Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/534



N the last number of the we gave evidence for specific pain nerves distributed throughout the body, for the probability of pleasure nerves in certain places, and for the possibility of such in all our sense-organs. We concluded that most of our æsthetic feelings are not sensations, but are associative central occurrences. It is this major part of aesthetics which we have now to account for. At once we say that the present distribution of pain and pleasure nerves in our body does not seem sufficient for this purpose. Holding fast to a common mode of origin for all our senses, we must, then, look further into biological development for our desired explanations.

Human anatomy and physiology were closed secrets till study of a long line of embryonic and morphologic modifications revealed them. It should be evident that human psychology can never be understood except by a like tracing out of present from past conditions. Since Darwin, 'the first sense' has been frequently discussed, but, on the whole, in a manner bringing the subject little credit. The first organs of sense, however, have long been the objects of sober biological research. As it is our task only to discover how pleasure and pain came to do what they now do, we may escape discussion of early amorphous creatures. We need not go outside of our line of ancestry, nor back of its first organized sensory system. Rh