“The man initiated2 into the sacred mysteries, when he sees a beautiful face accompanied by a divine form, a something more than mortal, feels a secret emotion, and I know not what respectful fear. He regards this figure as a divinity. . . . . When the influence of beauty enters into his soul by his eyes he burns; the wings of his soul are bedewed; they lose the hardness which retains their germs and liquefy themselves; these germs, swelling3 beneath the roots of its wings, they expand from every part of the soul (for soul had wings formerly),” etc.
I am willing to believe that nothing is finer than this discourse4 of the divine Plato; but it does not give us very clear ideas of the nature of the beautiful.
Ask a toad5 what is beauty — the great beauty To Kalon; he will answer that it is the female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, her large flat mouth, her yellow belly6, and brown back. Ask a negro of Guinea; beauty is to him a black, oily skin, sunken eyes, and a flat nose. Ask the devil; he will tell you that the beautiful consists in a pair of horns, four claws, and a tail. Then consult the philosophers; they will answer you with jargon7; they must have something conformable to the archetype of the essence of the beautiful — to the To Kalon.
I was once attending a tragedy near a philosopher. “How beautiful that is,” said he. “What do you find beautiful?” asked I. “It is,” said he, “that the author has attained8 his object.” The next day he took his medicine, which did him some good. “It has attained its object,” cried I to him; “it is a beautiful medicine.” He comprehended that it could not be said that a medicine is beautiful, and that to apply to anything the epithet9 beautiful it must cause admiration10 and pleasure. He admitted that the tragedy had inspired him with these two sentiments, and that it was the To Kalon, the beautiful.
We made a journey to England. The same piece was played, and, although ably translated, it made all the spectators yawn. “Oh, oh!” said he, “the To Kalon is not the same with the English as with the French.” He concluded after many reflections that “the beautiful” is often merely relative, as that which is decent at Japan is indecent at Rome; and that which is the fashion at Paris is not so at Pekin; and he was thereby11 spared the trouble of composing a long treatise12 on the beautiful.
There are actions which the whole world considers fine. A challenge passed between two of C?sar’s officers, mortal enemies, not to shed each other’s blood behind a thicket13 by tierce and quarte, as among us, but to decide which of them would best defend the camp of the Romans, about to be attacked by the barbarians14. One of the two, after having repulsed15 the enemy, was near falling; the other flew to his assistance, saved his life, and gained the victory.
A friend devotes himself to death for his friend, a son for his father. The Algonquin, the French, the Chinese, will mutually say that all this is very beautiful, that such actions give them pleasure, and that they admire them.
They will say the same of great moral maxims16; of that of Zoroaster: “If in doubt that an action be just, desist;” of that of Confucius: “Forget injuries; never forget benefits.”
The negro, with round eyes and flattened17 nose, who would not give the ladies of our court the name of beautiful, would give it without hesitation18 to these actions and these maxims. Even the wicked man recognizes the beauty of the virtues19 which he cannot imitate. The beautiful, which only strikes the senses, the imagination, and what is called the spirit, is then often uncertain; the beauty which strikes the heart is not. You will find a number of people who will tell you they have found nothing beautiful in three-fourths of the “Iliad”; but nobody will deny that the devotion of Codrus for his people was fine, supposing it was true.
Brother Attinet, a Jesuit, a native of Dijon, was employed as designer in the country house of the Emperor Camhi, at the distance of some leagues from Pekin.
“This country house,” says he, in one of his letters to M. Dupont, “is larger than the town of Dijon. It is divided into a thousand habitations on one line; each one has its courts, its parterres, its gardens, and its waters; the front of each is ornamented20 with gold varnish21 and paintings. In the vast enclosures of the park, hills have been raised by hand from twenty to sixty feet high. The valleys are watered by an infinite number of canals, which run a considerable distance to join and form lakes and seas. We float on these seas in boats varnished23 and gilt24, from twelve to thirteen fathoms25 long and four wide. These barks have magnificent saloons, and the borders of the canals are covered with houses, all in different tastes. Every house has its gardens and cascades26. You go from one valley to another by alleys22, alternately ornamented with pavilions and grottoes. No two valleys are alike; the largest of all is surrounded by a colonnade27, behind which are gilded28 buildings. All the apartments of these houses correspond in magnificence with the outside. All the canals have bridges at stated distances; these bridges are bordered with balustrades of white marble sculptured in basso-relievo.
“In the middle of the great sea is raised a rock, and on this rock is a square pavilion, in which are more than a hundred apartments. From this square pavilion there is a view of all the palaces, all the houses, and all the gardens of this immense enclosure, and there are more than four hundred of them.
“When the emperor gives a fête all these buildings are illuminated29 in an instant, and from every house there are fireworks.
“This is not all; at the end of what they call the sea is a great fair, held by the emperor’s officers. Vessels30 come from the great sea to arrive at this fair. The courtiers disguise themselves as merchants and artificers of all sorts; one keeps a coffee house, another a tavern31; one takes the profession of a thief, another that of the officer who pursues him. The emperor and all the ladies of the court come to buy stuffs, the false merchants cheat them as much as they can; they tell them that it is shameful32 to dispute so much about the price, and that they are poor customers. Their majesties33 reply that the merchants are knaves34; the latter are angry and affect to depart; they are appeased35; the emperor buys all and makes lotteries36 of it for all his court. Farther on are spectacles of all sorts.”
When brother Attinet came from China to Versailles he found it small and dull. The Germans, who were delighted to stroll about its groves37, were astonished that brother Attinet was so difficult. This is another reason which determines me not to write a treatise on the beautiful.
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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3
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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7
jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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8
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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10
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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14
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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17
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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25
fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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colonnade
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| n.柱廊 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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30
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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majesties
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| n.雄伟( majesty的名词复数 )；庄严；陛下；王权 | |
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knaves
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| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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35
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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lotteries
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| n.抽彩给奖法( lottery的名词复数 )；碰运气的事；彩票；彩券 | |
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37
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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