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HANDS, Joseph. - Beauty, and the Laws Governing its Development; with suggestions on education, relative to the attainment of beauty.

Title: Beauty, and the Laws Governing its Development; with suggestions on education, relative to the attainment of beauty.
Description: London, E.W. Allen [1882?]. Slender octavo, very good in publisher's decorated ochre cloth blocked in black and gilt; 88pp. ¶ Only edition and elusive, just like describing Hands' writings in a simple and clear way. Hands was a London physician cum homeopath, apparently still respectable - viz his membership of the Royal College of Surgeons presuming his claim is true - and wrote works best, or most easily, described as thoroughly Victorian lunatic fringe: on will-ability and mind-energy, on the laws of matter and motion, and here, on aesthetics. Hands begins with seven aphorisms, one of which was Hogarth's, all sensible enough; the last is quite noble. But from there he leaps from the ideal human form (5'10" tall for man; 5'6'' for woman) to electro-polar action to colour to the lapse of time like an ibex in the high alps and following him leaves us breathless and bewildered.

Keywords: art aesthetics beauty education science philosophy psychology medicine c19th England reform progress

Price: AUD 475.00 = appr. US$ 328.64 Seller: Richard Neylon, Bookseller
- Book number: 8864