Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-11
WHAT IS BEAUTY 7-rHE PROBLEM o.
CAR WILDE WHISTLES WITH.

Oscar Wilde has been letting the public
know what he thinks about estheticism.
Now that the Rev. Thomas Hughes, s. j.,
has been leeturing to post-graduates on
Beauty" it must not be thought that he
has been following in the wake OF the
young Anglo-Irishman. An abstract of his
recent lecture will repay perusal
So 1t has been shown that infections and
cadences lin music) are not accidental or
arbitrary, but that they are determined by
certain general principles OF vital action,
aud that their expressiyeness depends on
this. They sin against science,
by setting to music ideas that are not emo.
tional enough to prompt musical express
sion; and they also sin against science by
using musical phrases that have no natural
relation to the ideas expressed, even where
these are emotional. They are bad be-
cause they are untrue. - Herbert Spencer
on Education.
Whatever in the fine arts falls short of
truth, whether moral or metaphysical, falls
short of the beautiful. Moral truth means
truthfulness or business in the expression
of sentiment metaphysical truth, exact
conformity to an absolute idea. Whatever
goes beyond, and includes the notion of
moral good or evil, adds an element ex-
trinsic to the idea of beauty. The morally
good or bad, as included in thing of
beauty, means its influence upon the moral
man. (Cf. Nat. Ethics, lect. 81 The
Moral Forces in Mani Thus, as Boetius
observes, nothing is so natural to man as to
be relaxed by sweet tones, or to be nerved
by manly ones. (De Music, i. p And
st. Augustine notes how his mind huctu-
ates inter periculum Dotuptatis ct erperi-
mentum sdia6ritatis. Cont. x, SO Plato,
likewise (Republ. iii), accepts with critical
reserve the praise accorded by Homer for
The song which is tue newest that the singers have
What, then, is Beauty? 1t consists in
proportion that is, IN the manifest order
OF many reduced to one; unity strikingly
manifested In variety because OF great
variety in great unity. Plato calls it the
splendor OF truth. It is relished upon the
mere contemplation of it-yiscanl placet.
(St. Thom. l p. q. 5, a. f. 1t pleases,
because order is co2geniai to the in
tellect. (Cf Nat. Ethics, lect. g.:
Liberty and Order.) Intelligence
lights instincsively on order with |
conscious repose and in the fac |
arts, which are expressive of things Of
beauty, it dlscerns a new proportion, |
That OF their just expreesiveness and, |
over and above all, the minds intu. |
ition CLOVIS with the absolute type, |
or beau ideal, under the reflection of which
the beauty contemplated is resplendant.
The highest beauty reveals the amplest
such ideal is more complex, as 1t includes
more proportions, and Is remoter or nearer,
as it Is more or less remote from sense
Sense is somewhat perceptive of beauty, as
being "a kind OF reason" (St. Thorn. ibid J;
but reason is the faculty properly esthetic
and, as being fully conscious, enjoys in it's
own sell. adjustment an additional proper
ton. Hence, by itself alone, "the eye is
nos filed with seeing, nor the ear with
hearing" (Eccles. i, s y
Finally, concrete facts, sights, sounds,
ETC., contain the simplest beauty-physi-
cal. Abstract truths of time or space, as
being ireer from concrete conditions, con-
ain higher beauty-mathemat Alb
'tract or spiritual truths OF being and
moral being present most beauty-met&-
ohy soal and moral. Moral LIE being
me efIlorescencs of existence, the moral
,eautY OF personal virtue, aud the social
beauty OF peace, which IS ''the tranquility
If order" range supreme. tSt. Aug De
Jiv. Del, xix, II All OF them together
re combined emlnently in beauty OF God !
-PatcT.tudo tam antigua ct tam nouai |
This Is the contemplation of divinity.