| Show The Decline of Beauy I Art to reach its full development requires around the artist and within him a cultivation of beauty of which the Greek have given an example This people had for purity oJ formfor the harmonious prOportion of the limbs and for beautiful nudities a love that went tQ the verge of adoration adora-tion and beauty was in ihsir eyes invested ia something sacred Tnis worship of beauty was revived at the renaiscence In cur days on the other band strength and beauty of body are not the ideal Many things seem to show that a too exclusive preoccupation pre-occupation with pleasing forms as well as with ornaments and decorations decora-tions are a sign by which we can recognize primitive conditions of civilization civili-zation With those mcdern people who are still in an infer r grade of civilization as with the Arabs the male sex itself displays much coquetry and seeks to please especially with its etrength and physical beauty its venture ven-ture and its adornments Civilization gradually destroys these prmilive instinct which have been however according to Mr Darwin and Mr Spencer the germ of art The man ol our days docs net care whether he has under the convenient and ungraceful un-graceful vestments that hide him a well developed torso and vigorous muscles Coquetry survives and will doubtless continue to survive with women but it too often tends to stray from its purpose which is to bring out the beauty of the members Women who ought more than all other pereonsto endeavor to preserve pure and correct forms take a thou sand devices to hinder the development develop-ment of their bodies and the circula tion of their blood 80 not only the ancient culture but beauty itself seems to be falling into decadence and the principal object of the arts it tending to disappearM M I tJuyau in Popalar Science Monthly |
