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5 cm Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 30 31 But in the case of a simple thing there is but one quality, and that alone can be mentioned, and this is to name a synonym. All knowledge, therefore, of that which is simple and primary, whether in perception or intuition, must be direct. Mind must interpret mind, and only by the interpretation of similar faculties can this class of properties be apprehended. Certain original perceptions and intuitions must be granted us as the basis of every defining and explanatory process.

The important and pregnant nature of this assertion will appear more and more as we advance, and its truth will be involved in the very fact, that, following in the steps of all who have preceded us, we make evident that we regard beauty as a reasonable quality, by actually reasonably concerning its existence and the manner of its action. The Heron Albrecht Dürer, c. 7 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin 40 41 TRUTH AS A CONDITION OF BEAUTY A n important characteristic of beauty is truth. This assertion, however, is only applicable to art, since nature is our standard of truth, and all natural beauty necessarily possesses this quality.

Right is a primary quality, yet all our judgments of right proceed on certain premises which sustain them, and which can be rendered as a reason why we suppose this characteristic of action present. Thus beauty, when present, is so through causes Rearing Horse Leonardo da Vinci, c. 2 cm Royal Library, Windsor Castle 36 which can be more or less distinctly assigned, and is not, like the properties of matter, merely known to be, without any knowledge of that which occasions them to be. The proof of this is in the fact that there are questions of beauty, by the concession of all, admitting and calling forth discussion; that men not only discuss points of taste, but are persuaded by the reasoning employed.