The Art Of Beauty

'The Art Of Beauty' by Mrs. H. R. Haweis was published in 1883.

Here is an excerpt which I share with you today entitled 'The Pain Of Ugliness'...

"Those whose taste has been cultivated by having 
beautiful things always about them, are incredibly 

sensitive to awkward forms, inappropriate colours, 

and in-harmonious combinations. 

To such persons, certain rooms, certain draperies, 

certain faces, cause not only the mere feeling 

of disapprobation, but even a kind of physical pain. 

Sometimes they might be unable to explain what affected 

them so unpleasantly, or how they were affected, 

but they feel an uneasy sense of oppression 
and discomfort... 

This sense of oppression would probably be neither 

understood nor believed in by the ordinary run 

of educated people, in England, at least. 

But it is very real to those whose passionate care for 

the beautiful makes it a kind of necessity to them — 

and they are the subtle and delicate souls that 
build up the art-crown of a nation. 

The uneasiness to which I allude, is very similar to 

what we all feel more or less, according to our 

constitutional susceptibility, 

in the presence of unsympathetic persons."

Oh, how very true darling!