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Right Living As A Fine Art
Right Living As A Fine Art
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Contents
_ONE_
A Study of Channing's "Symphony" as an
Outline of the Ideal Life and Character
_TWO_
Channing's Vision of the Beautiful Life
_THREE_
The Largest Wealth
_FOUR_
The World a Whispering Gallery
_FIVE_
How Knowledge Becomes Wisdom
_SIX_
The Disguises of Inferiority
_SEVEN_
Strength Blossoming into Beauty
_EIGHT_
Life's Crowning Perfection
"_And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the
work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it._"
_Psalm xc: 17._
MY SYMPHONY.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and
refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy,
not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to
study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions,
hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common--this is my symphony.
WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING.
A STUDY OF CHANNING'S "SYMPHONY" AS AN OUTLINE OF THE IDEAL LIFE AND
CHARACTER.
To the revival of learning in the fourteenth century, to the revival of
religion in the sixteenth, and the revival of liberty in the eighteenth
century must now be added the revival of the beautiful in this new era for
art. In former ages man was content if his house was dry, his coat was
warm, his tool strong. But now has come an era when man's house must have
beautiful walls, when woman's dress must have harmonious hues, when the
speaker's truth must be clothed in words of beauty; while in religion if
the worshiper once was content with a harsh hymn, now man best loves the
song that has a beautiful sentiment and a sweet tune. Always the useful had
a cash value. Now beauty has become a commodity. To-day, to hold his place,
the artisan must become an artist. The era of ugliness, with its clumsy
tools and ungainly garments, has gone forever. No longer content with
lending strength to coat or chair or car, manufacturers now vie with one
another in a struggle to make the garment take on lines of grace, and
colors soft and beautiful. Society seems to be standing upon the threshold
of the greatest art movement in history. Best of all this, revival of the
beautiful promises to be a permanent social possession.
Very brief and fitful that first art epoch when Phidias polished statues,
the very fragments of which are the despair of modern sculptors. All too
short also that era when Raphael and Botticelli brought the canvas into
what seemed the zenith of its perfection. It was as if the vestal virgin of
beauty had drawn near to fan the flickering light into a fierce flame only
to allow it quickly to die out again. But if other art epochs have been
soon followed by eras of ugliness and tyranny, it was because formerly the
patrician class alone was interested in the beautiful. In that far-off
time, Pericles had his palace and Athens her temple, but the common people
dwelt in mud huts, wore coats of sheepskin, and slept on beds of straw. The
beauty that was manifest in pictures, marbles, rich textures, bronzes,
belonged exclusively to the cathedral or the palace.
Now has come an era when art is diffused. Beauty is sprinkled all over the
instruments of dining-room, parlor and library. It is organized into
textures of cotton, wool and silk. Even in the poor man's cottage blossoms
break forth upon floor and walls, while vines festoon the humblest door.
Once, at great expense, a baron in France or Germany would send an artist
into Italy to copy some masterpiece of Titian or Tintoretto. Now modern
photography makes it possible for the poorest laborer to look upon the
semblance of great pictures, statues, cathedrals, landscapes--treasures
these once beyond the wealth of princes. Having made tools, books, travel,
home, religion to be life-teachers, God has now ordained the beautiful as
an apostle of the higher Christian life.
Recognizing the hand of God in every upward movement of society, we explain
this new enthusiasm for art upon the principle that beauty is the outer
sign of an inner perfection. Oft with lying skill men veneer the plaster
pillar with slabs of marble, and hide soft wood with strips of mahogany.
But beauty is no outer veneer. When ripeness enters the fruit within a soft
bloom steals over the peach without.
_ONE_
A Study of Channing's "Symphony" as an
Outline of the Ideal Life and Character
_TWO_
Channing's Vision of the Beautiful Life
_THREE_
The Largest Wealth
_FOUR_
The World a Whispering Gallery
_FIVE_
How Knowledge Becomes Wisdom
_SIX_
The Disguises of Inferiority
_SEVEN_
Strength Blossoming into Beauty
_EIGHT_
Life's Crowning Perfection
"_And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the
work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it._"
_Psalm xc: 17._
MY SYMPHONY.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and
refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy,
not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to
study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions,
hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common--this is my symphony.
WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING.
A STUDY OF CHANNING'S "SYMPHONY" AS AN OUTLINE OF THE IDEAL LIFE AND
CHARACTER.
To the revival of learning in the fourteenth century, to the revival of
religion in the sixteenth, and the revival of liberty in the eighteenth
century must now be added the revival of the beautiful in this new era for
art. In former ages man was content if his house was dry, his coat was
warm, his tool strong. But now has come an era when man's house must have
beautiful walls, when woman's dress must have harmonious hues, when the
speaker's truth must be clothed in words of beauty; while in religion if
the worshiper once was content with a harsh hymn, now man best loves the
song that has a beautiful sentiment and a sweet tune. Always the useful had
a cash value. Now beauty has become a commodity. To-day, to hold his place,
the artisan must become an artist. The era of ugliness, with its clumsy
tools and ungainly garments, has gone forever. No longer content with
lending strength to coat or chair or car, manufacturers now vie with one
another in a struggle to make the garment take on lines of grace, and
colors soft and beautiful. Society seems to be standing upon the threshold
of the greatest art movement in history. Best of all this, revival of the
beautiful promises to be a permanent social possession.
Very brief and fitful that first art epoch when Phidias polished statues,
the very fragments of which are the despair of modern sculptors. All too
short also that era when Raphael and Botticelli brought the canvas into
what seemed the zenith of its perfection. It was as if the vestal virgin of
beauty had drawn near to fan the flickering light into a fierce flame only
to allow it quickly to die out again. But if other art epochs have been
soon followed by eras of ugliness and tyranny, it was because formerly the
patrician class alone was interested in the beautiful. In that far-off
time, Pericles had his palace and Athens her temple, but the common people
dwelt in mud huts, wore coats of sheepskin, and slept on beds of straw. The
beauty that was manifest in pictures, marbles, rich textures, bronzes,
belonged exclusively to the cathedral or the palace.
Now has come an era when art is diffused. Beauty is sprinkled all over the
instruments of dining-room, parlor and library. It is organized into
textures of cotton, wool and silk. Even in the poor man's cottage blossoms
break forth upon floor and walls, while vines festoon the humblest door.
Once, at great expense, a baron in France or Germany would send an artist
into Italy to copy some masterpiece of Titian or Tintoretto. Now modern
photography makes it possible for the poorest laborer to look upon the
semblance of great pictures, statues, cathedrals, landscapes--treasures
these once beyond the wealth of princes. Having made tools, books, travel,
home, religion to be life-teachers, God has now ordained the beautiful as
an apostle of the higher Christian life.
Recognizing the hand of God in every upward movement of society, we explain
this new enthusiasm for art upon the principle that beauty is the outer
sign of an inner perfection. Oft with lying skill men veneer the plaster
pillar with slabs of marble, and hide soft wood with strips of mahogany.
But beauty is no outer veneer. When ripeness enters the fruit within a soft
bloom steals over the peach without.
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