Beauty Is MeaninglessA young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand orto express the

Beauty Is Meaningless

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or

to express the emotion that it raises in hint, he concludes that it 【M1】______

must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond. It is difficult

for any of us in moments of tense aesthetic experience to resist 【M2】______

the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that

shines down to us from a different realm of existence. And, though

the gleams blind and dazzle, but do they convey a hint of beauty 【M3】______

and serenity greater than we have known or imagined？ Greater too

than we can describe; for language, which was discovered to 【M4】______

convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.

That all great art has this strength of suggesting a world 【M5】______

beyond is undeniable. In some moods Nature shares with it. There 【M6】______

is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward a bluer sky, 【M7】______

no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a

greater beauty. Is this world merely a bad joke, like a vulgar flare

among the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty 【M8】______

laugh braying across the mysteries？ Are these intimations of a

something behind and beyond evil humor born of indigestion, or

whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us？ If, in a word,

beauty means something, we must not seek to interpret the

meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter

it, or should we seek to invest with significance that which we 【M9】______

cannot grasp. Beauty in term of our human meanings is 【M10】______

meaningless.

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