MOTIVES FOR THE CULTIVATION OF TASTE.
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 should 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.
