The most general definition of beauty… Multeity in Unity.

Coleridge’s formula “multeity in unity” (often glossed as “manyness in oneness”) expresses a Romantic and idealist conviction that beauty arises when diverse elements—parts, details, sensations, or ideas—are apprehended as forming a coherent whole. The phrase implies that beauty is not mere simplicity, nor mere variety, but an ordered integration in which multiplicity is harmonized without being erased. In aesthetics, this points to the way a poem, painting, or natural scene can contain rich complexity while still yielding a single, satisfying impression. Philosophically, it also gestures toward Coleridge’s broader interest in reconciling opposites (subject/object, imagination/reason) through a unifying principle.