Essays on the nature and principles of taste / Archibald Alison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alison, Archibald, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics--Early works to 1800.

Aesthetics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 434 pages)

Place of Publication:

Boston : Cummings and Hilliard, 1812.

Summary:

"Taste is in general considered as that faculty of the human mind, by which we perceive and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in the works of nature or art. The perception of these qualities is attended with an emotion of pleasure, very distinguishable from every other pleasure of our nature, and which is accordingly distinguished by the name of the emotion of taste. The distinction of the objects of taste, into the sublime and beautiful, has produced a similar division of this emotion, into the emotion of sublimity and the emotion of beauty. The inquiries made in this book naturally divide themselves into the following parts; and are to be prosecuted in the following order: (I) I shall begin with an analysis of the effect which is produced upon the mind, when the emotions of beauty or sublimity are felt. I shall endeavour to show, that this effect is very different from the determination of a sense; that it is not in fact a simple, but a complex emotion.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.