Article February 8, 1913 Issue

PERISHABLE AND IMPERISHABLE BEAUTY

HON. JOHN D. WORKS

To declare for the nothingness or unreality of the material, without understanding the allness of the spiritual, may beget a disposition or tendency to underestimate the meaning of the beautiful manifested in nature. It may even impel some to turn away from this beauty, and to declare that nothing which is temporal can express spiritual good. This would lead one to draw a sharp line between perfection and imperfection, and to discard everything as unworthy of cultivation but that which we understand to be spiritual, and therefore to be enjoyed but not increased by industry, energy, or effort of our own.

Nevertheless, mankind, because of their lack of understanding of the spiritual, are far from perfect. They have to make their advance by way of improved beliefs. They must strive for better things, for a higher understanding as a means of advancement and regeneration; and one means to this end would seem to be the cultivation of a truer sense of the beautiful and harmonious in nature, with the desire to see in it more of the spiritual ideal, perfect and imperishable beauty. By the study of the beautiful and good in the world, the human mind is elevated and the vision broadened and enlightened. Mrs. Eddy says: "Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal" (Science and Health, p. 195). By the study of the best in nature and in literature, thought is drawn away from evil and expands in the direction of good. Thus advancement is made, step by step, into the higher regions of good, out of the attractions of material manifestation into the eternal beauty and harmony of spiritual perfection. Again Mrs. Eddy says: "As the physical and material, the transient sense of beauty, fades, the radiance of Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright and imperishable glories" (Science and Health, p. 246).

The beauties of nature, as we see them, are therefore not to be despised, but cherished as manifestations of Mind, not of matter, and cultivated as a means of attaining to still higher and more permanent beauty. The distinction between the transient and perishable and the imperishable and eternal should, however, be constantly kept before thought. It is the latter which we should be striving to understand and attain, and the appreciation and cultivation of the former should be regarded only as a present means toward the realization of a higher ideal. It is an inspiration, when looking upon the things which pass away, to be able to realize, even in a small degree, that over and above and back of them all is the perfection and eternity of beauty, a beauty which fadeth not, and that the transient beauties which we look upon with pleasure and profit are only at best types and shadows of the perfect and everlasting beauty of God's creation. We are unable to understand and appreciate that perfection of imperishable beauty now, but we may and should cultivate a higher sense, a greater appreciation of beauty as a manifestation of Spirit, of the eternal good.

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TRUTH'S CALL
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