virtue and dignity, and
to our sacred joy in the contemplation of him, so the sundry evils
of life may be elements in the transcendent glory of the whole.
And once fired by this thought, those who pretend to justify the
ways of God to man have, naturally, not stopped to consider
whether so edifying a phenomenon was not a hasty illusion. They
have, indeed, detested any attempt to explain it rationally, as
tending to obscure one of the moral laws of the universe. In
venturing, therefore, to repeat such an attempt, we should not be
too sanguine of success; for we have to encounter not only the
intrinsic difficulties of the problem, but also a wide-spread and
arrogant metaphysical prejudice.

For the sake of greater clearness we may begin by classifying the
values that can enter into expression; we shall then be better able to
judge by what combinations of them various well-known effects
and emotions are produced. The intrinsic value of the first term can
be entirely neglected, since it does not contribute to expression. It
does, however, contribute greatly to the beauty of the expressive
object. The first term is the source of stimulation, and the
acuteness and pleasantness of this determine to a great extent the
character and sweep of the associations that will be aroused. Very
often the pleasantness of the medium will counterbalance the
disagreeableness of the import, and expressions, in themselves
hideous or inappropriate, may be excused for the sake of the object
that conveys them. A beautiful voice will redeem a vulgar song, a
beautiful colour and texture an unmeaning composition. Beauty in
the first term -- beauty of sound, rhythm, and image -- will make
any thought whatever poetic, while no thought whatever can be so
without that immediate beauty of presentation.[14]

_Aesthetic value in the second term._

Sec. 51. That the noble associations of any object should embellish
that object is very comprehensible. Homer furnishes us with a
good illustration of the constant employment of this effect. The
first term, one need hardly say, leaves with him little to be desired.
The verse is beautiful. Sounds, images, and composition conspire
to stimulate and delight. This immediate beauty is sometimes used
to clothe things terrible and sad; there is no dearth of the tragic in
Homer. But the tendency of his poetry is nevertheless to fill the
outskirts of our consciousness with the trooping images of things
no less fair an