Monday, August 13, 2007

Beauty, Part One

Hairy Goldenaster Heterotheca villosa (native)
And this is the distinction which I draw between the
sight-loving, art-loving, practical class and those of whom I am speaking, and
who are alone worthy of the name of philosophers.
The lovers of sounds and sights are, as I conceive, fond of
tones and colors and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of
them, but their mind is incapable of seeing or loving absolute beauty.
Few are they who are able to attain to the sight of this.
And the man who believes in beautiful things but does not believe in absolute
beauty, nor is able to follow if one lead him to an understanding of it- do you
think that his life is real or a dream? Is it not a dream? For whether a man be
asleep or awake is it not dream-like to mistake the image for the real
thing?
Plato's Republic

Rose

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