The Eambles of an Idler 



matters of course, do we cease to realize their 

 goodness. 



This is equally true of what we see. Nothing 

 is easier than to defend ugliness successfully. 

 Let me bring this home in a painfully direct 

 way. Does loveliness depart as the cruel years 

 hurry by? Where is that charming face which 

 captured the heart when youth was at the helm? 

 Time has writ wrinkles where the brow was 

 once as polished marble, but does the lover 

 cease to be a lover because of it? Has the 

 charm fled? Does the word "ugly" even enter 

 into the mind ? Such things have been, I admit, 

 but the imperfection of man in such a case is 

 abnormal. All else is perfect or marvel ously 

 near it. Man alone is yet in a formative stage, 

 and this is his sole excuse for the ugliness that 

 is in him and found nowhere else. Falling 

 short of what he ought to be, he cries out 

 "ugly" at whatever he fails to realize in its full 

 significance. "Ugly" is but the echo of man's 

 deficiency. 



The rotting carcass fills us with disgust. All 

 our senses are sickened when we face such an 

 object ; but let chemistry come to our aid, and, 

 while we may still be desirous of avoiding the 



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