[October 31st, 1858.]
The words with which we are most familiar we find it most difficult to define. We all know what beauty is, or, rather, we are all familiar with that state of mind which the perception of beauty produces; but no one has yet succeeded in defining beauty itself. The theories of philosophers are numerous and unsatisfactory. The remains a mystery. It is enough to know, 1. That beauty is that attribute of an object which awakens a peculiar pleasure in the mind, which pleasure we are conscious is not a sensation, and not moral, i.e., not an approbation of the conscience, but æsthetical. This pleasure is a complacent delight in the object itself apart from its relation to us.
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Therefore it is entirely unselfish. Beauty cannot be appropriated. It is a common good. The beauties of nature no one can monopolize, and no one would if he could. It is not the less to one man because enjoyed by millions.
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Beauty is of different kinds. Of natural objects, as flowers, an animal, a landscape, the ocean when calm, the moon in a cloudless sky; of works of art, a building, a statue, a picture. In all these cases the pleasure is entirely independent of the perception of utility. Of the human countenance, a beautiful face of a child, of a youth, of a man, of a woman, and that woman a sister or mother, excites a pleasure altogether peculiar to itself. It is the beauty of an intelligent being, and therefore partakes of the nature of intellectual beauty. 4. There is a beauty which addresses itself to the understanding. That is, the objects of the intellect when perceived, excite a pleasure analogous to that produced by a beautiful sensible object; e.g., beauty of style, which is not mere rythm, but fitness, perspicuity, attributes which address themselves to the intelligence. So there is a beauty in a demonstration, in a logical argument; there is the eloquence of logic. 5. Moral beauty. This is distinct from moral approbation. The contemplation of a good deed, or of a moral character, of a high order, excites not only approbation, but also a peculiar kind of pleasure, a complacent delight. 6. So there is a higher beauty still, the beauty of Holiness. As there is a beauty which addresses itself to the eye and to the ear, another which addresses itself to the intellect, another to the moral nature, so there is another which addresses itself to the higher life implanted in regeneration. There is a beauty in Holiness; or Holiness is beautiful.
By holiness is meant, 1. Purity. 2. Opposition to all evil. 3. All positive moral excellence. This exists imperfectly in man, perfectly though limited in angels, perfectly and without limit in God. When it is said that holiness is beautiful, it is meant not merely that it is an object of approbation, or of respect, or of fear or veneration, but of complacent delight; that it gives a peculiar pleasure, and that of the highest kind, which from analogy is called beauty. This beauty is revealed most clearly in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is represented as most beautiful. The Scriptures are filled with descriptions of the beauty of holiness as manifested in Jesus Christ. The Church is represented as ravished with his beauty.
How is this beauty to be obtained?
- All beauty is a gift. It never can be bought. It is a peculiar form of the manifestation of God. The beauty of holiness in us is the manifestation of God in us. The Spirit of God in us is the Spirit of glory. Therefore, 1. We must have our sins washed away in the blood of Christ. 2. We must have the Spirit of Christ dwell in us. 3. We must converse with the refined and beautiful through the word, sacraments and prayer.
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