ARBUCKLE AND THE MOLESWORTH-SHAFTESBUBY SCHOOL. 203 and then thrown down a tangled skein from which it is difficult to unravel the guiding thread. One of several beginnings may be found in the conception of Happiness, " the search for which is the business and study of all mankind, and nothing is of greater importance to us in life". 1 As Butler proved, a few years later, Happiness is not to be understood as the " gratification of our appetites and inclinations," 2 rather it has three essential elements, "Pleasure," Joy and Tranquillity. The first two of these are different forms of what is called " Delight " the object of which is Beauty. "Pleasure" is described as the effect of "material and inanimate things" that are beautiful, joy arising similarly from the effect of " living and social beings ". 3 1. Inanimate Beauty. That this pleasure exists and is " natural" or underived is proved by the effect of an appro- priate object upon us, which " is easier felt than described ". In language anticipatory of Kant's " awe " of the " starry heavens," Arbuckle bursts into raptures over the beauties of nature : " We need only reflect on what we feel when we admire the awful arch of Heaven, either illuminated by one mighty ball of fire, or sow'd with innumerable stars ; when we rejoice in the lovely appearance of the morning ; when we survey the wonderful face of the great Ocean ; or when we gaze on the milder charms of a rural Landskip, blooming fields, solitary shades and still waters ". 4 He scornfully asks, is there anything comparable to this in the feelings falsely called pleasures of Sense ; and, from the uniformity and im- portance of the effect, goes on to show that there must be some standard of Natural Beauty. If it be objected that the appreciation of it is not original or " natural," upon the Lockiau grounds of want of universality or the phenomena of acquired tastes, he replies that none of the pleasures of sense are universal, and retorts that the loss of the capacity of perceiving Beauty is universally considered to be one of the greatest misfortunes. 6 At the same time, men are 1 Hibernicus's Letters, i., p. 37. Cf. Shaftesbury, Moralists, part iii., 3, and Hutcheson, Inquiry into Original oj our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, p. ix. - Jl'hcrnicus's Letters, i., p. 38. Cf. Butler's Sermons, Preface and non XI.
- H>id., p. 40. It may be remarked that this division gives no place for
the delight due to the beauty of animals. As will be seen Arbuckle uses pleasure in a special sense, in fact he denies that sensual pleasures are pleasures at all, and therefore the only true pleasure is that arising from the recognition of Beauty. 4 I hid., i., p. 40. *Ibid., i., pp. 43-4.
