Lesson 24
Beatuy
美

First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。

What do glimpses of beauty, either in nature or art, often suggest to the human mind?

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe; for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
That all great has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods, Nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves and indefinable longing and regret. But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us. if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp. Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.
C.E.M.JOAD Pieces of Mind

New words and expressions 生词和短语

intense
adj. 强烈的
aesthetic
adj. 审美的
realm
n. 世界
serenity
n. 静谧
undeniable
adj. 不可否认的
indefinable
adj. 模糊不清的
vulgar
adj. 平庸的
radiance
n. 发光
intimation
n. 暗示
unutterable
adj. 不可言传的
invest
v. 赋予

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