts and functions,
and controls his studies through carefully devised experiments, arriving
at last at a clear notion of what a plant or an animal is--at a
definition of life; so the student of aesthetics observes works of art
and other well-recognized beautiful things, analyzes their elements
and the forms of connection of these, arranges experiments to facilitate
and guard his observations from error and, as a result, reaches the
general idea for which he is looking,--the idea of beauty.
A vast material presents itself for study of this kind: the artistic
attempts of children and primitive men; the well-developed art of
civilized nations, past and present, as creative process and as
completed work; and finally, the everyday aesthetic appreciations of
nature and human life, both by ourselves and by the people whom we
seek out for study. Each kind of material has its special value.
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