Virginia Intermont College - Intermont Yearbook (Bristol, VA)

Page 23 text:

Hazel Brockett, Advertising Editor. Mary Easley, Associate Editor. Effie Cranberry, Associate Editor. THE STAFF. Anne Matt Greer, Business Manager. Lucy Dickinson, Editor in Chief. Frances Acree, Associate Editor. Helen Wainvvright, Advertising Editor. Alice Carter, Associate Editor. Mary Hartley, Artist.

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tlb e Ibollness of Beauty il INSIGHT, insight through culture, into all that the present I moment holds in trust for us, as we stand so briefly in its pres- ence. From the maxim of Life as the end of Life, followed, as a practical consequence, the desirableness of refining all the instruments of inward and outward intuition, of developing all their capacities, of testing and exercising one ' s self in them, till one’s nature became one complete medium of reception, towards the vision — the ‘beatific vision,’ if we really cared to make it such — of our actual experience in the world .” — Walter Pater. These are words to brood over. They express the philosophy of one whose life was an art — the art of insight. ILe thought this life worth the devoted study of the artist. He made human exper- ience the matter of his art; and in his writings he has given, for those who will follow him, what he deems true education — “the conveyance of an art” — this art of insight into the wealth of meaning of the life that now is. Literature has been perme- ated with the doctrine of art for art’s sake ; but only when that ideal finds its processes in the stuff that life is made of, does it become deeply spiritual and vital. The art that finds its light and shade amid the comedy and tragedy of human concerns, and seeks to mingle their colors significantly, makes for beauty that is perennial. Walter Pater’s ideal was the finest possible degree of perfec- tion ; and for him perfection meant completeness, the complete