224 A E T A E T elation in the beholder. The Ludicrous, again, is defined by Mr Bain, improving on Aristotle and Hobbes, as the degradation of something possessing dignity in circum stances that excite no other strong emotion. The pleasure accompanying the impression may be referred either to the elation of a sense of power or superiority ideally or sym pathetically excited, or to a sense of freedom from restraint, both of which have in common the element of a joyous rebound from pressure. Thus it will be seen that Professor Bain recognises no new mental principle in aesthetic effects, but regards them as peculiar combinations and transforma tions, according to known psychological laws, of other and simpler feelings. [erbert An interesting turn has been given to the psychology of pencer. Aesthetics by Mr Herbert Spencer. In some of his essays, as the one entitled " The Origin and Function of Music," and more fully in the concluding chapter of his Psychology (second edition), on the ^Esthetic Sentiments, he offers a new theory of the genesis of the pleasures of beauty and art, based on his doctrine of evolution. He takes up Schiller s idea of the connection between aesthetic activity and play, only he deals with this latter not as an ideal tendency, but as a phenomenal reality, seeking to make it the actual starting-point in the order of evolution of . aesthetic action. Play or sport is defined as the superfluous and useless exercise of faculties that have been quiescent for a time, and have in this way become so ready to dis charge as to relieve themselves by simulated actions. ^Esthetic activities yield to the higher powers of percep tion .and emotion the substituted exercise which play yields to the lower impulses, agreeing with play in not directly subserving any processes conducive to life, but being gratifications sought for themselves only. This point of affinity between the two classes of pleasures is a valuable addition to aesthetic theory, and helps one to understand how the artistic impulse first arose. At the same time it is doubtful how far all present aesthetic pleasures, as the passive enjoyments of colour and tone, can be interpreted as substituted activities in Mr Spencer s sense. They seem rather to be original and instinctive modes of gratification not dependent on any previous exer cises of life-function, except so far as the structure and functions of the senses as a whole may be viewed as the product of multitudinous life-processes in animal evolu tion. Mr Spencer, moreover, forms a hierarchy of aesthetic pleasures, the standard of height being either the number of powers duly exercised, or what comes to the same thing, the degree of complexity of the emotional faculty thus exercised. The first, and lowest class of pleasures, are those of simple sensation, as tone and colour, which are partly organic and partly the results of association. The second class are the pleasures of perception, as em ployed upon the combination of colours, &c. The highest order of pleasures are those of the aesthetic sentiments proper, consisting of the multitudinous emotions ideally excited by aesthetic objects, natural and artistic. Among these vaguely and partially revived emotions Mr Spencer reckons not only those of the individual, but also many of the constant feelings of the race. Thus he would attri bute the vagueness and apparent depth of musical emotion to associations with vocal tones, built up during the course of vast ages. This graduated scheme is evidently dictated by the assumption that the higher the stage of evolution, the higher the pleasure. Yet Mr Spencer admits that this measure of aesthetic value will not suffice alone, and he adds, that the most perfect form of aesthetic gratification is realised when sensation, perception, and emotion, are present in fullest and most pleasurable action. Mr Spen cer s supposition, that much of the pleasure of aesthetic emotion is referrible to transmitted experience, offers a very ingenious, even if not very definite, mode of explain ing many of the mysterious effects of tone, and even of colour. Among works on the history of aesthetic doctrines, the student may be referred to the following : - In German literature, which contains the most complete histories, Max Schasler s Kritischc Gcschichtc dcr sEsthctik, forming the first two volumes of an fcsthetic system, is the fullest. Still he hardly does justice to English writers, there being no mention of Alison and recent thinkers. His stand-point is only definable as a new modification of Hegelianism. Zimmermann s Gcschichte dcr ^sthctik is also to be recommended. ~LotKs(!eschichteder;Esthetik in Dcutsch- land is a highly critical resume of German systems, characterised by a good deal of caution, and a desire to mediate between opposing views, and if not very definite in its result, very appreciative and suggestive of the many-sidedness of the subject. In French, Leveque s work, La Science du Beau, contains a very fair account of the most conspicuous systems, ancient and modern. In our own literature, numerous references to other systems are to be found in the essays of Alison ; and Jeffrey attempts a brief historical survey of the doctrines of beauty in his article on the subject. Dugald Stewart s essays mostly fall into critical examination- of the chief theories of beauty. Finally, Professor Bain, in his Compendium of Mental and Moral Science, supplies a brief but careful account of most of the known theories of the Beautiful. (j. s.) AETION, a painter, whose famous picture of the mar riage of Iloxana and Alexander was exhibited at the Olympic games, and gained Action so much reputation that the president of the games gave him his daughter in marriage. The picture is minutely described by Lucian. Action appears from that author to have flourished in the times of Hadrian and the Antonines. AETIUS, a Roman general of the closing period of the western empire, born at Dorostolus in Mresia, late in the 4th century. While detained for some time as a hostage in the camp of PJmas, king of the Huns, he acquired an influence with the barbarians that was afterwards of much advantage to himself, though the same cannot be said of it as regards the empire. He led into Italy an army of G0,000 Huns, which he employed first to support the usurp ing Emperor John, and, on the death of the latter, to enforce his claim to the supreme command of the army in Gaul upon Placidia, the empress-mother and regent for Valen- tinian III. Afterwards, when he incurred the disfavour of Placidia for the death of his rival Boniface, he again employed an army of Huns to compel her to reinstate him in his former position. In Gaul he won his military repu tation, upholding for nearly twenty years, by combined policy and daring, the falling fortunes of the western empire. His greatest victory was that of Chalons-sur-Marne (20th Sept. 451), in which he utterly routed Attila and the Huns the number slain on both sides being, according to one computation, 300,000, though this is obviously an exaggeration. This was the last triumph of the empire. Three years later (454) Aetius presented himself at court to claim the emperor s daughter in marriage for his son Gaudentius; but Valentinian, suspecting him of designs upon the crown, slew him with his own hand. AETIUS, surnamed " the Atheist/ founder of an ex treme sect of the Arians, was a native of Coele-Syria. After working for some time as a coppersmith, he became a travelling doctor, and displayed great skill in disputations on medical subjects; but his controversial power soon found a wider field for its exercise in the great theological question of the time. He studied successively under the Arians, Paulinus, bishop of Antioch, Athanasius, bishop of Anazarbus, and the presbyter Antonius of Tarsus. In 350 he was ordained a deacon by Leontius of Antioch, but was shortly afterwards forced by the orthodox party to leave that town. At the first synod of Sirmium, he won a dialectic victory over the homoiousian bishops Basilius and Eustathius, who sought in consequence to stir up against
him the enmity of CoDsqr Gallus. In 356 he went to
