In the past we have stated that we like all persons of taste and discrimination adhere to objective and absolute standards, and we need not repeat our arguments here. But since we suspect many Members are still confused about this question, let us here consider and discuss what the perspicacious writer Edward Rothstein (some time chief music critic for the Times) has to say in his little book about the "inner life of music and mathematics."

"The judgement of beauty has an absolute aspect to it; beauty seems well suited to be a companion to truth. We feel beauty to be universal, beyond the reach of time or fashion or individual whim. There is something about beauty which is both private - because it involves silent feeling - and public - because it makes us feel as if it is revealing something universal. The judgement of beauty is not idiosyncratic - or so we think and feel - but something more fundamental. Beauty feels like an aspect of public knowledge. We may not actually assert that every one will agree with our proclamation of beauty, but beauty inspires a feeling that every one should agree.

"Of course, we haven't proved that taste is universal or that beauty is objective; the only assertion is that the judgement of beauty is treated as universal and felt as objective. One of the peculiar aspects of modern aesthetic taste is that the universal feeling beauty inspires is often denigrated as if in fear of its claims; instead, we force ourselves to treat all notions of beauty as being relative assertions of taste. The result can be an art that is anxious about its aesthetic quality, as if asserting its independence from all claims, an art that refuses to be public or even beautiful."

All good stuff, and he is absolutely right, is he not? Members may take it from him when they are for whatever reason reluctant to take it from us.

We are indebted to Master Grew for drawing our attention to this admirably succinct, if slightly flowery and herbaceous, statement from Mr Rostein of the central problem of the philosophy of aesthetics: the problem of how to account for the apparently dual nature of aesthetic propositions. We ourselves have no complaint against it as a statement of that pressing but evergreen task.

We look forward with excited anticipation to the prospect of Members grappling with this puzzle (as well, of course, to the initial "Oh no it's not!". "Oh yes it is!" preliminaries which traditionally herald the main business).