Massachusetts College of Art and Design - Palette and Pen Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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brake if in your desire to be adaptable you forget your own standards? I do not dare to explain what good taste is, rather should I like to stress the de- sirability of and difficulty in attaining it. A civilized human being has as basis for behaviour in life — ethical standards of honesty and integrity. But we who try to create or appreciate beauty must have additionally aesthetic standards and these are measured by good taste. It is extremely interesting to read what the incoming Freshmen write on good taste. For the majority the two words mean good taste in dress or pos- sibly in home furnishings. These of coarse have their place, but are indeed only an element, I am tempted to say a superficial element of the ramified and deeply rooted expressions of good taste. I can well imagine and have often experienced seeing a well dressed, well groomed woman sitting in a fairly well arranged drawing room — using a phrase, expressing a thought of vulgar taste; of what avail is all the well schemed finery if it adorns the body of a soul that acts coarsely or thoughtlessly or cuttingly! But how un- spontaneous, how artificial would life he — you say — if we always had to think about all we do or say: is this fitting? does this not annoy anyone? is this gracious? To a rough diamond it does seem artificial. But the beautiful personality instinctively does the unerring and unfailing act of good taste; and indeed you who seek beauty on canvass, within the room, in your cos- tume, must know that the beauty which the mental eye sees in a personality revealed perhaps by a smile or a word or a look is a beauty which transcends even the loveliest work of art, as it reveals a most precious world, the inner world — the world of the spirit. When Byron says: “She walks in Beauty like the night ...” he means precisely her life is controlled by the lofty and elusive controlling factor — good taste. But, you will say, how can we achieve this will-o-the-wisp called good taste when each one interprets it differently, when it can neither be explained nor defined, is it indeed worth bothering about? Consider the eternally valid elements of life — honor, love, loyalty, can they he explained, defined or labelled? No, for each individual each word bears a different message. The message is powerful. Thus the doctrine of good taste must be sensed by each individual and the accumulation of in- dividual searchings for good taste will raise the standard of mankind. Always we shall long to solve the fascinating question: What is good taste? Ella Munsterberg.

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Good Taste What is good taste? — is a fascinating question, a difficult question to answer — fascinating and difficult because the two words can be interpreted in so many ways. A friend of mine — a Boston painter, once asked a friend of his, a society woman of wit, “What is good taste?” She was quick in answer: “What I have.” A good friend of mine to whom I reported this dialogue characterized the answer given by the witty lady as showing lack of taste. How differing must be your bit of conversation which you give on the street corner to — let us say — a former High School friend, or an aunt, or an admirer, an old friend of your mother’s, or your school janitor. For every- one you must choose a fitting and appropriate greeting and conversation. What you say to one would never do to be said to another, it would be ill fitting — not in good taste. Your frame of mind at a baseball game differs from your frame of mind at church or again at a dance or in a painting class or at Sun- day dinner. Your reactions for any one of these functions would not fit at all for any of the other functions. More than that: do you not find that you actually are a different person in each different situation? It would indeed be displeasing and ill fitting to feel always the same way — no matter what the situation was. Is it then always in good taste to enter into the atmosphere of another person? What then if you meet some one who makes low jokes, is in every way below your dignity — should you conform? No — indeed, for: above all else to thine own self be true! Are you not then put in a difficult situation — this of conforming to others yet of staying yourself? Is the latter perhaps a kind of safety valve, or quick

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Faith, Hope and Love