THERE is a pleasure connected with every form of human action, and with almost every healthy act, whether it be physical, intellectual, or moral. In the intensity and value of these pleasures there is great variety. On the one hand, there is the glow of a physical system, rapid and perfect in its involuntary functions, which, if not always itself a distinct and definable enjoyment, is yet the condition and measure of many enjoyments; and, on the other, the commanding pleasure of right action, which, in its imperial nature, suffers no comparison or valuation of itself with other pleasures. But not only has pleasure been made the attendant and additional reward of healthy action, though that action have sole reference to utility or duty, not only do the physical and the mental machinery include within them something of the play of music, but a perception has been given us, chief among whose objects is the high and peculiar enjoyment which it imparts, -the perception of beauty. The fact that this perception is one of the constituents of our nature -a universal and most character. istic element of manhood - would seem to be an adequate reason why we shou

ld investigate it, and the principles which control its action, and thus see its relations to character. Without adding to other acquisitions this acquisition also, we cannot fully meet the injunction, Know thyself; nor lay broad the foundations of knowledge in an understanding of that intellect which is at once the recipient and interpreter of all knowledge; nor work into the structure of perfect character that full variety of materials and complement of forces which, in the conception of its Great Architect, were designed to make it the sanctuary at once of strength and beauty. The nature and relations of the perception itself, however, furnish us additional reasons. A most obvious consideration inviting us to this department is the enjoyment which a cultivated taste is able to impart. As long as the pursuit of pleasure is so leading a trait of man's character, is so prominent among the right incentives to effort, we surely need no other motive or justification of an action than that it repays us by an adequate and innocent pleasure. The gift of a perception, with so obvious and primary a reference to the enjoyment thereby to be conferred, marks the Creator's estimate of happiness, and severely rebukes the indolence which suffers a great faculty to become weak by inaction, and sink from its function and from the circle of powers. The peculiar and abundant pleasures designed to be conferred upon us in this intuition claim our grateful acceptance. The very nature, however, of the gratification afforded, and its relation to other gratifications, are additional motives for its pursuit. It does not belong to our animal nature, neither to the appetites or passions, but, as a higher and more spiritual enjoyment, can be thrown into the balance against these, and unite its forces with those other perceptions which release us from the sensuous and passionate. The love of the beautiful is often a powerful auxiliary of virtue, by engaging the faculties in an ennobling form of activity, thus at once preoccupying the ground against vicious inclinations, and bringing the mind nearer to the yet higher intuitions and enjoyments of right action. In the contest between the spiritual and physical which is waged in every man's nature, beauty arrays itself on the side of the former, and may often furnish that intellectual enjoyment by which the mind is first brought within the calmer, more profound and abiding pleasures which belong to the strictly rational intuitions. Beauty is often the door-keeper to those charmed precincts within which are truth and right. A fourth reason why we should render ourselves susceptible to the impulses which arise from a perception of beauty is, that they lend themselves as additional inducements to our best action, in a great variety of directions. The several sciences offer for their pursuit their own appropriate rewards; but not unfrequently do we find a most grateful gratuity in the new beauties which they reveal. Beauty is so inextricably interwoven with truth, that, when seeking the last, we yet inevitably find the first, and with it a new reward and motive of effort. So also is it in the mechanical labors of life. Our work lies amid nature and natural forces, and we cannot with a delicate intuition move in that great gallery of the germis, suggestiolns, studies, and models of all great work, without finding each step a pleasure. Art may also, in its higher forms, become fine art, and in all its forms call into requisition the rudiments of beautiful expression, in its lines and out lines and surfaces. Thus may pleasure still run through all the wearier passages of life, the love of the he,xti fu come in as a most welcome impulse, and save our duties from becoming wholly mechanical, an irksome routine, by giving to them the elasticity of a rational sentiment. Beauty, then, is not only with the intellectual as against the physical, but is an ally in all worthy effort, furnishing a new motive to do, and a new sa

Some topics in this essay:
SUBJECT-NATURE BEAUTY, simple primary, quality beauty, CULTIVATION TASTE, companionship identity qualities, motives cultivation taste, analysis resolve, art correct art, beautiful objects, perception beauty, rest assertion, fine arts, identity qualities, primary quality, condition existence,