 Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting begins with an investigation of the “striking pleasure (1.1)” that humans receive from the experience of poetry and painting. (All references to the Critical Reflections are by volume and chapter. These references will be correct for any edition from 1740 on.) The book focuses on the two fine arts mentioned in the book’s title, but Du Bos also discusses sculpture, engraving, dance, and music. According to Du Bos, we receive pleasure from the fine arts because works of art are imitations of objects in the world. Presumably, on Du Bos’s view, the similarity between imitations and the objects imitated is responsible for the arousal of emotion. When we experience imitations, we receive emotions similar to, but less intense than, the emotions we feel when we experience the objects imitated. If these emotions are pleasing, Du Bos has an account of the pleasure that humans receive from experience of the fine arts.