Page:Three Lectures on Aesthetic (1915).djvu/115

100 which must be accounted for as much as if it were fundamental and invincible. When we judge an appearance as ugly, even if ultimately we are wrong, what is it that we mean to indicate?

One might say, an appearance is ugly which has indeed, as everything must have, a form and a self - expression in a sense, but a form such as to convey an impression of formlessness. The German “Unform” is suggestive at this point. Primarily meaning “formlessness,” it may also convey the implication of ugliness. We can show the same usage, in saying, for example, “That is a hideous hat, it is perfectly formless.” But, prima facie, this can only mean that a thing has not the kind of form we expect. Or even if there could be an expression of unexpressiveness, you would, in one sense, have in it the very highest achievements of the sublime and the humorous. For the sublime, take the famous passage in Job, or Milton’s description of death. These present to your imagination something whose aesthetic embodiment is that it is