HOME BEAUTY
The Artist in his quest for Natural Beauty will have pursued it in the
remotest and wildest parts of the Earth, where he can see Nature in
her primeval and most elemental simplicity. He will have seen her in
many and most varied aspects--the grandest, the wildest, and the
most luxuriant. And from these numerous and so different
manifestations of Nature he will have been enabled more fully to
understand her meaning and comprehend her soul. Moreover, this
contemplation of Nature will have evoked from within himself much
that he had never suspected he possessed, and thereby his own soul
also he will have learned to understand. And from this completer
comprehension of his own soul and hers will have emerged a fuller
community of heart between him and Nature. He will have come to
worship her with a still more ardent devotion, and through the
intensity of his love discovered richer and richer Beauty in her.
But even yet he has not seen Natural Beauty where it can be found
in its highest perfection. Only when there can be the most intimate
possible relationship between him and the natural object he is
contemplating can Beauty at its finest be seen. And this closest
correspondence of all between him and Nature will only be when he
is in the natural surroundings with which he has been familiar from
childhood, and which have affected him in his most impressionable
years.
The Artist will have seen Nature as she manifests herself in the
teeming life of a tropical forest and the most varied races of men; in
the highest mountains and the widest deserts; in the glory of sunsets
and the calm of stars. But it is in none of these that he will see
deepest into the true Heart of Nature and understand her best. It is
amid scenery which he has loved since boyhood, in the hearts of his
own countrymen in their own country, that he will see deepest into
Nature. And deepest of all will he see when from among his
countrywomen he has united himself to the one of his own
deliberate choice, and in this union realised in its fulness, strength,
and intensity that Creative Love which springs from Nature's very
heart, and is the ultimate fount and source of all Natural Beauty.
We like to go out over all the Earth and see the wonders of it. And
we learn to love the great mountains and rich forests and unfenced
steppes and veldts and prairies. And we get to love also the various
peoples among whom we have to work and travel. But in his heart
of hearts each man likes to get back to the scenes of his childhood.
The plainsman likes to get back again from the mountains to his
level plains where the scene is closer and more intimate. The
mountaineer likes to retire again from the plains into the mountains.
The dweller on the veldt likes to get out of the forest on to the great
open spaces once more. The inhabitant of the forest likes to get back
there again from the plains. And the Englishman, though he loves
the Alps and the Himalaya, is touched by nothing so deeply as by a
Devonshire lane with its banks of primroses and violets. And he
may have the greatest affection for peoples of other races among
whom he may have had to work, yet it is his own countrymen that
he will always really love.
So the Artist comes back to home surroundings and his own people.
And he will return with his sense of beauty quickened and refined
by this wide and varied experience of Nature. His sensibility to the
beauties of Nature will now be of rarest delicacy, and his capacity
for fine discrimination and his feeling for distinction and excellence
sure and keen.
He will have been toned and tuned up to the highest pitch in his
wrestling with Nature, and will have been purged and purified in the
white region of the highest mountains. And in this high-strung state
he will now see that creation and manifestation of Nature which of
all natural objects will best declare her meaning, bring him into
closer touch with her very Heart, and stir in him the deepest
emotions. Between him and this object there will be possible the
closest community of soul. Here then he will see Natural Beauty at
its very finest.
The natural object in which he will see this consummation of Beauty
will be the woman who will be to him a kindred spirit, and whom he
will first admire and then love.
It was through the love of man and woman for each other in the
far-off ages when love first came into the hearts of men that Natural
Beauty also first dawned upon them. It is through that love that
Natural Beauty has been continually growing in fulness and
splendour. And it will be through that same love of man and woman
for each other that the Artist will see Natural Beauty reach its
highest perfection. For in this love man first learned to enter into the
soul of another, to recognise samenesses between himself and
another, and to live in communion with another. And so in time he
came to recognise samenesses between what was in his heart and
what was in the Heart of Nature, to enter into communion with
Nature, and through the wedding of himself with Nature see the
Beauty in her. He was able in some slight degree to be towards
Nature what we see the midge buzzing round a man must be if that
midge is to see the beauty of man. Just as the midge, if it is to see
the beauty in man, must be able to recognise samenesses between its
life and the life of man, so man to see Beauty in Nature had to
recognise identity of life between him and Nature as he was first
inspired to see it through the love of man and woman for each other.
And now the Artist with his wide experience of Nature and united
with his own countrywoman in his own country will recognise a still
closer identity between himself and Nature, and so see an even fuller
Beauty in her.
Assuming the man and woman, both by their upbringing and by
outward circumstances, to have been able to develop the best
capacities within them and to be meeting now under conditions most
favourable for their union, we shall see how perfect is the Beauty
which may be revealed. The man will be in the prime of his
manhood, and the woman in the prime of her womanhood. The man
manly and radiating manhood, the woman womanly and radiating
womanhood: their manhood and womanhood welling up within
them, each eager to answer the call of the other.
Hers will be no light and shallow beauty insipid as milk and water,
but will be sweet as the violet, delicate as the primrose, pure as the
lily, yet with all the sweetness, delicacy and purity, radiant as the
sunrise. And they will be no pale and puny lovers, soft and mild as
doves, and content to lead a dull and trivial life. They will be high of
spirit, graceful, swift, and supple as the greyhound; and as keenly
intent on living a full and varied life with every moment of it worth
while as ever the greyhound is in pursuing its object. They will be
capable of intense and passionate emotion, yet with all their eager
impulsiveness they will have wills strong to keep themselves in
hand, and to maintain their direction true through all the mazy
intricacies of life and love.
In the bringing together of such a pair Natural Beauty will play a
vitally important part. Of all objects that Nature has produced--of all
the offspring of the Earth--such a man and woman are the most
beautiful. And we may assume that as they are drawn to each other
they will put forth the very best of themselves and give out the
utmost beauty that is in them. Moreover, they will be more beautiful
to each other than they are to anybody else. Unconsciously they will
reveal to each other what they _can_ reveal to none other but
themselves. Insensibly the windows of their souls will be opened to
each other. The lovelight in their eyes--the lovelight which can
_only_ be shown to each other--will discover to them hidden depths
of beauty they had never gathered they possessed.
And this beauty will be something more than mere prettiness or
handsomeness of face. The man will see the beauty of the woman
--and she his--not only in the face and features, but in the presence,
bearing, and carriage, in the gestures, movements, and behaviour.
Behind the outward aspect he will see the inward spirit, the real self,
the true nature, the radiant personality. And the beauty that he sees
will fill him with a passionate yearning, both to give and to possess.
He will want both to give the utmost and best of himself, and also to
possess what so satisfies all the cravings of the soul. And whether it
be to give or to possess that he most wants he will be unable to
distinguish. But, in the craving to give and possess, the highest
stimulus will be afforded him to exert every faculty to its limit. The
effort will give zest, and with zest will come added powers of vision,
so that he will be able to see both her and his inmost and utmost
capabilities. And though the force of outward circumstances may
prevent both her and him from ever completely fulfilling those latent
possibilities, what they see of themselves and of each other in those
divine moments may nevertheless be a perfectly true vision of their
real and fundamental nature. Love is not so blind as is supposed.
Love is capable of seeing clearer and deeper than any other faculty.
What the Artist now sees with the eyes of Love will be the ground
upon which he will have to form his judgment in the most critical
decision of his life. For the moment will now have come when he
will have to decide whether of all others he will give himself to her,
and whether he can presume to ask of her that she will give herself
to him--and each to the other for all the rest of their lives. It is a
momentous decision to have to make. With his highly developed
power of vision he will have divined her true nature. But he will
have now to exercise his judgment on it--whether it will satisfy the
needs of his whole being and whether his whole being is sufficient
to satisfy her needs. Each has to be sure that his peculiar nature
satisfies--and satisfies fully--his or her own peculiar needs, and that
his peculiar nature satisfies the other's needs. A wrong decision here
is fatal. The responsibility is fearful. All will depend upon his
keenness of vision, his capacity for discrimination, and his
soundness of judgment. The decision may be arrived at swiftly and
consciously, or it may be come to unconsciously, gradually, and
imperceptibly. But shorter or longer the time, consciously or
unconsciously the method, it will have in the end to be made in a
perfectly definite fashion--yes or no--and from that decision there
can be no going back. And on that clear decision will hang the
future welfare not only of the one who makes it, but of both. Each,
therefore, has to decide for the welfare of both.
This is the real Day of Judgment. And each is his own judge. Now
all his and her past life and inborn nature is being put to the test in a
fierce ordeal--and the fiery ordeal of love is more searching even
than the ordeal of war. Every smallest blot and blemish, every
slightest impurity is shown up in startling clearness. Every flaw at
once betrays itself. What will not bear a strain immediately breaks
down. There is not an imperfection which is not glaringly displayed.
The other may not see it, but he himself will--and upon him is the
responsibility.
No wonder that both the one and the other hesitate to commit
themselves finally and irrevocably! Can he with all his blots and
blemishes, his failings and weaknesses, offer to give himself to the
other? Is he worthy to receive all that he would expect to receive in
return? Is he justified in asking that the whole being and the most
sacred thing in life should be given over utterly to him? It seems
astounding that any man should ever have the impudence to answer
such questions in the affirmative. Doubtless he would not have had
such effrontery but for two considerations.
In the first place he knows that, imperfect as he may be--downright
sinful as he may often have been--he is not bad at bottom. At heart,
he knows for certain he has capacities for improvement which
would come at once into being if only they had the opportunity for
development. And he knows that the other could make those
opportunities--could provide the stimulus which would awaken in
him and bring to fruit many a hidden capability of good. Every
faculty in him he now feels being quickened to an activity never
known before. Blemishes he feels being purged away in the
cleansing fires of pure love. He feels that with the other he will be,
as he has never been before, his whole and his true self. And this is
the first consideration which gives him confidence.
The second is that he feels himself now to a very special degree in
direct and intimate touch with the central Heart of Nature.
Something from what he feels by instinct is the Divine Source of
Life and Love comes springing up within him, penetrating him
through and through, supporting and upholding him and urging him
forward. He feels that he directly springs from that Source, and that
it will ever sustain him as long as he is true to his own real self, and
works for those high ends towards which he feels himself impelled.
With strong faith, then, he makes his decision--with strong faith in
_himself,_ for he knows himself to be inspired by the same great
Spirit which animates the whole world of which he is himself a part.
And having in this faith made his decision, he girds himself for the
poignant battle of love.
And as in war so in love men--and women--rise to altogether
unexpected heights of courage, endurance, and devotion. War is a
fine spur to excellence. But love is an even finer. Every faculty is
quickened and refined. Every high quality brought into fullest
exercise. Daring and caution, utter disregard of self and selfishness
in the extreme, are alike required. For the two will never achieve full
wedded union until they have fought their way through many an
interposing obstacle. Adroitness, and that rare quality, social
courage, will be needed in dealing with ever-recurring, complicated,
painful, and nerve-straining situations. Even in their attitude towards
one another as they gradually come together the finest address will
be required. For each has necessarily to be comparing himself and
comparing the object of his love with others; and each feels that he
is being similarly compared. There can be no final assurance till the
union is completed. A single ill-judged word or action may ruin all.
At any moment another may be preferred--or at least one of the two
may find the other inadequate or deficient.
All this will afford the highest stimulus to emulation. Each will
strive to excel in what the other approves and appreciates--or at any
rate to excel in what is his own particular line. He will be incited to
show himself at his best and to be his best.
But before the bliss of completest union is attained anguish and
rapture in exquisite extremes will be experienced. For the soul of
each will be exposed in all its quivering sensitiveness, and any but
the most delicate touch will be a torture to it. Fortitude of the firmest
will be required to bear the wounds which must necessarily come
from this exposure. Each, too, will have to bear the pain of the
suffering they must inevitably be causing to some few others--and
those others among their very dearest.
As the intimacy of union becomes closer and closer the call for
bodily union will become more and more insistent. In the first
instance--and this is a point which is specially worth noting--the
desire was _entirely_ for spiritual union, for union of the _spirits_ of
each. What each admired and loved in the other was his or her
capacity for love. He realised what a wonderful love the other
_could_ give. And he yearned with all his heart to have that love
directed towards himself. It was a purely spiritual union that his
heart was set on. The thought of bodily union did not enter his head.
But the need for bodily touch as a means of expressing human
feeling is inherent in human nature, and becomes more and more
urgent as the feeling becomes warmer. Friends have to shake hands
with each other and pat each other on the back in order to show the
warmth of their feeling for one another. Women affectionately
embrace one another. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, kiss
one another. It is impossible adequately to express affection without
bodily touch. And in the case of lovers, as the love deepens so also
deepens the compelling need to express this love in bodily union of
the closest possible.
And so the supreme moment arrives when each gives himself
wholly, utterly, and for ever to the other--body, soul, and spirit--and
they twain are one. And the remarkable result ensues that each in
giving himself to the other has become more completely and truly
himself than he has ever been before. He strives to become more and
more closely wedded with the other. He yearns to give himself more
completely and longs that there was more of himself to give. And he
gives himself as completely as he can. Yet he has never before been
so fully himself. The closeness and intimacy of the union, and all
that he has received, has enabled him to bring forth and give
utterance to what had lain deep and dormant within him--all his
fondest hopes, his dearest dreams, his highest aspirations. Each is
more himself in the other. He is, indeed, not himself without the
other. Each has won possession of the other. Each has with joy and
gladness given himself to the other. Each belongs to the other. Each
is all the world to the other--a treasure without price. He is ever after
in her as her own being. And she is in him as his own being. Apart
from each other they are never again themselves. They are absorbed
in mutual joy in one another.
The intensity of delight is more than they can bear. It brims up and
overflows and goes bursting out to all the world. By being able to be
their whole selves they have become more closely in touch with the
deepest Heart of Nature and nearest the Divine. In that hushed and
sacred moment when the ecstasy of life and love is at its highest
they have never felt stronger, purer, lighter, nearer the Divine. They
have reached deep down to the most elemental part of their nature.
And they have soared up highest to the most Divine. But Divine and
elemental, spiritual and bodily, seem one. There seems to be nothing
bodily which is not spiritual. And nothing elemental which is not
Divine.
It is not often that they will attain these culminating heights of
spiritual exaltation. Nor will they be able long to remain there. The
lark, the eagle, the airman, have all to come to earth again. And they
spend most of their lives on the earth. But the lovers will have
known what it is to soar. They will have found their wings. They
will have seen heaven once, and breathed its air. And all nature, all
human relationships, will be for ever after transfigured in heaven's
light.
The state of being to which these twain have now arrived is the
highest and best in life. This spiritual union of man and woman--this
union of their souls which their bodily union has made possible in
completeness--is that which of all else has most value. The
friendship of men for men and women for women is high up in the
scale of being. But it is not at the supreme summit. The holy union
of man and woman is higher still, because it is a relation of the
_whole_ being of each to the other, and because it brings both into
direct and closest contact with the Primal Source of Things, and on
the line which points them highest. The relationship satisfies the
_whole_ needs of the selves of each and satisfies the urgency of the
Heart of Nature.
* * *
So now our Artist will have experienced true spirituality in its
highest degree; and having experienced also the most elemental in
his nature, he will perforce have come in touch with Nature along
her whole range. And his soul being at the finest pitch of
sensitiveness, he will be able to appreciate Natural Beauty as never
before. And nothing less than _natural_ beauties, and nothing less
than these beauties at their best, will in his exalted mood be
satisfying to him. He will be driven irresistibly into the open air and
the warm sunshine, and to the bosom of Mother-Earth. And there in
the blue of heaven and in dreamy clouds; in the wide sea, or in
tranquil lakes; in ethereal mountains or in verdant woodlands; in the
loveliness of flowers, and in the music of the birds, he will find that
which his spirit seeks--that to which his spirit wants to give response.
Only there in the open, in the midst of Nature, will he find horizons
wide enough, heights high enough, beauties rich enough, for his
soul's needs.
The flowers as he looks into them will disclose glories of colour,
texture, form, and fragrance he never yet had seen. The comely
forms of trees, their varying greenery, and the dancing sunlight on
the leaves, will fill him with an intensity of delight that heretofore he
had never known. And as once more he goes among his fellow-men
he will see them in a newer and a truer light. His contact with them
will be easier; his friendships deeper; his certainty of affection surer;
and his capacity for entering into every joy and sorrow
immeasurably enlarged.
Through his love, our ideal Artist will have been enabled to reach
deeper into the Heart of Nature than he had ever reached before, and
to feel more intimately at one with her. And being thus in warmest
touch with her, Natural Beauty, strong, deep, and delicate as only
finest love can disclose, will be revealed to him. Enjoyment of
Natural Beauty in its perfection is the prize he will have won.