THE BEAUTIFUL. 105 



an emotion of pleasure. It is beautiful. The true is 

 beautiful. 



Think of the spotlessness of infancy. It is a character 

 perfectly coordinated with our idea of innocence. We 

 apprehend the beaut/ of the moral harmony and experi- 

 ence delight. The good is beautiful. 



Think of anything beautiful, a beautiful statue. Be- 

 ing beautiful, it conforms to the standard of beauty exist- 

 ing in the reason; it is therefore true. The beautiful is 

 true. In being beautiful it awakens delightful emotions 

 and confers happiness. It is so far good. But that true 

 beauty which inculcates by example, fidelity to a divine 

 idea established in reason, is a moral influence. The 

 beautiful is morally good. 



It is impossible, then, to contemplate the beautiful 

 abstracted from the true and the good. Everything or- 

 dained to exist discloses the beautiful in ever-varying 

 guise. We must range through the universe and note 

 where this spirit from heaven has made her dwelling- 

 places. 



First, there is PHYSICAL BEAUTY, the beautiful in visi- 

 ble things. Nature is beautiful. In every realm and in 

 every element, the aesthetic sense is feasted on a luxuri- 

 ance of forms, and colors, and relations, in which beauty 

 is superadded to provisions which seem to occupy the pri- 

 mary place. We find nothing which is useful alone; or- 

 nament, grace, coloring, finish, are lavished everywhere. 

 The variety in nature's beauty is not less striking than 

 its universality. It amazes us with its vastness; it con- 

 founds us with its minuteness. It is the beauty of su- 

 pernal and infinitely blended colors; the serene majesty 

 of uplifted mountains, carrying thought to the very heaven 



