第67章 COMPOSITE FEELINGS.(4)

Of these, the first, or the feelings of form, belong mainly to vision, and the second, or the feelings of rhythm, to hearing, while the beginning of the development of 'both are to be found in touch.

The optical feeling of forms shows itself first of all in the preference of regular to irregular forms and then in the preference among different regular forms of those which have certain simple proportions in their various parts. The most important of these proportions are those of symmetry, or 1 : 1, and, of the golden section, or x +1: x = x :1 (the whole is to the greater part as the greater part is to the smaller). The fact that symmetry is generally preferred for the horizontal dimensions of figures and the golden section for the vertical, is probably due to associations, especially with organic forms, such as that of the human body. This preference for regularity and certain simple proportions can have no other interpretation than that t~he measurement of every single dimension is connected with a sensation of movement and an accompanying sense-feeling which enters as a partial feeling into the, total [p. 167] optical feeling of form. The total feeling of regular arrangement that arises at the sight of the whole form, is thus modified by the relation of the different sensations as well as of the partial feelings to one another.

As secondary components, which also fuse with the total feeling, we may hive here too associations and their concomitant feelings.

The feeling of rhythm is entirely dependent on the conditions discussed in considering temporal ideas. The partial feelings are here the feelings of strained and fulfilled expectation, which in their regular alternation constitute the rhythmical time-ideas themselves. The way in which these partial feelings are united, however, and especially the predominance of special ones in the total feeling, is, even more than the momentary character of an intensive feeling, dependent on the relation in which the feeling present at a given instant stands to the preceding feelings. This is especially apparent in the great influence that every alteration in rhythm exercizes on the accompanying feeling. For this reason as well as because of their general dependence on a particular temporal form of occurrence, the feelings of rhythm are the direct transitions to emotions . To be sure, an emotion may develop from any composite feeling, but in no other case is the condition for the rise of a feeling, as here, at the, same time a necessary condition for the rise of a certain degree of emotion.

The emotion is, however, usually moderated in this case, through the regular succession of feelings (cf. § 13, 1, 7).

11. The immense variety of composite feelings and the equally great variety of their conditions, render any such comprehensive and at the same time unitary psychological theory as that which was possible for spacial and temporal ideas, entirely out of the question. Still, there are even here some common attributes, through which composite feelings [p. 168] may be brought under certain general psychological heads. There are two factors which go to make up every feeling: first, the relation of the combined partial feelings to one another, and second, their synthesis to a unitary total feeling. The first of these factors is more prominent in intensive, the second in extensive feelings. But in reality they are always united, and determine each other reciprocally. Thus, a figure which is all the time agreeable, may be more and more complex the more the relations of its parts accord with certain rules, and the same holds for a rhythm. On the other hand, the union to a single whole helps to emphasize the separate affective components. In all these respects combination of feelings show the closest resemblance to intensive ideas. The extensive arrangement of impressions on the contrary, especially the spacial arrangement, tends, much more to favor a relatively independent coexistence of several ideas.

12. The close intensive union of all the components of a feeling, even in the case of those feelings whose corresponding ideas are spacial or temporal, is connected with a principle that holds for all affective processes, including those which we shall have to discuss later. This principle we will call that of the unity of the affective state. It may be formulated as follows: In a given moment only one total feeling is possible, or in other words, all the partial feelings, present at a given moment unite, in every case, to form a single total feeling. This principle of the unity of affective. states is obviously connected with the general relation between idea and feeling. For the "idea" deals with an immediate content of experience and the properties that belong to it, without regard to the subject; the "feeling" expresses the relation that invariably exists between this content and the subject.