Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-12-30
CHAPTER XI.
THE SIMPLE BEAUTY.

name of the aesthetic against the or
ganizatiOn of the simple life. Or to
oppose us by the theory of useful lux
ury, the providence of business, great
nourisher of arts and ornament of
civilized societies. We wish to an
swer them in advance by few brief
remarks.
Doubtless the reader has perceived
that the spirit which animates these
pages is not the spirit of utilitarian-
ism 1t would be an error to think that
the simplicity which we seek had any
thing in common with that of sordidly
avaricious misers and the spirits mar
rowed by false rigors. For the first
the life is simple and cheap. For the
others it is wan and vegetative ex-
istence, where the merit consists in
depriving oneself of all that smiles,
shines, and charms.
1t does not displease us that those
who have much wealth should put
their fortune in circulation instead
of boarding it, and thus cause COM
merce to thrive and the fine arts to
prosper. After all, they draw an eX-
cellent benefit from their privileged
situation. What we are fighting
against is the stupid prodigality, the
egostistical use of riches and the
search for the superfiuous by those
who need, before all, to take care Of
the necessary. The luxury of a Maece-
mas could never have the same inf1u-
ence on society as would that of
vulgar pleasure-seeker, who aston
ishes his contemporaries by the ex-
travagance of his life and the folly
of his expenditures. The same term
here designates very different things.
To SOW money Is not all; there are
ways of sowing it which ennoble men,
and others which debase them. To
SOW money, besides, means that they
are abundantly supplied. AS soon as
the love of the sumptuous life takes
the question changes singularly And
what strikes us in these times is the
rage to spend their means among
those who should take care Of it. That
munificence is social benefit, we
accord willingly. That it may be
even sustained, that the prodigality
of certain rich ones is like a drain
pipe destined to carry off the overflow,
We will not even try to contest. We
will state only that there are too many
people who use the waste-pipe, while
it would be to their interest-and is
their duty-to practice economy.
Their luxury and their love of it are
q private misery and a public danger.
Now for the useful luxury.
We wish to explain ourselves now
on the aesthetic side of the question.
oh, very modestly, and without step
ping on the ground belonging to the
specialists. By too common illusion
people consider simplicity and beauty
as two rivals. But simple is not
synonymous with ugly, no more than
luxurious, overweighted, sought for,
and costly, is the synonym of beauti-
full. Our eyes are wounded by the
brilliant spectacle Of striking beau
ty, dressed in vulgar taste; of venal
art, or a luxury. without grace or
mind. Richness allied with bad taste
often makes us regret that they have
so much money to bring forth such
a prodigious quantity of works of low
class. Our contemporary art suffers
from a lack of simplicity, as well as
our literature: too many ornaments
added, flourishes turned, and magma
lions tormented Rarely in the lines,
the forms or the colors is it given us
to contemplate that simplicity allied
to perfection, which imposes itself on
the sight as evidence imposes on the
mind We need to battle ourselves
again in the ideal purity Of the i'm
mortal beauty which puts its signet
on the great works, and one sole ray
of which values more than all the
pompous exhibitions
However, that which We have most
at heart here is to speak of the ordi-
nary aesthetics of life, of the care
which We should put into the orna-
mentation of our habitations and our
| selves, to give to existence that lustre
without which it has no charm. For
it is not Indifferent that man has or
has not care for this necessary super
fuosity. That is what we meet if he
puts soul into his life. Far from con-
sidering as a useless preoccupation
that which causes us to embellish,
care for, idealize, | think that we
should entertain it as far as possible.
Nature itself gives us the example,
and the man who affects to dispise
fragile ray of beauty, with which we
ornament our rapid days, will be set
ting aside the intentions of Him who
put the same care and the same love
to paint the ephemeral flower that He
| gave to the eternal mountain.
But we must not fall into the gross
| temptation which makes us confound
true beauty with that which has but
| the name, The beauty and the poetry
| of existence hold the sense We give
| them. Our houses, our table, and our
| toilet should translate our intentions
| To put those intentions in them we
| must first have them. He who pos
| sesses them knows how to display
them by the most simple means. One
| does not need wealth to give grace
| and charm to onG's habitation and
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