Under this principle we are first led to consider the avoidance
of shocks, which produce a very large part of the pains of
ugliness. We find also that many æsthetic conditions which
have been defended as fundamental by theorists, but which
we do not find satisfactory to us, are really negative prin-
ciples, not dealing with positive effects but with the elimina-
tion of obstructive pains (p. 313 ff.). The necessity of avoiding
in a work of art emphasis of elements which involve lack of
harmony, uselessness, unfitness, nonconformity with type, un-
truth, unrest, etc., has led to the adoption of the incorrect
views that harmony, or usefulness, or fitness, or conformity
to type, or truth, or repose are positive principles which, if
made ends in art production, will lead necessarily to æsthetic
result. Pains of repression we find (p. 307 f.) are not altogether
to be eliminated from æsthetic work; for, as we have seen in
preceding chapters, they are the index of full capacity for
pleasure-getting in the lines of the repressed activities;
consequently, it is allowable to produce effects which bring
them in their train, because we thus guide ourselves to the
production of the highest pleasures in the satisfaction of the
demands encouraged.

Y. The avoidance of pains of excess is natural (p. 319): art
methods deal only with fields in which it is possible for us to
divert attention from a stimulus as soon as it begins to tire
us. The importance of this avoidance is emphasised by the
principle of the "golden mean" which Aristotle thought so
clear a guide in æsthetics.

The negative laws in general, as involved in the elimina-
tion of pain, I have enlarged upon with comparative simplicity
in the body of the text (p. 320 ff.), to which I would refer the
interested reader.

B. The exclusion of Indifference does not detain us, for it
appears that the only means of bringing about this result,

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