The Healthy Life Part 14

Bright burns thy fire, e'en to its latest ember, The sunset fire that lights thee to thy bier, Flaming and failing not, albeit so near Dun-robed October waits, and grey November.

And though, at sight of thee, a chill change pa.s.ses Through wood and wold, on leaves and flowers and gra.s.ses, Thy beauty wanes not; thou hast ne'er grown old; Death-crowned as Cleopatra, lovely lying Even to the end; magnificently dying In pomp of purple and in glare of gold.

S. GERTRUDE FORD.

THE QUEST FOR BEAUTY.

If you have travelled at all frequently on certain of the London "tube" railways you may occasionally have noticed, facing you in the carriage, a small framed poster which for beauty and imaginative power has, I should think, never been surpa.s.sed in advertising art. If the first sight of it did not make you catch your breath you will not, I am afraid, be interested in this article.

The poster represents a rich landscape, in which n.o.ble tree-forms show sombre against a tumultuous sky--the latter an architectural ma.s.s of pale cloud, spanned by a vivid rainbow. Across the lower part of the picture is a scroll, on which are written, in musical notation, two bars from Chopin's Twentieth Prelude. At the top are the words, _Studies in Harmony_: it is an advertis.e.m.e.nt of Somebody & Co.'s wall-papers.

In both colour and design this poster is very beautiful. It would be scarcely less so without the rainbow; but "the dazzling prism of the sky" not only intensifies the subtle harmony of colour throughout the picture: it turns the poster into a symbol. And the artist might well have stopped there; only, you see, he had an inspiration. When he wrote across the picture those eight descending chords from the immortal _Largo_ he made of the poster--a poem.

I do not know anything about the artist who conceived this advertis.e.m.e.nt of wall-papers. I do not even know his name. But I believe him to be the herald of an invasion.

The invasion of life by beauty.

Do you think it a degradation of art that it should be enlisted by the makers of wall-papers? Are there not too many ugly and discordant posters? Do you consider trade and manufacture so sordid that they are beneath the ministrations of beauty? It doesn't matter a new penny whether you answer such questions with a nod or a no: the invasion has begun. It is irresistible. Beauty is stooping--stooping to conquer.

Your ardent social reformer is too often obsessed with one idea.

Across his mental firmament he sees only one blazing word: INJUSTICE.

And, fine fellow though he often is, he is inclined to be impatient with any talk of art or beauty. "How can beauty grow in these vile cities?" he cries. "What is the use of your music, your statuary, your fine pictures, your poetry, to the starving and the oppressed?" And he does not see that his pa.s.sionate desire for justice is at root the quest for beauty, for fullness and harmony of life. His stormy sky shows no rainbow: yet it is there. And so is the stately music, the trans.m.u.tation of colour into sound. And if his eyes could be opened to one and his ears to the other, there would be more power to his elbow.

For beauty is inspiration and courage--

"My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky...."

And there is more than that in it. The cultivation of a sense of beauty, of harmony, makes reformers less harsh in their judgments, broadens their sympathies and helps to save them from becoming mere doctrinaires. If you have any love for the beautiful you simply cannot be happy about most Utopias, though they be Justice itself in civic form; and, when our "scientific" Fabian has demonstrated to you how to organise the national life in all its parts into one vast smoothly working State mechanism you will shudder, and then laugh. And then, without any rudeness, you will say: "Hang mechanism and a minimum wage! Live men and women want living crafts, liberty and a maximum beauty!"

And really, I am coming to see that there are a great many health-culture enthusiasts (not to mention food reformers) who see no rainbow in the sky and hear no music in the wind; and even if they did, ten to one they would see no connection between the two. I verily believe there are some poor souls who have studied food questions so closely that they cannot see the sun for proteid nor the sea for salts. In all meekness, and knowing the frailty of the human mind (I have written dozens of articles on diet!), I would prescribe for them a course of artistic wall-paper advertis.e.m.e.nts, combined with the letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. He, poor fellow, had to battle against disease all his short life; but he managed to end one of his letters something like this (I quote from memory): "_Sursum Corda_!

Heave ahead! Art and blue heaven! April and G.o.d's larks! A stately music.... Enter G.o.d."

A somewhat ecstatic utterance. A trifle too exclamatory. Perhaps. You and I don't end our letters like that. (Or do you?) More likely we say something about the weather down here being miserably cold (or damp, or dull, or changeable, or hot) and brave out the lie with "yours truly." But O for one little spark from the fire that shone in the soul of R.L.S. Better to die young with a broken heart, if it were a heart as brave and gay as his, than beat Methuselah by means of a mincing, calculating, cold-blooded attention to irritating self-made little rules.

Oh yes, I know well the value of little rules. And I know also that Nature offers us only two alternatives--obedience or death (either sudden or slow). But then Nature is something more than Mistress and Lawgiver. She is Beauty. And in that aspect, as in all other aspects, Nature is unescapable. We turn our backs on her only to find her awaiting us at the next turn in the road. Looking at the matter all round, I don't think we can come to any other conclusion than that Nature (or whatever you like to call It, Her or Him) is aiming at beauty all the time. So that we who are literally, if not figuratively, the children of Nature, had best do likewise.

Some mystic or other has said that man's search for G.o.d is G.o.d's search for man. If he was right--and I think he was--it follows that man's quest for beauty is Beauty invading life; and that the only healthy life worth the having is that which begins with "Lift up your hearts!" and issues in "a stately music. Enter G.o.d."

EDGAR J. SAXON.

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_SEMPER FIDELIS._

Do two things worth doing, every day.

Be scrupulously polite and kind, rather than witty or entertaining.

Cherish cleanliness, sobriety, frugality and contentment.

Cultivate sweetness of disposition and tranquillity of mind.

Think before speaking, and so reduce your causes of regret.

Seek peace and be peaceable for _lis litem generat_.

Begin at home, let home always find you faithfully on duty.

Care carefully for those whom Providence has entrusted to your care.

And the reward of the faithful will abundantly yours, And your heaven will go with you wherever you go.

"A.R."

MORE HOLIDAY APHORISMS.

Two's company, three's fun.

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Levity is the bane of wit.

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Braggers mustn't be losers.

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Never put on to-day what you can't put on to-morrow.

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It's an ill mind that finds no one any good.

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It's no use crying over spilt milk: you're better without it.

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Look before you sleep.

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Never put an excursion ticket in the mouth.

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