Character and Conduct – 1 December – The Gospel of Beauty

BEAUTY is far too much neglected.   It never belongs to criticism;  it ought by right to be always bound up with creation.   What it is, is hard to define;  but, whenever anything in nature or in the thoughts and doings of man awakens a noble desire of seeing more of it;  kindles pure love of it;  seems to open out before us an infinite of it which allures us into an endless pursuit;  stimulates reverence, and makes the heart leap with joy – there is beauty, and with it always is imagination, the shaping power.

The capacity for seeing beauty with the heart is one of the first necessities for such a life in a living world as I now urge upon you.   When you see it, you always see more and more of it.   And the more you see it, the more love and reverence you will feel in your heart;  and the less you will care to criticise, and the more you will care to create.   The world needs it now, and the glory of it, more almost than anything else, for nearly all the world has lost the power of seeing it.   The monied men want it;  the scientific men want it;  the artists themselves have of late betrayed it;  the business men want it.   The middle-class and the aristocracy are almost destitute of it;  the working men abide in conditions in which its outward forms are absent.   To give them the power to see all that is lovely in nature, in human thought, in art, and in the noble acts of men – that is a great part of your work, and you should realise it, and shape it day by day.

The Gospel of Joy, STOPFORD BROOKE

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing them here is that readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.