10. “And God saw that it was
good.” God does not judge of the beauty of His work by
the charm of the eyes, and He does not form the same idea of beauty
that we do. What He esteems beautiful is that which presents in
its perfection all the fitness καλον μὲν
οὖν ἐστιν ὃ
ἂν δ᾽ αὑτὸ
αἱρετὸν ὂν
ἐπαινετὸν ᾖ,
ὃ ἂν ἀγαθὸν
ὂν ἡδὺ ᾖ ὅτι
ἀγαθόν. Arist.,
Rhet. i. 9.
cf. E. Burke (On the
Sublime and Beautiful, iii. § 6): “It is true that
the infinitely wise and good creator has, of his bounty, frequently
joined beauty to those things which he has made useful to us. But
this does not prove that our idea of use and beauty are the same thing,
or that they are in any way dependent on each other.” Dr.
Johnson instances a painting on a coffee-cup as beautiful, but not
useful. “Boswell,” Ann. 1772. St. Basil’s
idea is in accord with that of Ruskin (Mod. P. chap. vi.).
“In all high ideas of beauty it is more than probable that much
of the pleasure depends on delicate and untraceable perception of
fitness, propriety, and relation, which are purely intellectual, and
through which we arrive at our noblest ideas of what is commonly and
rightly called ‘intellectual
beauty.’” of art, and
that which tends to the usefulness of its end. He, then, who
proposed to Himself a manifest design in His works, approved each
one of them, as fulfilling its end in accordance with His creative
purpose. A hand, an eye, or any portion of a statue lying
apart from the rest, would look beautiful to no one. But if
each be restored to its own place, the beauty of proportion, until
now almost unperceived, would strike even the most
uncultivated. But the artist, before uniting the parts of his
work, distinguishes and recognises the beauty of each of them,
thinking of the object that he has in view. It is thus that
Scripture depicts to us the Supreme Artist, praising each one of His
works; soon, when His work is complete, He will accord well deserved
praise to the whole together. Let me here end my discourse on
the second day, to allow my industrious hearers to examine what they
have just heard. May their memory retain it for the profit of
their soul; may they by careful meditation inwardly digest and
benefit by what I say. As for those who live by their work,
let me allow them to attend all day to their business, so that they
may come, with a soul free from anxiety, to the banquet of my
discourse in the evening. May God who, after having made such
great things, put such weak words in my mouth, grant you the
intelligence of His truth, so that you may raise yourselves from
visible things to the invisible Being, and that the grandeur and
beauty of creatures may give you a just idea of the Creator.
For the visible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, and His power and divinity are eternal. cf.
Rom. i. 20. Thus earth, air, sky, water, day,
night, all visible things, remind us of who is our Benefactor.
We shall not therefore give occasion to sin, we shall not give place
to the enemy within us, if by unbroken recollection we keep God ever
dwelling in our hearts, to Whom be all glory and all adoration, now
and for ever, world without end. Amen.