THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

I. 1. The Harmony of Virtue35two, and as a counsel of perfection all three. If we inquire, weshall find that form is absolutely imperative, seeing that if theform of the letters is not beautiful or the arrangement of the linesnot harmonious, then the sentence is not beautifully written. Colourtoo may be an element of calligraphy, for we all know what differenteffects we can produce by using inks of various colours.And if the art is to be perfect, I think that perfume will have toenter very largely into it. Let us write the word “beautiful”.Here you see the letters are beautifully formed, their arrangementis beautiful, this bright green ink I am using harmonizeswell with the word, and moreover, the sight of this peculiarcombination of letters written in this peculiar way brings to mymind a peculiar association of ideas, which I call the perfumeof the written word.Wilson: But is it not the combination, not of letters but ofsounds, which lingers in your mind and calls up the idea?Keshav: I do not think so, for I often find sentences thatseem to me beautiful in writing or in print, but once I utter themaloud, become harsh and unmusical; and sometimes the reversehappens, especially in Meredith, in whom I have often at firstsight condemned a sentence as harsh and ugly, which, when Iread it aloud, I was surprised to find apt and harmonious. Fromthis I infer that if a writer's works appear beautiful in print ormanuscript, but not beautiful when read aloud, he may be setdown as a good artist in calligraphy, but a bad artist in literature,since suggestion to the eye is the perfume of the written, butsuggestion to the ear the perfume of the spoken word. In thishowever I seem to have been digressing to no purpose; for whateverelse is uncertain, this much is certain, that form is essential tocalligraphy, and this is really all that concerns us. Now if theform is to be beautiful it must be harmonious in effect, and tobe harmonious in effect it must be proportionate in detail, andto be proportionate in detail, the words and letters of which it ismade must exhibit a regular variety. We can easily see that theletters and words in a sentence are various, but how can theybe said to be regular in their variety?Wilson: I do not know at present, but I can see that thevariety is regular.