পাতা:তত্ত্ববোধিনী পত্রিকা (পঞ্চম কল্প প্রথম খণ্ড).pdf/৪৫

mixed and imperfect. All real beauty; whatever it may be, fades before the ideal of beauty, which it reveals. What does man do then? What doos he do, gentlemen After having renewed nature and primtive Society by industry and laws, he reconstructs the objects which had given him the idea of beauty upon this idea ilself, and makes them still more beautiful. Instead of stopping at the sterile contemplation of the ideal, he creates for this ideal a few nature, which reflects beauty in this world; but through these forms, and under these forms themselves, he suppose, irresistibly, something which is for hini the substance, the cause, and the model of all the powers and the perfections which he sees both in himself and in the world. lu a word, beyond the world of industry, beyond the political world and that of art man conceives God. The God of humanity is no more separated from the world than he is concentrated in it. A God without a world is for man as if he were not ; mñnner much more transparent than pri..! mitive nature. The beauty of art is as much superior to natural beauty as man. is superior to nature. And it should not. be said that this beauty is mere chimera, ... world without a God is an incomprehensible enigma to his thought, and in overwhelming weight upon his heart. 'she intuitive perception of God, distinct in himself trou, he world, but there mak for the highest truth is in thought toelt montost, is natural religion. But {{ {, that which reflects thought best is that whi h is nost true, and the works of art as than stopped not at the prisuitive world, al, primitive society, or at natural beauties, are thu” in 'ome degree more true than'so he stops took at Tuttural eligion. In fact, those of nature. The world of art is quil, os real as the politcal world or the world of industry. Like them, it is the work of the intelligence and liberty of maat verking here upou rebellious nature: ami vuruly passions, there upon coarse he ati, s, } magine a being who had been present al fhe creation of the universe and of lutunan life, who had seen the exterior surface of the earth as it passed from the hands of nature, and who should now return in the midst of the prodigies of our industry, of our institutions, and of our arts. Not heing able to recognize the aucient dvellingplace of man, would is not seem him, in his astonishment, that a superior race of beings had passed upon the earth and at an occasion - templation. It belongs to the essence of metamorphosed it ! 3ut, indeed, this world thus metamorphosed by the power of man, this nature 4 tuaturaf T.!igiem thavis, the instinctive thought which darts through the world, ever, to God, is in the life of the natural man but a beam of light marvellous, but fugitive. foliis light illumine hiș sõulas does the idea of the beautiful, the idea of the sust, the idea of the us, ful. But in this world voy tends to obscure, to distract, to thislead the rojgious scutiocot "', 'c, then, man does Կ what he has done besore-he creato, for the use of uhe wew iüe wilieh governs hiun, another world that that of nature; a world in whicle, abstructing every thing else, lic perceives only its divine character that is, its relation to Cod. The world of religion is worship. Truly, that religious sentiuent is very feeble that would stop al, vague, and sterilo con all that is strong to di velop itseli, to realize itself. Worship, thou, is the de which he has reconstructed in his image, velopment, the realization of the religious this society which he has established uponsentinent, not its limitalion. Worship is the rule of justice, these marvels of art to natural religion what art is to natural with which he has enchanted life, are not beauty, what the State is to primitive sufficient for man. All-powerful as he is, he conceives 6 power superior to his ov. n and to ;bat of natura, a power which without doubt unanifests itself only by its works, that is, by nature and ಸ್ಪ್ಲೆ a power that is contemplated only in its works, which is conceived only in relation with its works and then too, under the reservation of infinite superiority and om society, what the world of industry is to that of nature. The triumph of the religious sentiment is in the creation of worship, as the trumph of the ‘idea of the beautiful is in the creation of art, as that of thoidea of the justis in the creation of the State. Worship is infinitely superior to the ordinary world, in that, ist, it has no other object than to recall God to man, nipotence. Chined within the limits of this world, man sees nothing except thr whilst that external nature, besides its re. slation to God, has many others which