The Gate of Appreciation: Studies in the Relation of Art to LifeNoyes, Carleton Eldredge
Philosophy
The Gate of Appreciation: Studies in the Relation of Art to Life
Noyes, Carleton Eldredge
Aesthetics; Art appreciation; Art criticism
But how to determine, each man for himself, what is the direction of
our development? A life becomes significant to itself so soon as it is
conscious of its purpose, and it becomes harmonious as it makes all
the details of experience subserve that purpose. The purpose of the
individual life, so far as we can guess it, seems to be that the life
shall be as complete as possible, that it shall fulfill itself and provide
through its offspring for its continuance. It is true that no life is
isolated; as every atom throughout the universe is bound to every
other atom by subtlest filaments of influence, so each human life
stands related to all other lives. But the man best pays his debt of
service to others who makes the most of that which is given him to
work with; and that is his own personality. We must begin at the
centre and work outwards. My concern is with my own justice. If I
worry because my friend or another is not just, I not only do not
make him more just, but I also fail of the highest justice I can
achieve, which is my own. We must be true to ourselves. We help
one another not by precept but by _being;_ and what we are
communicates itself. As physical life propagates and thus continues
itself, so personality is transmitted in unconscious innumerable ways.
The step and carriage of the body, the glance of the eye, the work of
our hands, our silences no less than our speech, all express what we
are. As everything follows upon what we are, so our responsibility is
to _be,_ to be ourselves completely, perfectly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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