I have spoken so far of the conscious habit of harmony, and of its
conscious effect upon our conduct. I have tried to show that the
desire for congruity, which may seem so trivial a part of mere
dilettanteist superfineness, may expand and develop into such love of
harmony between ourselves and the ways of the universe as shall make
us wince at other folks' loss united to our gain, at our
deterioration united to our pleasure, even as we wince at a false note
or a discordant arrangement of colours.
But there is something more important than conscious choice, and
something more tremendous than definite conduct, because conscious
choice and conduct are but its separate and plainly visible results. I
mean unconscious way of feeling and organic way of living: that which,
in the language of old-fashioned medicine, we might call the
complexion or habit of the soul.
This is undoubtedly affected by conscious knowledge and reason, as it
undoubtedly manifests itself in both. But it is, I believe, much more
what we might call a permanent emotional condition, a particular way
of feeling, of reacting towards the impressions given us by the
universe. And I believe that the individual is sound, that he is
capable of being happy while increasing the happiness of others, or
the reverse, according as he reacts harmoniously or inharmoniously
towards those universal impressions. And here comes in what seems to
me the highest benefit we can receive from art and from the æsthetic
activities, which, as I have said before, are in art merely
specialised and made publicly manifest.