The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-08-06
beauty and to mans love for the beau

The sense of beauty is an endow-
ment of all men. We find it even IN
savages. In nearly all 1t has some
degree OF cultivation. Moreover, NE
al instinctiyely feel that it ought to
be cultivated, that to be person OF
taste is a legitimate, desirable, and
valuable attainment. 1t is a remark
able fact that this is the sole purely
natural propensity which can be cul-
tivated without limit and not do the
person the slightest moral harm. OF
no form of appetite can this be said.
Appetite, too, is natural and has to be
given certain scope in our life, yet
we have not single appetite which
does not carry with it positive dam
ger; and most of us are well aware
how easy it is to be swept off our feet
by the power OF one Of the lower i'm
pulses, which, after all, we cannot
eradicate and ought not to eradicate.
The love of beauty is not source of
evil in any such sense as that. I'm
doubtedly this part of our nature too
can be employed and developed in a
way to induce unfortunate moral re
suits, but If SO the evil must come
from downright abuse of the estheti,
sense, and cannot arise from the mere
exercise of that sense. In itself it is
always helpful and never noxious to
ethical well-being Our esthetic ma
ture can lead us astray only in thu
same way as our religious nature may.
Unquestionably there are people #
very highly developed sense of
beauty and thoroughly versed in ar,
who are not equally advanced in
strictly moral attainments. 1t is not
pretended that as man now is the
esthetic in us is to be out and out
identified with the moral. The two
have in practice lapsed asunder more
or less, and become somewhat suscept-
ible of notifications which from time
to time set them in certain antagon-
ism one to the other. But it is
fact after all that this antagonism is
not so natural and is not capable of
becoming so intense between the NOR
al and the esthetic within us, as it can
easily become and in most of us has
become between the moral and the
appetitive elements of our being.
Closely connected with the sense of
beauty is a more or less conscious de-
sire that all of us have, to be beauti-
full instead of ugly, to look well, to
rell1e the beautiful in some sort an
in some degree in our own persons.
This liking is not, as is sometimes
thought, confined to one sex or to any
particular period of life. Men have it
as truly as women, old persons as
truly as young persons. If there are
any human beings who lack it, the
cases are abnormal. Taste and Gull
| tivatiOn in the adornment of our per-
sons, our surroundings, our dwellings,
spring from this root Without pre-
tending that we have before us in this
what is exactly the noblest part If
our nature, | am bound to maintain
strongly that this is no characteristic
Or inclination of which any of Us
ought to I've ashamed.
| Now it IS evident that there is a
meaning in this esthetic cast which
has been given to our mental frame.
This esthttic impulse in us is no al
| fair of our natural life alone. 1t roots
deeper and grows higher. The natural
life could subsist without it. W,
| SHONlO SCl vi dlu lUlIlt d lGdI pdl !.
of the functions of our sublunary lot
If We we're totally devoid of estheti,
sensibility. Our esthetic outfit is in
this quite unlike any one of the five
senses. The entire absence from hui
mankind of any one of the senses
would almost make life impossible,
AND there are some of the senses
whose absence would make it wholly
impossible. The cancellation of beau
ty from the universe would desperate
~ impoverish life, but would not make
It impossible.
1t cannot be, either, that beauty was
thrown into our experience simply to
give us pleasure, although it does
give us pleasure One of the most
copious sources of mans joy is power
to appreciate beauty. From this
quarter, moreover, comes a very large
part of our richest enjoyment
( should not venture to call it un
worthy the author of our being tc
have constituted us esthetically as we
are, even if there had been no higher
aim in so doing than simply to enricn
our life sentimentally. Yet, If We
discover that this enjoyment sub.
serves moral purpose, especially II
we are able to perceive how it does