ABSTRACT
In our previous chapters we have seen that a mark of true aesthetic enjoyment is the absorption of the looker in the picture he is looking at, or of the listener in the music he is listening to; and that ideas and thoughts suggested by the object attended to are apt to be interferences with full aesthetic enjoyment, however valuable such reflections may be in and for their own sakes. This particular aspect of the subject is specially prominent in the reading of poetry because of course we are there engaged as a rule in absorbing ideas as well as sounds, except of course when we may be listening to, and even enjoying, poems beautifully read in a foreign language which we do not understand, of which experience we shall see examples later.
