Lesson 24
Beauty
What do glimpses of beauty, either in nature or art, often suggest to the human mind?
A young man sees a sunset and,
unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him,
concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond
It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience
to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light
that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and,
because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher.
And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity
greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe;
for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world
cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable.
In some moods, nature shares it.
There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer,
no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty,
a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed,
and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret.