what is our reaction to an artistic stimulus?

For an answer to such wider questions as these, we moderns turn to the
so-called science of Aesthetics. This word, derived from the Greek
_aisthanomai_ (to perceive), has been defined as "anything having to do
with perception by the senses." But it was first used in its present sense
by the German thinker Baumgarten in the middle of the eighteenth century.
He meant by it "the theory of the fine arts." It has proved a convenient
term to describe both "The Science of the Beautiful" and "The Philosophy
of Beauty"; that is, both the analysis and classification of beautiful
things as well as speculation as to the origin and nature of Beauty
itself. But it should be borne in mind that aesthetic inquiry and answer
may precede by thousands of years the use of the formal language of
aesthetic theory. Mr. Kipling's "Story of Ung" cleverly represents the
cave-men as discussing the very topics which the contemporary studio and
classroom strive in vain to settle,--in vain, because they are the eternal
problems of art. Here are two faces, two trees, two colors, one of which
seems preferable to the other. Wherein lies the difference, as far as the
objects themselves are concerned? And what is it which the preferable face
or tree or color stirs or awakens within us as we look at it? These are
what we call aesthetic questions, but a man or a race may have a delicate
and sure sense of beauty without consciously asking such questions at all.
The awareness of beautiful objects in nature, and even the ability to
create a beautiful work of art, may not be accompanied by any gift for
aesthetic speculation. Conversely, many a Professor of aesthetics has
contentedly lived in an ugly house and you would not think that he had
ever looked at river or sky or had his pulses quickened by a tune.
Nevertheless, no one can turn the pages of a formal History of Aesthetics
without being reminded that the oldest and apparently the most simple
inquiries in this field may also be the subtlest and in a sense the most