The contemplation of beauty causes the soul to grow wings. Beauty is indefinable—it is one of the greatest mysteries of nature, and beyond the limits of human understanding. (There is nevertheless an absolute standard of taste. However, this cannot be deduced; it must be grasped through a deeper insight into actual works of art.) Beauty maintains a glorious elasticity in its own ecstasies of hope, provided you do not crush it with a doubt of its own purity. Expression is a lower stage of beauty. It is a lively imitation of both the soul and the body as passive and active. Pure beauty is reached through the stillness of this feeling of life. To one that lives well every form of life is good, nor can there be given any other rule for choice than to remove from all apparent evil. The highest stage of beauty arises from the unification of expression and pure beauty in grace. By this unity beauty becomes an appearance of divinity in the representation of a sensible object. The unity of art arises mainly from simplicity and measure, or the harmony of opposing traits—for instance, understanding passions. When a beautiful soul harmonizes with a beautiful form, and the two are cast in one mould, that will be the fairest of sights to him who has the eye to contemplate the vision. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

This process of unification corresponds to the rise from sensible to ideal beauty, or from the imitation of nature to the creation of higher nature. The observation of nature gives us the means of overcoming spurious standards of beauty and a set of samples to be used by the intellect in creating the higher nature. Beauty is felt by the senses, but it is understood and created by the intellect—which is the faculty of ideas as well as of distinct concepts. The ideal (Das Ideale) or spirit (Geist), is the most important and controversial notion of aesthetic. One kind of ideal is created when an artist combines in one unique whole elements of beauty among different natural objects—for example, by constructing a perfect female figure from separate parts imitating parts of different women, each of which is the most perfect of its kind. A superior kind of ideal arises when the choice of parts is directed not only by a feeling for proportion, but by a supernatural idea translated into matter—for example, the superhuman perfection of a particular human type or quality such as the combination of attractive manhood and pleasing youthfulness in the Apollo del Belvedere, or of enormous pain in a great soul in the Laocoon. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

The power of the good has taken refuge in the nature of the beautiful and the ideal is not abstracted from experience, but is derived from an intuition of the beauty of God himself. It is realized through a creative process like that of God creating his own image in man. Ideal beauty of the second kind must show noble simplicity and quiet greatness (edle Einfalt und stille Grosse). Because beauty in its highest form is spiritual, it must suggest a deeper ethical meaning. These ethical thoughts are the content of real art. Art makes them intuitively known through allegory. Nature also presents allegories to humans; and humans themselves spoke through images before they spoke in rational language. Painting, sculpture, and poetry all express through allegory invisible things; and thus allegory is the foundation of the unity of the different fine arts. Simplicity, or unity, gives distinctness (Deutlichkeit) to a work of art. Therefore, there is an intuitive, or sensible, distinctness, whereas the then current psychology admitted only intellectual distinctness and allowed only clarity to sensibility. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

Greek art is the standard of ideal beauty. The Greek man was the most spiritually and ethically balanced, and therefore the most physically perfect, because of various climatic, geographical, historical, social, and political conditions. Greek artist could therefore use the beautiful human specimens as models; and they should be imitated by modern artists. Imitation of nature and imitation of the Greek is the same thing. However, in a recent address made by the Bishop of Manchester, England, he said “Some people think a gentleman means a man of independent fortune—a man, who fares sumptuously every day; a man who need not labor for his daily bread.” Yet, none of these make a gentleman—not one of them—nor all of them together. I have known men when I was brought closer in contact with working men than I am brought now; I have known men of the roughest exterior, who had been used all their lives to follow the plough and to look after horses, as thorough gentlemen in heart as any nobleman who ever wore a ducal coronet. I mean, I have known them as unselfish, I have known them as truthful, I have known them as sympathizing; and all these qualities go to make what I understand by the term a gentleman. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

It is a noble privilege which has been sadly prostituted; and what I want to tell you is, that the humblest man in Leeds, who has the coarsest work to do, yet, if his heart be tender, and pure, and true, can be, in the most emphatic sense of the word, a gentleman. We all know that there are those in our midst who object to politeness, or polite phrases, because, as they say, the language is false and unmeaning. And company manner is scornful terms frequently applied to the courteous demeanor, and may polite sentences which are often uttered, and are so very desirable, in well-bred society. When people are kind and say nice things from the heart, it makes them more attractive. When people are rude, mean, gossip and harass others, it has the opposite effect.  Children and animals recognize this truth quite as readily as adults. A baby will cry at the sound of harsh language; and your horse, cow, dogs, bird, cat, fish, deer, or moose, are all most amenable to kind words and caressing motions. And although:–it is only humans words create, and cut the air to sounds articulate by Nature’s special character, yet kindness is a language which the unwise can speak and the hearing impaired can understand. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

We can convey the plainest of truths in a civil speech; and the most malignant of lies can be also wrapped in specious words. However, we cannot consider a love of truth any apology for rude and uncouth manners; truth need not be made harsh, unlovely and morose; but should appear kind and gentle, attractive and pleasing. Roughness and honesty are, however, often met with in the same person; but we are not competent judges of human nature; if we take ill-manners to be a guarantee of probity of heart, or think a stranger must be a knave because he possesses the outward seeming of a gentleman. Doubtless there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing and snakes in suits in our land, but that does not decrease the value of gentleness and courtesy in the least. Good manners and a good conscience are very often twin-sisters, and are always more attractive for the companionship. Bad manners are frequently a species of bad morals; and there is no outward sign of courtesy that does not rest on a deep moral foundation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

Good manners are a very essential characteristic of religion also, as well as a fundamental part of civilization; and we are all in duty bound to treat those with whom we come in contact, with consideration, respect and deference. Good manners were given to humans from high authority. The Greeks and Romans, to be sure, were strictly devoted to etiquette—but it was not the kind that springs from a conscience void of offence against God and man. The customs of salutations, of visiting, of eating, of making presents, of introductions, writing letters, and the like, are all strictly defined, and they are enforced like our laws—no one being permitted to transgress them. We may define politeness, though we cannot tell where to fix it in practice. It observes received usages and customs, is bound to times and places, and is not the same thing in the two genders or in different conditions. Wit along cannot obtain it; it is acquired and brought to perfection by emulation. Some dispositions alone are susceptible of politeness, and others are only capable of great talents or solid virtues. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

It is true, politeness puts merit forward, and renders it agreeable, and a human must have eminent qualifications to support oneself without it. Politeness may also be said to be in the embodiment of the golden rule; and without its assistance, without the amenities of society, life is an arid waste, a barren plain. Gold will not supply the deficiencies of a pleasing deportment; and we can assure our readers that they will find courtesy in all times and at all places the cheapest and most available of commodities. In Europe, good manners are most highly esteemed, and most assiduously inculcated both in the highest and the lowest classes; and the children are taught that it is very essential for them to show respect to their superiors and elders, and to be always kind and courteous to their inferiors. In America, politeness and etiquette are well taught in those families who possess culture and refinement; but among the masses rarely taught at all. Our district schools were nurseries of good manners thirty or forty years ago, compared to what they are at the present day. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

Then the country children were taught to bow to strangers passing by; now they would be more likely to salute them with profanity or vulgarity. Good manners are surely a discount in the United States of America. We cannot disguise this fact—it Is seen by all who travel through the country, who frequent the city, who sail upon our rivers, and our lakes, drive on the roads, fly on the planes, or whirl rapidly along our railways. This savage behavior is also daily displayed on the news for the World to see. The lower officials are often cross and surly—the higher sometimes extremely discourteous; and the want of good-breeding is everywhere noted. Surely, we should ask ourselves the question—“Whence has this condition of affairs arisen?” Many would say it is since we removed prayer from the schools and removed public acknowledgment of God. This country was founded on Christianity and we are allowing people to remove the structural beams of Christ, which has kept this architecture so secure and sound. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

Our democratic principles should not be allowed to lead us to indulge in discourtesy, and thus throw a shadow of disgrace upon our institutions. And those who consider the rules which regulate society needless and absurd, would, if they were laid aside, soon desire their restoration, as they are a needful barrier against rudeness and vulgarity. There are, doubtless, many eccentricities of fashion, yet they soon pass away; but some prescribed regulations for conduct are essential for the preservation order and dignity. We cannot let society get all loosey goosey, foolish and goulish, nor roguish and thuggish.  Etiquette is intended to guard us from some of the inconveniences of large acquaintance, and by settling certain points, it permits us to maintain a ceremonious acquaintance with a circle much too large for social visiting. Therefore, let us:–study with care, politeness that much teach the modest forms of gestures and of speech; in vain formality, with matron mien, and pertness apes with her familiar grin; they against nature for applauses strain, distort themselves, and give all other pain. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

Etiquette is a comprehensive term, for it embraces not only all observances connected with social intercourse, but such as belong particularly to the home circle. To obtain fireside comforts, and home-born enjoyments and happiness, something more is requires than a handsome horse, a beautiful emerald green lawn, shade-tress, and a garden filled with flowers arranged in the most artistic order. Family bickerings and strife; a lack of politeness, good-breeding and etiquette, would turn the loveliest Eden into a barren waste. It will avail us little to furnish our houses with all the elegancies which the upholsterer’s art can afford, and to cultivate the grounds with the utmost skill, if our hearts and minds are uncultivated, rough, uncouth and uncivilized. The members of one family must unceasingly interchange kind offices; must rejoice and mourn, hope and fear, smile and weep in unison; and must exchange sympathetic emotions, with due regard to each other’s feelings, or the charming delights of the domestic circle will lose much of their relish, or will be broken up and become totally devoid of interest. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

And it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind, that mutual respect is the basis of true affection; and, although it may seem a trifling matter in the family whether this or this mode of speech is adopted, in reality it is a very important thing. Enlightenment happens in the present moment and is outside of time, history, or geography which are therefore irrelevant. Music, sweet fragrances, and architectural beauty is inspirational and uplifting to activate aspects of the consciousness which progressively becomes empowered by compassion, devotion and the power to overcome oppression. God has great things in store for his people; they ought to have large expectations. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. Leaders of the Heavenly armies, we beseech you that with your prayers you may encircle us with the protection of the wings of your angelic glory. Watch over us as we bow low and earnestly cry out to you: Deliver us from trouble, princes of the Heavenly armies. I have been in love with you baby, honey before I learned to call your name. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12