Augusta County: Mary A. Smiley to Unknown, October
4, 1865
Summary:
Smiley ponders the concept and meaning of beauty.
The science which treats of the beautiful is called aesthetics. To define what
the beautiful is, is a question hard to answer properly. It does not consist
merely in perfect figure or colors for we consider many things beautiful that
have neither. There are various opinions as to what our ideas of the beautiful
are to be
referred
. Some make it a feeling or sensation others [deleted: to][added: an] association & again others [deleted: to] expression. These all lie within or in the mind. Then
again there are those who refer it entirely to the external, to novelty,
utility, unity and order or proportion. Still we know from our own mind that it
does not consist altogether in any of these, as for instance novelty does not
always please at first sight and [added: to] again
[added: with] its opposite. So also it may be
proved of the other theories. The true meaning does not lie in any one of these
different theories but rather in a combination. The question is asked is beauty
something objective or subjective. Is the beautiful merely an emotion? We know
it excites a pleasant emotion within us, but the beauty does not consist in
this. If it did then the beauty would be in us and not in the object. To speak
and think of the beauty of objects is the most natural and sensible view of the
question. There are objects which when viewed call forth these emotions of
beauty in all. The child who has never before viewed a certain [added: beautiful] object has as lively emotions of its beauty
as those who are familiar with it. So it cannot be association merely that makes
anything beautiful. The ideas of the beautiful
are not alike in all. There is a difference in thought, education, custom
&c which makes the effect produced by a beautiful object very different
in differnt individuals. There is by no means a perfect uniformity in the efect
produced on the mind by the same object. If the beauty of an object [deleted: co]exists in the mind of the beholder only, it follows then
that there would be no beauty were there no observers
[page 2]
There is an
intimate connection between the emotions produced on the mind and the objects
themselves. There is another theory mentioned, called the spiritual, which makes
beauty consist not in matter as such, nor in any mere arrangement of it in stuff
considered, but in the manifestation or expression under these forms of the
higher, the hidden spiritual nature or element, appealing thus to our own
spiritual nature which is thereby awakened to sympathy. It argues there is
something in the different kinds of matter that expresses to us the higher and
spiritual principle which is the life and soul of [unclear: thing] The
perfection of beauty is not to be found in any of the different scales of matter
but is found in God alone. There are considerations in favor of the spiritual
theory In nature and art the beautiful expresses something and in this lies much
of their beauty. God speaks to us through them, silently but nonetheless doesn't come from Him. The
impressions of beauty are perceived by the senses and through them conveyed is
the mind. The power of judging of and selecting the beautiful is called taste.
Here again there has been a variety of opinions in reference to the exact
definition of taste. The definition given is, the power of judging and
discriminating objects whether beautiful or sublime in nature or art. All
nations possess taste of some kind though often not good taste. Good taste
depends very much on cultivation by education and exercise.
Mary A Smiley
