THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

I. 1. The Harmony of Virtue15something recognised by all to be beautiful and examine in whatits beauty lies?Wilson: That is distinctly our best course. Let us take thecommonest type of beauty, a rose.Keshav: Then in what lies the beauty of a rose if not in itssymmetry? Why has the whole effect that satisfying completenesswhich subjugates the senses, if not because Nature has blendedin harmonious proportion the three elements of beauty: colour,perfume and form? Now beauty may exist separately in any twoof these elements and where it does so, the accession of thethird would probably mar the perfection of that species of beauty;as in sculpture where form in its separate existence finds acomplete expression and is blended harmoniously with perfume— for character or emotion is the perfume of the human form,just as sound is the perfume of poetry and music — but if asculptor tints his statue, the effect displeases us, because it seemsgaudy or tinsel, or in plain words disproportionate.In some cases beauty seems to have only one of these elements,for example frankincense and music which seem to possessperfume only, but in reality we shall find that they haveeach one or both of the other elements. For incense would notbe half so beautiful, if we did not see the curling folds of smokefloating like loose drapery in the air, nor would music be musicif not harmoniously blended with form and colour, or as we usuallycall them, technique and meaning. Again there are other cases inwhich beauty undoubtedly has one only of the three elements;and such are certain scents like myrrh, eucalyptus and others,which possess neither colour nor form, isolated hues such as thegreen and purple and violet painted on floor and walls by theafternoon sun and architectural designs which have no beautybut the isolated beauty of form. The criticism of ages has showna fit appreciation of these harmonies by adjudging the highestscale of beauty to those forms which blend the three elementsand the lowest to those which boast only of one. Thus sculptureis a far nobler art than architecture, for while both may compassan equal perfection of form, sculpture alone possesses the largerharmony derived by the union of form and perfume. Similarlythe human form is more divine than sculpture because it has the