Topic
Emerson sees beauty as God's handwriting; Hume places it in the contemplating mind rather than the object. Ruskin finds the greatest beauty in the greatest clarity. Barrymore's definition — the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful woman and discovering she looks like a haddock — corrects any excess of reverence. Twain: wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. Chesterton insists the frame is the most beautiful part of any picture. Austen notes that large fortunes and pretty women exist in notably different proportions. The collection distinguishes between surface attractiveness and a deeper quality that repays extended attention — the kind of beauty that improves on acquaintance rather than diminishing with it.
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
My heart leaps up when I behold A Rainbow in the sky:
God made the country, and man made the town.