Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-18

Nothing is really finished until it is
beautiful"
This sentence, out of an essay by
Hamilton Wright Mabie, is Of the type
which calls ones thought back to 1t
time and time again.
Nothing Is really finished until it is
beautiful" Is that really true?
The author was speaking Of Nature
and her seemingly constant effort 70
make the world beautiful her great sue
cess in making the least and commonest
thing lovely.
The thought is one which strikes the
reader as being applicable to much more
than the beauties of Nature.
Can it be said that nothing, anywhere,
is really finished until it is beautiful?
It is a subject which requires re-
view of the whole field of beauty, from
that which lies in rocks and trees to
that which somehow shines from the
moral nature of man.
The world of books offers many keys.
Beauty is a constant theme in the Bible.
filled with it. One has but to recall
Longinls' Essay on the Sublime"
The most recent attempt in the world
Of letters to analyZe beauty is contained
in the major poem, THE Testament of
Beauty" by Robert Bridges, England's
poet laureate.
Just what success the venerable au-
thor achieves must be left to the judg-
ment of the individual reader 1t may
be said that the word analysis" is
rather too severe in application to Tile
Testament"
The poet is in love with beauty In
life and inanimate Nature Cf such a
thing exists, which modern chemistry
rlhUcinc anRSAtNiV,n tr Nov Elr1n 49,
He is so in love that he wants TO write
a poem about Beauty. If the result
is not dissection. as some had hoped,
at least 1t is very plainly love song.
Perhaps that Is the best poetry can do,
after all.
** X
One will not get very far, therefore,
in his search for the secret of beauty,
by sticking to books, for the written
word is thought, after all, and thought
forms only a portion of the essential
whole.
Beauty may be in the same category
as sound, which would not exist, so
the physicists tell us, unless there were
ears to hear 1t. A favorite question in
college classes is to ask the students,
IF shot were fired on the moon, and
there was no one there with ears, would
students, thinking themselves very
smart, will cry, Yes" but they should
say, NO"
Beauty, like love, demands a human
being to appreciate it. The term, 1.-The
love of God" is only understandable in
terms of humanity. If God is there,
we must be here, else the equation does
not hold.
Beauty, in the abstract, is a scarcely
possible concept, except in the mazes
of theory, which after all do little good
in the world, and only serve to permit
hard, practical men of affairs to brand
poets indiscriminately as visionary"
True poets, whether they work with
prose or poetry, are the guardians of
beauty in the lives of men. because
they are not afraid of the word itself.
The danger they run is that Of too
much prating of their magic word,
Beauty"
Beauty, to be true to itself, must
meet practical ends in human life, else
1t runs as wild as the bit of interior
decoration which serves no human
purpose.
If nothing is really finished until 1t
is beautiful, 1t Is so because there is
something better in life than the hard
and-faSt fellows will admit. They will
not admit it because they demand