ally the entire human race. Its various activities
have developed great industries, and for the entertainment it affords
fabulous sums of money are spent.

What is this thing called art which takes such a hold upon the human
race? If it has no social or economic value then a vast amount of time
and money are wasted each year in its study and practice. A brief
inquiry into the nature and meaning of art may well be associated with a
discussion of the art of singing.

Art as a whole comes under the head of Aesthetics, which may be defined
as the philosophy of taste, the science of the beautiful.

It will doubtless be admitted without argument that ever since the dawn
of consciousness the visible world has produced sense impressions
differing from each other--some pleasant, some unpleasant. From these
different sense impressions there gradually evolved what is known as
beauty and ugliness. An attempt to discover the principles underlying
beauty and ugliness resulted in Aesthetics, the founder of which was
Baumgarten (1714-1762).

It will be interesting to hear what he and the later aestheticians have
to say about art. Most of them connect it in some way with that which is
beautiful, that is, pleasing, but they do not all agree in their
definition of beauty.

Baumgarten defined beauty as the perfect, the absolute, recognized
through the senses. He held that the highest embodiment of beauty is
seen by us in nature, therefore the highest aim of art is to copy
nature.

Winkelmann (1717-1768) held the law and aim of art to be beauty
independent of goodness. Hutcheson (1694-1747) was of essentially the
same opinion.

According to Kant (1724-1804) beauty is that which pleases without the
reasoning process.

Schiller (1758-1805) held that the aim of art is beauty, the source of
which is pleasure without practical advantage.

These definitions do not wholly satisfy. They do not accord to art the
dignified position it should hold in social development. But there are
others who have a clearer vision. Fichte (1762-1814) said that beauty
exists not in the visible world but in the beautiful soul, and that art
is the manifestation of this beautiful soul, and that its aim is the
education of the whole man.

In this we begin to see the real nature and activity of art. There are
other aestheticians who define art in much the same way.

Shaftesbury (1670-1713) said that beauty is recognized by the mind only.
God is fundamental