life and youth

“Men are so inclined to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses so easily grow dead to the impressions of the beautiful and perfect,—that every one should study, by all methods, to nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling these things. For no man can bear to be entirely deprived of such enjoyments: it is only because they are not used to taste of what is excellent that the generality of people take delight in silly and insipid things, provided they be new. For this reason, one ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words”, wrote von Goethe in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

“Beauty will save the world”, wrote Dostoevsky, in The Idiot.

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This project aims to bring together moments of beauty, especially as they occur in youth, and to share these moments through new media. It is a project born out of a sustained sense that our new age is losing contact with those ideas- indeed, with the truth- that sustained all of the most beautiful works of art from past ages.

The contributors to this site will remain anonymous in the belief that art should not be about what differentiates us, but about that which is common to us all.

We want to encourage every reader to love life in all its manifestations; in sorrow, joy, and repentance. We want to encourage a love of youth; of the uncertainty, those high and mighty ideals which one feels are incongruous with the outside world, first and second loves, and the silences where, unknown to us, our most redeeming ideas are given the solitude they require to grow. We believe, dear readers, that in beauty lies the fundamental truth of human nature. Only in the pursuit of beauty will we ever understand the reasons we suffer, the world around us, and our purpose within it. What do we mean when we use the word, ‘beauty’?

That is the question which lies at the heart of this project and, knowingly or unknowingly, in the heart of every human being. It is the door to knowledge, and the reason we were brought into this world. Beauty is our parent.

Beauty

bu’ty Noun

An assemblage of graces, or an assemblage of properties in the form of the person or any other object, which pleases the eye. Beauty is intrinsic, and perceived by the eye at the first view, or relative, to perceive which the aid of the understanding and reflection is requisite. The word beauty is used to express what is pleasing to the other senses, or to understanding. Thus we say, the beauty of a thought, of a remark, of sound, etc.

So beauty armed with virtue, bows to the soul

With a commanding, but a sweet control

Also:

In the arts, symmetry of parts; harmony; justness of composition.

Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)