The Good consists in the congruity of a thing with the laws of the reason and the nature of the will, and in its fitness to determine the latter to actualize the former: and it is always discursive. The Beautiful arises from the perceived harmony of an object, whether sight or sound, with the inborn and constitutive rules of the judgment and imagination: and it is always intuitive.

More information about this quote

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Original Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "On the Principles of Genial Criticism Concerning the Fine Arts." Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. Bristol, Aug. and Sept. 1814.

Current Citation

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Essays on the Principles of Genial Criticism." The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, vol. 11, pt. 1: Shorter Works and Fragments, edited by Kathleen Coburn. Princeton University Press, 2019.