The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Religion
The Theosophical Path Illustrated Monthly Volume 1, July-December, 1911
Theosophy -- Periodicals
_Christabel_, _Genevieve_, and _The Ancient Mariner_ all belong to
this fairyland; the first two near the hither frontier, and the last
much farther in. For one has to note how beauty wanes as the sun-known
horizons recede, and how its place is taken by a new kind of harmony,
a chiaroscuro of keen terror and gloom. This also holds one, as beauty
does; indeed, plays on the emotion with a more compelling, because
wilder and louder, touch. So we call the pictures and poems of the
left-hand fairyland also beautiful, also works of Art. Some day I
think we shall be wiser; our critics will use a deeper discrimination.
Beauty is not that which most stirs the emotion, but that which most
stirs it in a certain way. There is the evolutionary urge upward to be
considered; what works against that has no real right to the name of
beauty. You are to note here, that the further one travels in this dark
fairyland, the more Wonder transforms itself into horror. Wonder went
with us all through the bright realm, and grew from the mere wizardry
of flowers and mountains, into the atmosphere of majesty that surrounds
the soul and the judgments of Spiritual Law. The wizard-glow in the
woodlands waxes, and resolves itself into one of the elder gods. But
in the other case, the Daughter of Glamor that leads us is like the
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_ in the Celtic tales; subtly luring and exquisite at
first, she turns into a fearful terrifying hag, and he who accompanies
her does well if he escapes with his reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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