What is Beauty ?
HERE is a book which does almost perfectly what it sets out to do ; in answering his question the author takes the trouble to be brief, yet the result is mostly neither too thin nor too obscure. A bundle of muddled problems is swiftly reduced to one comparatively clear question ; our various kinds of reaction to works of art are well analysed, and then we investi- gate " Beauty as Truth." Various attempts to identify these two are defeated, and the author suggests that beauty, rather than being a revelation of truth, gives insight into familiar feeling. In this chapter the apparent difference be- tween " form " and " content " makes itself felt—" truth in beauty " suggests " meaning " (or " content ") by itself ; but next we consider " Beauty as Goodness." The relationship of morals and art is ably discussed. Mr. Carritt might have crushed more explicitly the lingering idea that a work of art is immoral if it introduces immoral people or actions ; and could hive drawn a more definite distinction between art which deliberately affects people's morals (whether for good or ill); and art which may do so incidentally in contact with ill-balanced people ; but he criticises the Tolstoyan view, of the moral value of art, very effectively.
In the next chapter the attack is brilliant. Where does the beauty of an object actually lie ? The subjectivity of all beauty is excellently set forth, and several well-known diffi- culties are cleared up ; this leads to an admirable account of " Beauty as Pattern." Mr. Carritt distils a clear essence from the aesthetic philosophy of Kant, and well criticizes the over- insistence on " pattern " as against " expression "—or form " as against " content," in the less accurate expression generally used. The relationship between these two chief elements in beauty is ingeniously illustrated : by comparing two versions by Wordsworth of the " same poem " it is made clear that any alteration of pattern means an alteration in expression (or feeling or sentiment).
Then in the last chapter, "Beauty as Expression," we are given a lucid little crystallization of Croce's view of beauty, which the author regards (I think rightly) as nearer the truth than any previous one. It is summed up in the phrase, " beauty is the expression of feeling " ; and neatly qualified thus : What a beautiful thing expresses we cannot say ; the beautiful thing expresses it and nothing else exactly can . . ." For Croce all expression is beautiful, but the matter must be further explained to avoid misunderstanding. It is essential that expression be combined with order, or pattern ; and the truth of beauty then consists in truth of expression—here is a point so important that it might well be emphasized and elaborated. It might be made clear that in so far as expression does not correspond to feeling, the feeling is not really expressed : whenever we are able to distinguish between these two inseparable elements in a work of art we know that it is not perfect—it is not completely expressed. As Croce himself pointed out, form is not just a mould into which feeling or " content " is poured ; the artist's feeling creates form or pattern, and the pattern moulds the feeling, at one and the same time. -
It might be supposed that this theory would not apply to the beauty of nature. But the author, having previously insisted on the need for sincerity of expression, now points to the effect of failure to be expressive, when expressiveness is claimed or expected ; and the reader will find that this explains in the simplest possible manner both ugliness, and its rare occurrence among natural objects and scenery. Inci- dentally Mr. Carritt's view suggests also to what extent purely utilitarian things such as factory buildings can be beautiful.
Finally, there is an all-too-brief reference to Imagination —the chief link between artist and " audience." Ple quotes from Coleridge : Izhagination acts by impressing the stamp of . . . human feelings on inanimate or mere natural objects." Sculpture gives a good example of this, when the artist " sees " something of emotional and therefore human import in his material, and expresses his vision in the carving of wood or stone.
Mr. Carritt writes extremely well ; there are few places where he could express himself more clearly ; fascinating problems are illumined in vivid, unforced analogies. The small defects of the book result mainly from its shortness, that too-rare and most welcome virtue. T. S. BAILEY.
Previous page
