THE
MECHANICAL
FALLACY 115
raisedtoo
high forsecurity,and
thatthecolonnade
fallstoo lowtoreceive
thethrust, andthat,inany
case,
thevolume ofthecolonnade isinadequate
to
^e purpose,evenwerethe
thrustreceived.
Thisis
oneofthecommonestconfusionsofcriticism.
Just
as,in theprevious
question, thescientificview
fails adequately to distinguish
between fact and
appearance, so
here it fails to mark the relevant
distinction between feeling and knowing. Forms
imposetheir
ownaestheticcharacteronadulysensitive
attention,quiteindependentlyofwhatwemayknow,
ornotknow,
aboutthem. This
istrueinregard to
scientificknowledge, justas in the
lastchapter we
sawittobetrueinreferencetohistoricalorliterary
knowledge. The concavity orconvexity of curves,
thebroadrelationsof
masses,theproportionsofpart
topart,ofbasetosuperstructure,oflighttoshade,
speak their
own language, and convey their own
suggestions of strength or weakness,
life
or
repose.
Thesuggestions
oftheseforms,iftheyaregenuinely
felt,willnotbemodifiedby
anythingwemayintel-
lectually discover about the complex, mechanical
conditions,which in a
givensituation mayactually
contradict
the
apparentmessageofthe
forms. The
message remains the same.
[For our capacity to
realisethe forces
atworkinabuilding
intellectually
is, to all intents,
unlimited
;
but our capacity to
realisethem
cBstheticallyislimited. We
feelthevalue
