Synopses & Reviews
Beauty and the Beast AN ESSAY IN EVOLUTIONARY AESTHETIC BY STEWART A. McDOWALL, B.D, Chaplain and Assistant Master at Winchester College Author of Evolution and the Need of Atonement, Evolution and Spiritual Life, Evolution and the Doctrine of the Trinity, etc. For verily all men by nature were but vain who had no perception of God, and from the good things that are seen they gained not power to know him that is, neither by giving heed to the works did they recognise the artificer but either fire, or wind, or swift air, or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heaven, they thought to be gods that rule the world. And if it was through delight in their beauty that they took them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Sovereign Lord for the first author of beauty created them but if it was through astonish ment at their power and influence, let them understand from them how much more powerful is he that formed them for from the greatness of the beauty even of created things in like proportion does man form the image of their first maker. But yet for these men there is but small blame, for they too peradventure do but go astray while they are seeking God and desiring to find him. For living among hisworks theymake diligent search, and they yield themselves up to sight, because the things that they look upon are beautiful. But again even they are not to be excused. For if they had power the course of to know so much, that they should be able to explore things, how is it that they did not sooner find the Sovereign Lord of these his works Wisdom xiii. 1-9. PREFACE - I WISH to take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Mrs R. B. Goodden and Mr R. M.Y. Gleadowe for the help they have given me in writing this book. With Mrs Goodden the theory was discussed point by point, and her criticisms and suggestions are largely responsible for the final shaping of the argument, as well as for an important develop ment of the theory. To Mr Gleadowe I am indebted for some useful hints, which led to a partial rearrangement of the material, by which the form ofthe book has been greatly improved. WlNTON, October 1919. S. A. McD. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION I PART I. THE THEORY 17 PART II. BEAUTY IN EVOLUTION . . 51 CONCLUSION ....... 65 APPENDIX. ART FORMS IN DEVELOPMENT 71 INTRODUCTION ARE we to look at the Beautiful with our feet jC firmly planted on the Natural, or are we to look at the Natural from the apparently pre carious height of the Beautiful This, after all, is the dilemma of aesthetic, slow though men have been to realise it. As we read the history ofAestheticTheorywe are puzzledby the tenta- tiveness and the uncertainty even ofthose philo sopherswho played the greatest part in moulding human thought, until itdawns on us that, idealist though they might be in all else, in this they wereunconsciously disloyalto theirown systems, being in some measure materialist. An attempt to form a philosophy of religion which should start from the generally accepted facts of biological science and pass, through the common experiences ofpersonal relationship, to the ultimateproblemsofGodheadandmanhood, left at the close akeen sense ofsomething lacking something more than the lack of unity and balance inevitable in work written and published step by step. I had tried to find in Love, which is the very nature of Godhead, an essential towards creation. Itwas clear that this impulse creation must be the creation of something new, if it were to be justified and the conclusion which forced itselfuponme was that the creation of personal beings fulfilled this demand. M...