The formalistic principle in æsthetics, according to
which feelings are no essential feature in "the beautiful,"
has recently been excellently refuted by Sir John Stainer,
who said: Music exists only inside the perceiving subject
(only the air-waves exist outside of it, but they become
music only in a perceiving mind), therefore it cannot be
beautiful in itself, because it has "no objective reality or
separate existence ". Stainer justly calls the theory of
the "self-subsistent form of the beautiful," when applied
to music, "sheer nonsense". ¹

If it be asked whence the sense of rhythm arises, I
answer, from the general appetite for exercise. That this
desire occurs in rhythmical form is due to sociological
as well as psychological conditions. On the one hand,
there is the social character of primitive music, compel-
ling a number of performers to act in concert. On the
other, our perception of time-relations involves a process
of intellection, the importance of which has been pointed
out by Prof. Sully, and which I cannot better describe than
in his own words: "This perception of successive or
time-ordered impressions is something more than a succes-
sion of impressions or perceptions. It involves a subse-
quent act of reflection, by means of which the mind is able
at the same time to comprehend them as a whole." ²
Now every product which is of the intellect and appeals to
the intellect must contain all the particulars which follow
from reflection and render it possible. And since music is
produced not merely as an auditory impression and ex-
pression, but also in order to evoke reflection, it must
contain the qualities above alluded to, viz., time-order and
rhythm. Such being the grounds for rhythmical expression
the question still remains to be answered: Whence does the
general desire for exercise arise? Mr. Herbert Spencer's
theory affords the most valid explanation. It is the sur-

-231-