The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-08-06
other. the order Of precedence?

Still deeper Is the third proDlem. Is
beauty, In the last essence OF 1t, eX-
ternal or internal, subjective or OBJ
iectiya modification of spirit or
modification of matter?
1t would waste time and weary pa
thence to go over even in outline the
varying answers which wise men in
different ages have returned to these
inquiries. | remark only that, be-
ginning with Plato, the tendency of
the deepest thinkers of our race who
have busted themselves with them
has been to a conclusion somewhat as
follows: That beauty, ultimately con-
sidered, Is just one thing and not
several; that at last analysis it is
spiritual in nature, thing of the mind,
not thing of matter; that the original
Of 1t, to which the name fundamental
ly belongs, is that very beauty of char
acter or of spirit to which reference
was just now made; and that men
named certain material objects beau
tiful because originally, as to the
finest and best developed natures still,
those objects awoke in souls senti-
ments akin to the sentiment which
proceeds from the vision of spiritual
beauty itself.
The thought is, in other words, that
the beautiful, instead of being co-or
dinate with the good, as an equally
Independent and fundamental cate
CORY, is subordinate to the good,
merging in it, phase or mode of it,
which dull minds and depraved NOR
oil foly q
substantive thing, but which is real
ly adjective, phenomenal an index, a
face, dress, uniform for the moral.
All of us know how beauty in ma
ture and beauty in art manage to
touch and soothe and melt us, calm
ing savage passions and tending to
make us morally better. The power
of Raphael's great Madonna pre-emi-
| nently consists, it seems to me, in
this subtle spiritual quality. The
witchery of outline, shades, tints and
perspective can never in and by them
| selves account for the compelling
fascination of that immortal work.
| Another line of illustration is at
once familiar and striking On meet
| ing person for the first time, you not
| infrequently call face very plain,
| which, when you become aware that
there Is respondent moral person
ality behind it, comes to seem to you
not only beautiful, but ravishingly
| beautiful. The precise reverse of this
happens, too. Sometimes the face is
at first attractive, but loses this quail
ity, turning homely if not hideous
when you find it's beauty to be only
skin deep. These experiences with
which all are familiar depend on
something far more solid than fancy.
By some innate faculty of perception
or delicate result of observation and
experience, when we find beauty in
human being we expect to find good
ness as we'll; and if the twain appear
to be sundered we inwardly complain
and protest.
l would draw attention to still an
other fact. Even the dullest of us
spontaneously connect ordinary VIII
moral beauty in some such way as has
been indicated. To noble deed wa
attach quality, other than its util-
ity, other than even it's mere recti.
| tude, which we easily see to be at least
analogous to the beauty of master
piece in art. President Edwards has
excellently described this close rela-
tionship between the esthetic and the
| ethical, in what is one of his most
original treatises.
The moral theory of beauty cannot
exactly be proved; but the assumption
of it SO harmonizes experienced and
facts as to give us an assurance of it's
truth which could hardly be height
ened by mathematical demonstration,
The argument for it is like that for
many another deep verify of life or of
nature. We cannot prove the fact in
the ordinary manner. When, how
ever, we find on assuming it that ali
the data relating to the subject won
derfully fall into order, while the de-
NAL of it makes them a hopeless
chaos we have a degree OF certituda
touching the view in question which.
it would be hard to exceed. So it is
believe, with that thought of the
nature of beauty which makes it the
mask or sign of the morally good. II
reduces to order so many otherwise
intractable facts that we feel it must
be true The esthetic world Is not a
sovereignty, an Independent kingdom
| of hainO hut q dopondoucv within q Il