Some persons have ventured to say that it is only since Englishmen ceased to believe in the Bible that they began to discover how beautiful it was.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.
I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
There is probably nothing wrong with art for art's sake if we take the phrase seriously, and not take it to mean the kind of poetry written in England forty years ago.
Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.
That is why we profess a spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.
We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it.
Correcting it, I don't know; just shedding the light of day on it is a first major step, being one of the earliest generations not to just accept the words.
Beauty is one of the rare things which does not lead to doubt of God.
I've learned that when God promises beauty through the ashes, He means it.
English churchmen have long gazed with love on the primitive church as the ideal of Christian perfection, the Eden wherein the first fathers of their faith walked blameless before God and passionless towards each other.