THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

300 The Harmony of Virtuethe inconstant waves who is the loveliest and most dangerous ofthe Apsaras.*In dramatic tone and build therefore this is an admirablecreation, but there is so far no hint of the world-wide divinenessof Urvasie, of the goddess within the woman. In direct allegoryKalidasa was too skilful an artist to deal, but we expect the largerconception of this beautiful and significant figure to enter intoor at least colour the dramatic conception of the woman; somepomp of words, some greatness of gesture, some large divinitywhether of speech or look to raise her above a mere nymph,however charming, into the goddess we know. Yet in rigidly excludingthe grandiose or the coloured Kalidasa has shown, I think,his usual unerring dramatic and psychological tact. Dramatically,to have made both Pururavas and Urvasie equally dramatic inspirit and diction, to have clothed both in the external purple ofpoetry would have been to offend the eye with unrelieved gorgeousnessand converted the play from an interesting and skilfullywoven drama into a confused splendour of lyrical dialogue.Psychologically, the divinity and universal charm of Urvasie wouldhave been defaced rather than brought out by investing her withgrandeur of feeling or a pomp of poetic ornament. Perfect beautyhas in it a double aspect, its intrinsic self and the impression itmakes on the vivid and receptive mind. In itself it is simple,unconscious and unadorned, most effective when it is most naked;ceasing to be these, it loses its perfection and a great partof its universal charm. The nude human figure in painting andsculpture, unadorned magic or strength of style and conceptionin poetry, clear, luminous and comprehensive thought in philosophy,these are what the pursuing human spirit feels to beideal, highest, most worthy of itself. Drapery blurs the effulgenceof the goddess, ornament distracts the spirit and disappointsit of its engrossed and undisturbed sense of possession.On the other hand, the mind while most moved by what is simpleand natural in its appeal, is romantic in its method of receivingthe impression; becoming engrossed and steeped in the idea ofit, it directs to it and surrounds it with all the fresh impressions