CHAPTER II

THE BEAUTY OF NATURE

A. The Beauty of Nature as such

1. The Idea as Life

[(_a_) The first mode under which the notion is in Nature asserted as objectivity is that of physical matter, the ideal unity whereof is not found as ideality

(_b_) A further step is the integration of natural objects under a unified system, as the solar system

(_c_) The third mode is that of organic Life. This alone is a determinate existence of the Idea]

2. The animated life of Nature as Beauty

[(_a_) The motion of life considered in relation to the conception of beauty

(_b_) The nature of organic unity, and the degree it contributes to the beauty of an object

(_c_) The inward unity of soul-life and the degree it contributes to the correlation of parts of an organism, or is asserted in external form to our senses rather than our reflection]

3. Modes under which the beauty of Nature is investigated

[(_a_) Where the form is immediately in the _materia_ as its essence or conformative energy, as in crystals, or more concretely as the informing soul through the living organism

(_b_) Mobility in animals as a test of their apparent beauty

(_c_) Self-conscious life the culminating mode]

B. The external Beauty of abstract Form viewed as Uniformity, Symmetry, Conformity to Rule, and Harmony. Also Beauty regarded generally as abstract unity of the Sensuous Material

C. The Defective Aspects of the Beauty of Nature

1. The Inward principle in its immediacy as merely such inwardness

[(_a_) Immediate singularity as conserved in the purely animal organism

(_b_) Of the nature of the contrast between the above and the human body

(_c_) Social organizations viewed in such particularized immediacy, and the defects they betray as such external totalities]

2. The Dependence of particular existence as viewed in its immediate singularity

[(_a_) The dependence of animal life upon its natural environment

(_b_) The nature of a similar dependence in the case of the human organism

(_c_) The dependence of human souls, or spiritual interests, on the prose-life of ordinary existence]

3. The limitations implied by such conditions

[(_a_) The restriction of species in the animal world, and of the social condition as it affects human individuality

(_b_) The limitation of racial division, or of particular families, or particular professions, and the effect of such upon the aspect of beauty

(_c_) It is the very defects of this finite plane of reality, which stimulates man to recover the vision of his freedom in Art]