THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

I. 1. The Harmony of Virtue17Keshav: If you want a farther illustration, I will give youone. And just as before we selected the most commonly receivedtype of beauty, I will now select the most perfect: and that, Ithink, is a perfect poem. Would you not agree with me?Wilson: No, I should give the palm to a perfectly beautifulface.Keshav: I think you are wrong.Wilson: Have you any reason for thinking so?Keshav: Yes, and to me a very satisfying reason. The threeelements of beauty do not blend with absolutely perfect harmonyin a human face. Have you not frequently noticed that thosefaces which express the most soul, the most genius, the mostcharacter, are not perfectly harmonious in their form?Wilson: Yes, the exceptions are rare.Keshav: And the reason is that to emphasize the characterthe divine artist has found himself compelled to emphasize certainof the features above the others, for instance, the lips, theeyes, the forehead, the chin, and to give them an undue prominencewhich destroys that proportion without which there canbe no perfect harmony. Do you perceive my meaning?Wilson: Yes, and I do not think your conclusions can bedisputed.Keshav: In a perfectly beautiful face the emotion has tobe modified and discouraged, so as not to disturb the harmonyof form: but in a perfectly beautiful poem the maker has indeedto blend with exquisite nicety the three elements of beauty,but though the colour may be gorgeous, the emotion piercinglyvivid, the form deliriously lovely, yet each of these hasso just a share of the effect, that we should find it difficult toadd to or to detract from any of them without fatally injuringthe perfection of the whole.And so it is with every form of beauty that is not originallyimperfect; to detract or add would be alike fatal; for alterationmeans abolition. Each syllable is a key-stone and being removed,the whole imposing structure crumbles in a moment to the ground.Can we better describe this perfect blending of parts than by theword proportion? or is its entire effect anything but harmony?