This Wonderful Thing Called Beauty

Beauty is an attribute, a quality, a characteristic that pleases the senses.  Beautiful is the word that describes what pleases the senses.  When someone sees something of beauty he recognizes it immediately.  Beauty causes feelings of attraction and well being, especially when it is perceived on the "inside as well as the outside."  Beauty can be found anywhere:  in people, animals, objects, and places, and its attraction is more emotional and mental rather than intellectual and physical.  We all know the expression, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." David Hume, a Scottish philosopher and historian, couldn't have said it better when he said, "Beauty in things exist merely in the mind which contemplates them."  A beautiful person can be called captivating, enthralling, exquisite, fascinating, and sometimes extraordinary, but they can also be called  kind, loving, and generous.  It is another one of those qualities that is an ideal.  It is interesting, that often as people go within searching to grow spiritually, they begin to blossom on the outside.  Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty.  Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, felt that "beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts." Susan Vreeland wrote a book recently called Clara and Mr.Tiffany (of the famous Tiffany lamps). In the book Clara said to Mr. Tiffany, "do you know that your whole face shines and your eyes sparkle when you see something beautiful?"  She went on to say, "Allowing beauty a place in the soul (is) a powerful antidote to the stress and strain of mortal life."  And so it is.  Perhaps beauty in the truest sense of the word can be found in nature.  Walks in nature are so soothing because the very beauty of the environment can't help but have a soothing effect; however, again, "in the eye of the beholder."