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A nobler want of man is served by nature, namely, the love ofBeauty.
大自然除了提供人类意识所需之外，还满足了一种更高尚的追求——那就是满足了人们的爱美之心。
The ancient Greeks called the world {kosmos}, beauty. Such is theconstitution of all things, or such the plastic power of the humaneye, that the primary forms, as the sky, the mountain, the tree,the animal, give us a delight in and for themselves; a pleasurearising from outline, color, motion, and grouping. This seemspartly owing to the eye itself. The eye is the best of artists. Bythe mutual action of its structure and of the laws of light,perspective is produced, which integrates every mass of objects, ofwhat character soever, into a well colored and shaded globe, sothat where the particular objects are mean and unaffecting, thelandscape which they compose, is round and symmetrical. And as theeye is the best composer, so light is the first of painters. Thereis no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful.And the stimulus it affords to the sense, and a sort of infinitude which it hath, like space andtime, make all matter gay. Even the corpse has its own beauty. Butbesides this general grace diffused over nature, almost all theindividual forms are agreeable to the eye, as is proved by ourendless imitations of some of them, as the acorn, the grape, thepine-cone, the wheat-ear, the egg, the wings and forms of mostbirds, the lion's claw, the serpent, the butterfly, sea-shells,flames, clouds, buds, leaves, and the forms of many trees, as thepalm.
古希腊人把“宇宙”称为“科士谟土”，即美丽之意。万物之本性无比奇妙，或者可以说，人类独具适应性的潜能，能够构形筑影。因而，大自然所有的基本形态，蓝天，山峦，树木，鸟兽，等等，都能使我们惊喜；这种惊喜并不依赖外务，也不因其有任何实用目的，只是就万物的线条、色彩、运动与组合看起来都让人爽心怡性。在某种程度上，这可能由于我们眼睛自自身。眼睛，是世界上最好的画家。眼睛的结构与光学的法则互动，产生出所谓的“透视”，因此任何一组物体，不管它是何种东西，在我们看来都觉得色彩清晰，明暗层次鲜明，井然有序，整体就似乎是一个球；个别的物体或许形态拙劣，了无生趣，但一经组合，就变得对称而完满了。故构图的巧妙，非人的眼睛莫属；而要想把色彩铺设的美妙，则要依赖光线。再丑恶的东西，强光之下，也会产生美。光线不但激活了感官，而且光线好似空间和时间，有着能把一切都覆盖的性质，所以任何东西只要在光明下都是赏心悦目的。即使死尸也有它自己的美。自然界所有食物都在“美”的笼罩之下，几乎所有的个体都怎么美好。如橡果、葡萄、松果、麦穗、鸡蛋、形形色色的翅膀以及种类繁多的鸟，如狮爪、蛇、蝴蝶、贝壳、火焰、云朵、蓓蕾、绿叶和如棕榈树似的许多树的树干，我们不断地描摹它们，把它们作为“美”的模范。
For better consideration, we may distribute the aspects of Beautyin a threefold manner.
为了更进一步地了解,我们可将自然之美，分三方面剖析：
1. First, the simple perception of natural forms is a delight. Theinfluence of the forms and actions in nature, is so needful to man,that, in its lowest functions, it seems to lie on the confines ofcommodity and beauty. To the body and mind which have been crampedby noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores theirtone. The tradesman, the attorney comes out of the din and craft ofthe street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again. Intheir eternal calm, he finds himself. The health of the eye seemsto demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see farenough.
一，倘能抱着单纯的心态去感知自然形态也是一种快乐。自然形态和活动的效用，于人生是必不可缺的。就最基本的作用来说，似乎局限于实用和审美两者之间。俗世纷扰牵绊了人的身心，一旦回到大自然中，自然的医疗妙用就得以发挥，让人们恢复身心健康。走出熙熙攘攘闹市的商人和律师，抬头看见蓝天和树木，就会重新感受到人性的本质。在大自然恒久的天籁中，他领悟到自我真实的一面。如果要保护眼睛的健康，我们的视野一定要宽阔。只要可以看得久远，我们就永远不会倦怠。
But in other hours, Nature satisfies by its loveliness, and withoutany mixture of corporeal benefit. I see the spectacle of morningfrom the hill-top over against my house, from day-break tosun-rise, with emotions which an angel might share. The longslender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimsonlight. From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea.I seem to partake its rapid transformations: the active enchantmentreaches my dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind.How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give mehealth and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, andunimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England ofthe senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany ofmystic philosophy and dreams.
但是即使在我们并不觉得劳累的时候，大自然也满足于它的赏心悦目；我们之所以喜欢自然，和我们身体所受的恩惠没有一丝关系。我常常在屋对面的山顶上眺望晨景，从清晨到日落，心潮澎湃，感受着天使能感受的激情。纤细的云朵畅游在绛色霞光里，就像鱼儿遨游在深海中。我从地面望去，仿佛从海滩上凝视着静谧的大海。海天瞬息万变，我似乎分享这它急速的变幻；这活泼的氤氲侵袭了我的身体，我觉得生命在蔓延，与晨风合为一体。大自然只需来些简单的变幻，就能让我们变得超凡脱俗！给我健康与一天光阴，我将锻造帝王们奢华的浮世绘。绚烂清晨，是我的亚述帝国；夕阳西落，皓月东升，是我的帕福斯和无法想象的超凡景致；泛泛午日，将是我感觉和思维的英格兰；深深黑夜成为我玄妙哲理和梦想的德意志。
Not less excellent, except for our less susceptibility in theafternoon, was the charm, last evening, of a January sunset. Thewestern clouds divided and subdivided themselves into pink flakesmodulated with tints of unspeakable softness; and the air had somuch life and sweetness, that it was a pain to come within doors.What was it that nature would say? Was there no meaning in the liverepose of the valley behind the mill, and which Homer or Shakspearecould not reform for me in words? The leafless trees become spiresof flame in the sunset, with the blue east for their back-ground,and the stars of the dead calices of flowers, and every witheredstem and stubble rimed with frost, contribute something to the mutemusic.
昨天傍晚,我又欣赏了一回日落美景。一月的落日真是美妙醉人，景色依旧，只是下午时人显得不那么明朗。西云漫卷，幻化成色泽不断变幻的粉色薄片，说不出的柔软；空气中也蕴涵了这么多的活力和甜蜜，闭门不出简直是一种折磨。大自然将要说什么呢？磨坊后面的峡谷里，那鲜活的静谧，就连荷马和莎翁都无法用言辞形容——这难道没有一丝意味吗？霞光里，秃树映着淡兰的底景，如燃烧的尖塔，熠熠闪着光；枯萎的花，凋零的茎，霜嵌的残株，合成一曲无声的乐章。
The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape ispleasant only half the year. I please myself with the graces of thewinter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as bythe genial influences of summer. To the attentive eye, each momentof the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds,every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shallnever be seen again. The heavens change every moment, and reflecttheir glory or gloom on the plains beneath. The state of the cropin the surrounding farms alters the expression of the earth fromweek to week. The succession of native plants in the pastures androadsides, which makes the silent clock by which time tells thesummer hours, will make even the divisions of the day sensible to akeen observer. The tribes of birds and insects, like the plantspunctual to their time, follow each other, and the year has roomfor all. By water-courses, the variety is greater. In July, theblue pontederia or pickerel-weed blooms in large beds in theshallow parts of our pleasant river, and swarms with yellowbutterflies in continual motion. Art cannot rival this pomp ofpurple and gold. Indeed the river is a perpetual gala, and boastseach month a new ornament.
久居城市的人,总以为乡间只有半年的时间值得欣赏。而我却独独喜爱冬日，正如凉爽的夏季打动我们一样，冬季也自有它动人之处。对有心人来说，一年的每一时刻都有自己的美，即使在乡间原野，景色时时变化，每小时所看到的都是空前绝后的好景致。天空变幻无穷，映呈着下界的盛衰枯荣。四周天地里的庄稼，每周焕然一新。牧场上，大路旁，植物掩替，仿佛是大自然设置的无言的时钟，倘若观察者目光敏锐，还可以看出一天的朝夕变化。正如植物严守着时令，鸟和昆虫也演绎着生命的更替，四季会为所有的生物安排好空间。小溪中，流水的多样性更为清晰。以七月为例，河中水浅之处，涨满了淡蓝的梭子鱼草和海寿，成群的黄蝶，翩翩飞舞。浮华的金紫，绝非画师所能描绘。清溪一曲，其风光旖旎，四时不辍，每天好像都是令节佳日，每月都有新的点缀。
But this beauty of Nature which is seen and felt as beauty， is theleast part. The shows of day, the dewy morning, the rainbow,mountains, orchards in
blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, and the like, iftoo eagerly
hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality. Goout of
the house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will notplease as when
its light shines upon your necessary journey. The beauty thatshimmers in the yellow afternoons of October, who ever could clutchit? Go forth to find it,
and it is gone: 't is only a mirage as you look from the windowsof
diligence.
我们可以看见和感觉的美，只是自然界里最平凡的部分。一日的变幻，清晨的露珠，彩虹与山峦，桃李满园，月光星辰，水波不兴中的影子，其他种种，若太过渴求，就成为作秀之物了，美景彷如幻觉，戏弄着我们。出门去赏月吧！“它只是一面铜镜，你不会明白待到月色照亮征程时的那种愉悦。谁能抓住八月昏黄午日的熠熠之美？上前去找寻它吧！它正在消失”；当你从公共马车窗望出时，它只不过是海市蜃楼。
2. The presence of a higher, namely, of the spiritual element isessential to its perfection. The high and divine beauty which canbe loved without
effeminacy, is that which is found in combination with the humanwill. Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue. Every natural actionis graceful. Every heroic act is also decent, and causes the placeand the bystanders to shine. We are taught by great actions thatthe universe is the property of every individual in it. Everyrational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate. It ishis, if he will. He may divest himself of it; he may creep into acorner, and abdicate his kingdom, as most men do, but he isentitled to the world by his constitution. In proportion to theenergy of his thought and will, he takes up the world into himself.'All those things for which men plough, build, or sail, obeyvirtue;' said Sallust. 'The winds and waves,' said Gibbon, 'arealways on the side of the ablest navigators.' So are the sun andmoon and all the stars of heaven. When a noble act is done,?perchance in a scene of great natural beauty; when Leonidas andhis three hundred martyrs consume one day in dying, and the sun andmoon come each and look at them once in the steep defile ofThermopylae; when Arnold Winkelried, in the high Alps, under theshadow of the avalanche, gathers in his side a sheaf of Austrianspears to break the line for his comrades; are not these heroesentitled to add the beauty of the scene to the beauty of the deed?When the bark of Columbus nears the shore of America; ?before it,the beach lined with savages, fleeing out of all their huts ofcane; the sea behind; and the purple mountains of the IndianArchipelago around, can we separate the man from the livingpicture? Does not the New World clothe his form with herpalm-groves and savannahs as fit drapery? Ever does natural beautysteal in like air, and envelope great actions. When Sir Harry Vanewas dragged up the Tower-hill, sitting on a sled, to suffer death,as the champion of the English laws, one of the multitude cried outto him, 'You never sate on so glorious a seat.' Charles II., tointimidate the citizens of London, caused the patriot Lord Russelto be drawn in an open coach, through the principal streets of thecity, on his way to the scaffold. 'But,' his biographer says, 'themultitude imagined they saw liberty and virtue sitting by hisside.' In private places, among sordid objects, an act of truth orheroism seems at once to draw to itself the sky as its temple, thesun as its candle. Nature stretcheth out her arms to embrace man,only let his thoughts be of equal greatness. Willingly does shefollow his steps with the rose and the violet, and bend her linesof grandeur and grace to the decoration of her darling child. Onlylet his thoughts be of equal scope, and the frame will suit thepicture. A virtuous man is in unison with her works, and makes thecentral figure of the visible sphere. Homer, Pindar, Socrates,Phocion, associate themselves fitly in our memory with thegeography and climate of Greece. The visible heavens and earthsympathize with Jesus. And in common life, whosoever has seen aperson of powerful character and happy genius, will have remarkedhow easily he took all things along with him, ?the persons, theopinions, and the day, and nature became ancillary to a man.
二，完美无缺的美需要一种更高层的精神元素。高尚神圣之美，与温柔之美不同，是和人类的意志统一的。美是德的标识，这是上帝特定的。凡是顺乎自然规律的行为就是美的，英勇崇高的行为，一定是合情合理的，它的荣耀甚至恩泽到发生该事的地方和旁观者。圣贤豪杰的伟大行径，都是留给后世的一种教导，我们因此知道：宇宙是属于每个人的基业，每个正常的人都可以把六合之围看成是自己的产业，或者嫁妆。让给他愿意拥有的话，触手可及。他也可以自暴自弃，放弃他的财富；他可以舍弃他的江山，偏安一隅，苟且偷生。这种不长进的人世界上比比皆是，但根据他素质之高低，他有权拥有他的世界。权衡自己的思想和意志，拥有属于自己的世界。萨卢斯特说，“平凡的人耕田、造屋、修船，都要遵循美德的原则。”吉本说，“风平浪静往往协助最有能力的航海家”。日月星辰亦如此。一件惊天地泣鬼神的壮行，也许就发生在名胜景地：当莱奥尼达斯和他的三百壮士在塞莫皮莱陡峭的峡谷里殉难的那天，惊动了日月；当阿诺得温克尔里德在阿尔卑斯山顶峰时，身临冰川崩溃之地，身中无数澳军的矛枪，好似一只刺猬，为的是替他的袍泽们突破澳军的防线——这些英雄们不是把景之美赋予给壮烈的死之美吗？当哥伦布的帆船渐进美洲海岸时，它面前的沙滩上站满了从棚屋中跑出的土著居民；后临深海，印第安列岛的紫色山脉环绕——我们怎能把哥伦布从这鲜活的画面里分割开来？难道新世界不是把棕榈树和大草原作为锦衣披在他身上吗？大自然的美就像空气一样，与卓越的行为不分轩辕。当哈里韦恩爵士为捍卫英国法律的声誉，被判处死刑；当他坐着雪橇上塔山去慷慨就义时，群众中有一人向他叫喊：“你现在所乘坐的雪橇是你毕生最辉煌的宝座！为了杀鸡儆猴，查理二世令爱国志士罗素勋爵在去往断头台的路上，先乘着敞篷马车在主要大街上示众一番。为他作传的人说，“然而，人们认为他们看到了自由和美德随之左右。”在穷乡僻壤，无论时势如何艰难，一旦有英勇的行为或大无畏的精神，就能够以天为庙、以日为烛。当人的心胸和自然一样伟大时，自然就将人拥入怀中。大自然把玫瑰紫罗兰布满他的脚下，用她的高贵仁慈来修饰她的宠子。惟有人的思想图画才能搭配这早已存在的宏伟架构。品行好的人与自然融为一体，并且自己也成为无限中的核心人物。荷马、平德尔、苏格拉底、福基翁这些人物，与希腊的地理、气候一起，恰如其分地移入我们的记忆中。而耶稣的人格更是与天地同长，与日月同辉。切不论这些往日英雄，即使在日常生活中，如果和我们相处的是一个德才兼备的人，我们会感慨他驾驭万物的能力——周围的人、现世的评论、当时的流行，以及大自然，都由他统领。
3. There is still another aspect under which the beauty of theworld may be viewed, namely, as it become s an object of theintellect. Beside the relation of things to virtue, they have arelation to thought. The intellect searches out
the absolute order of things as they stand in the mind of God, andwithout
the colors of affection. The intellectual and the active powersseem to succeed each other, and the exclusive activity of the one,generates the exclusive ac-
tivity of the other. There is something unfriendly in each to theother, but they are like the alternate periods of feeding andworking in animals; each
prepares and will be followed by the other. Therefore does beauty,which, in
relation to actions, as we have seen, comes unsought, and comesbecause it is unsought, remain for the apprehension and pursuit ofthe intellect; and then
again, in its turn, of the active power. Nothing divine dies. Allgood is eternal-ly reproductive. The beauty of nature reformsitself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for newcreation.
三，从另一种角度也能看出世界之美，即用理智来研究自然界。万物除了与美德相关，还与思想结下不解之缘。万物在上帝灵魂中都有其固有的模式，人们可撇弃情感上的好恶，用理智直接去探究。思维和活动似乎相辅相成，专一的思维产生专一的行为，反之亦然。两者之间颇有微词，但它们如动物进食和工作时间相互交迭一样，也为彼此的来临作好准备。美同行为的关系，正如我们所见，不去刻意追求而自然生成，因为它未被寻求所以它来了。然后，保持着美，作为理智思索与追逐的客体；而后，美激活了行动。神圣的东西决不会灭亡，所有的“善”都生生不息。自然之美改善了心灵中的自我，它不是空洞的冥想，而是新的创造的起点。
All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; somemen even to delight. This love of beauty is Taste. Others have thesame love in such excess, that, not content with admiring, theyseek to embody it in new
forms. The creation of beauty is Art.
世界的美，人们多多少少都能领略；有些人不仅感受而已，甚至于喜悦。这种爱美之心就是“趣味”。另一些人爱不释手，觉得单是艳羡，犹有不足，继而创造新的形式，把美纳入其中，而艺术则就是美的创造。
The production of a work of art throws a light upon the mystery ofhumanity. A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world. Itis the result or
expression of nature, in miniature. For, although the works ofnature are innu-merable and all different, the result or theexpression of them all is similar
and single. Nature is a sea of forms radically alike and evenunique. A leaf, a sun-beam, a landscape, the ocean, make ananalogous impression on the mind. What is common to them all, ?thatperfectness and harmony, is beauty. The
standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms, ?thetotality of nature; which the Italians expressed by defining beauty'il piu nell' uno.' Nothing is quite beautiful alone: nothing butis beautiful in the whole. A single object is only so far beautifulas it suggests this universal grace. The poet, the painter, thesculptor, the musician, the architect, seek each to concentratethis radiance of the world on one point, and each in his severalwork to satisfy the love of beauty which stimulates him to produce.Thus is Art, a nature passed through the alembic of man. Thus inart, does nature work through the will of a man filled with thebeauty of her first works.
美术品的创造为人类的传奇揭开了一线曙光。美术作品是世界的精髓，是现实的缩影。微观上，它是大自然的产物。尽管自然界的作品难以计数，各不相同，它们的产物却是单纯统一的。大自然海纳百川，但根本上还是如出一辙，可以说是独一无二。一片树叶、一缕阳光、一爿风景、一汪海洋，虽不是同一景物，但是都可以产生出相同的心灵感受。它们的共同之处在于，完美与和谐才是美。美的标准是自然的全部，是形形色色的大自然的合体。意大利人这样定义美“以一见多”。由此可见，没有什么是独自美丽的，一旦整体观之，没有什么是不美的。单独的物体仅在反射万物之美时才会如此美丽。诗人、画家、雕塑家、音乐家、建筑家，其道虽不同，但只是用不同的形式，将这光辉的世界集于一点；他们各自的作品满足了人们的爱美之心，这又刺激了他们的创作。因而，艺术就是大自然通过人心的净化而形成的。人心有感于万物之美，自然界借助了艺术家才能的发挥，作第二步的创作，即艺术。
The world thus exists to the soul to satisfy the desire of beauty.This element I call an ultimate end. No reason can be asked orgiven why the soul seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest andprofoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. God is theall-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different facesof the same All. But beauty in nature is not ultimate. It is theherald
of inward and eternal beauty, and is not alone a solid andsatisfactory good. It must stand as a part, and not as yet the lastor highest expression of the final cause of Nature.
因而世界的存在，是为了满足人们灵魂中爱美的需求。这是最终的目标。无人会问，也无人能解释——为什么灵魂需要美。美，从最宏大和最深远的意义上说，是一种对宇宙的表述。上帝是至美的。真善美三者，只是一个本体的三个方面的表现而已。可是自然界的美并非无上法门。它本身不是完好圆满的“善”，二是为内在的永恒“美”作先导而已。我们可以把它看作整体中的一部分，宇宙另有其根本的原因，其表现的方式也多种多样，自然界的美并不是终极的或最高的体现。
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